Dr. Bryce Lowery, an Associate Professor of Regional and City Planning, collaborated with Dr. Madison Swayne, Dr. Iana Castro, and doctoral student Jessica Embry of San Diego State University to explore food security issues in the San Diego County area. Their work was published in Preventing Chronic Disease, a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The team worked to identify how the availability of stores that accept Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) payments, authorized by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP), changed with long-standing patterns of food insecurity during the pandemic. SNAP is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance to individuals and families in low-income communities. Many people receive this assistance through the EBT system, which allows state welfare departments to issue benefits electronically.
Through their research, the team discovered that the loss of EBT stores had a stronger impact on food access for residents in low-income communities than in communities that face fewer financial hardships. Read the full publication.
The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
