I believe in using research and collaboration to identify and drive changes in systems that determine families’ access to housing and opportunity (whether by moving or by having their local neighborhoods transformed) in the hopes of advancing racial equity and helping all city residents reach their highest potential.
Lydia Lo is a senior research associate with the Housing and Communities Division. A qualitative and quantitative researcher, her topical areas of expertise lie in land use law’s effects on housing market affordability, in systems analysis and systems change, and in describing the community development sector. Past projects she has managed include the administration of the National Longitudinal Land Use survey (a census survey covering urban planning practices in all jurisdictions within the 50 largest US metropolitan areas), a qualitative set of case studies on land use reform processes, a quantitative assessment of affordable and accessible housing in the state of Connecticut, a strategic assessment of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s community development portfolio, and a descriptive analysis of community development multisite, cross-sector initiatives.
Lo received her BA in political science from St. Olaf College and an MPA with a certificate in urban planning and policy from Princeton University. She is a Fulbright scholar having performed research in China in 2012 and was named the Lt. Colonel G.S. Kapur Fellow in Public and International Affairs at Princeton in 2018.
