Christina Plerhoples Stacy is a principal research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute where she specializes in urban economics, equity, and inclusion. Her work focuses on the intersection of economics and urban spaces and how housing, transportation, local economies, health, and crime interact.
Stacy is currently studying whether and how rent control and inclusionary zoning can increase the supply of affordable housing and access to opportunity for people with low incomes and for people of color. She is also leading a randomized controlled trial of an unconditional and conditional cash transfer program coupled with job training aimed at reducing youth violence. And she is evaluating a two-generational school and program in Puerto Rico that serves both youth and their families.
In the transportation realm, Stacy is studying how autonomous vehicles can best be regulated to increase equity, and she is working with a team to create tools to simulate the impacts of various transit modifications on equity at the local level. She is also working with a community group in South Dallas to identify case studies of other regions that have increased transportation equity in communities of color to inform best practices for the Dallas region.
Stacy is also leading projects more broadly related to philanthropy, including an evaluation of a racial-equity-and-justice funding initiative and an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Prize.
Finally, Stacy is working with partners throughout the country to provide data and evidence to help local leaders utilize federal recovery dollars in an inclusive and equitable manner.
Stacy serves on the board of the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation. Before joining the Urban Institute, Stacy earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston College, her master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and her PhD from Michigan State University in agricultural, food, and resource economics.
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