LAURA DELGADO, 2020-21 KELTER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW IN URBAN STUDIES

Laura Delgado is an urban planner and the current Kelter Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Urban and Global Studies. Her research speaks to the enduring problems of inequality and segregation in the United States and the critical role that local organizations can play to address these problems. Her academic and professional interests include community-based organizations, low-income housing policy, social service provision, immigration, Latinx communities, and neighborhood change. Most recently, her research explored the role of public library branches and how they draw on community resources to serve immigrant populations at the neighborhood level. Before beginning her doctoral degree, she worked at the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development and conducted research with the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. Laura received a B.A. from Williams College and a Master in City Planning and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has experience teaching housing and community development, urban planning theory and practice, research design, and GIS at MIT and Boston University. This fall, Laura will teach a course titled URST-301: Community Development Strategies, which will explore the causes of neighborhood decline, examine the history, current practice, and guiding policies of community development, and see firsthand selected community development strategies at work in the local communities surrounding Trinity College.