Faculty

Regular Faculty

Martha Matsuoka, Chair

Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy; Executive Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute

A.B., Occidental College; M.C.P., UC Berkeley Ph.D., UCLA

Martha Matsuoka ’83 focuses her teaching and research on community-based organizing and social movements for environmental justice, particularly in planning and policy.

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Madeline Wander

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A. Occidental College; M.U.R.P., Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles

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Claire Cahen

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A., Pomona College; M.Phil, Ph.D., Graduate Center, CUNY, New York

Claire Cahen is an urbanist, researcher and educator who studies municipal austerity and public sector union renewal.

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Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1993-2025)

B.A., Syracuse University M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago

Peter Dreier has been involved in urban policy as a scholar, government official, reporter, and advocate for 30 years.

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Karla Peña

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A., California State University Northridge; M.S., University of Michigan; M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University

Karla Peña's teaching and research is centered on social movements and the political ecology of natural resource extraction and environmental change, from a local and global perspective.

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James Sadd

Professor, Environmental Science

B.S., University of Southern California; M.S., University of Texas; Ph.D., University of South Carolina

Dr. Sadd teaches courses in Geographic Information Systems in which students evaluate many types of information using spatial analysis and statistical tools.

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Bhavna Shamasunder

Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy

B.S./B.A., UC San Diego; M.ES., Yale University; Ph.D., UC Berkeley

Bhavna Shamasunder teaches and conducts research at the intersection of environmental health & justice with a focus on inequalities in chemical exposures faced by low-income communities and communities of color who live and work in urban and/or industrial environments.

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Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Sharon Cech

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A., Bard College; M.A., UCLA

Sharon Cech (she/her) is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College (UEPI). With over a decade of experience working to advance farm to school, farmers…

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Jordanne Dervaes

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy

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Rosa Romero

Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.Ed., University of Hawaii, Manoa

Rosa Romero is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College. Rosa specializes in Farm to Preschool, Garden and Health curriculum development and…

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Affiliated Faculty

Regina Freer

Professor, Politics

B.A., UC Berkeley; Ph.D., University of Michigan

Regina Freer’s research and teaching interests include race and politics, demographic change, urban politics, and the intersection of all three in Los Angeles.

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Michael W. Murphy

Assistant Professor, Black Studies

B.A., University of San Diego; M.A., Ph.D, Brown University

Professor Murphy’s research and teaching emphasizes anticolonial and environmental approaches to sociological thought.

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Emeriti/ae Faculty

Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1993-2025)

Urban & Environmental Policy

Politics

(323) 259-2913

dreier@oxy.edu

Peter Dreier has been involved in urban policy as a scholar, government official, reporter, and advocate for 30 years.

Robert Gottlieb

Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy, Emeritus (1997-2025)

Urban & Environmental Policy

gottlieb@oxy.edu

Robert Gottlieb’s research focus is on environmental and food justice, care politics, power and inequality, resource politics, alternative transportation, place-based development, global cities, and the infrastructure of everyday life. He is the author of numerous publications, including fourteen...

Faculty

Regular Faculty

Martha Matsuoka, Chair

Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Emeriti/ae Faculty

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