About me
I am an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan. My research is driven by a desire to discover methods and develop new theory that can address the growing inequities in today’s food system. Why focus on food systems? I believe that if scholars and practitioners can learn to address the “wicked” problems found in food systems, these lessons can be translated into other equally complex, social problem solving efforts. Why focus on the field of planning as a means to impact food systems? Planning decisions in housing, transportation, land use and economic development all shape food systems, often unintentionally. Food also underlies people’s livelihoods, cost of living, cultural identities, health outcomes, environment and other issues that undercut planners’ efforts to address inequities, if overlooked. My ultimate goal is to ensure that food is not peripheral to, but core to the planning field.
I study food systems largely through critical evaluation of plan implementation and impact. Despite their centrality to the standard planning model, implementation and evaluation are often neglected in practice in favor of plan making. This is short sighted. Studying implementation failures and successes – including how evaluation strategies can further enable or impede implementation – offers lessons to ensure that plans translate into effective and sustained action.
My research on these topics in Michigan, Bolivia, Vietnam and Kenya together offer contrasting contexts that affect the emergence and success of food systems planning in different ways. I especially see Bolivia and Michigan, where the core of my research is focused, as “prototypical” cases – sites expected to become a model from which late adopters could learn or may already be learning.
The rest of this site provides more detail about my current and past areas of research, my publications since 2009, courses I teach, and opportunities organizations can explore to engage students in hands-on learning. To see an up-to-date CV and other information about my work, visit my faculty profile.
(Site updated Aug. 14, 2019)
Contact information
Dr. Lesli Hoey
Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
University of Michigan
Art & Architecture Building, Office 2366
2000 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069
[email protected]
Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
University of Michigan
Art & Architecture Building, Office 2366
2000 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069
[email protected]
