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.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.
