Bio
Karen Chapple is Director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto and holds her academic appointment as Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning. She is Professor Emerita of City & Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as department chair and was a faculty affiliate at the School of Information. Chapple studies inequalities in the planning, development and governance of regions in the Americas, with a focus on economic development and housing.
In 2023, Chapple received the Sir Peter Hall Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Field from the Regional Studies Association. Her books include Transit-Oriented Displacement or Community Dividends? Understanding the Effects of Smarter Growth on Communities (MIT Press) and Planning Sustainable Cities and Regions: Towards More Equitable Development (Routledge, 2015), which won the John Friedmann Book Award from the American Collegiate Schools of Planning. She holds degrees in urban studies and planning from Columbia University, the Pratt Institute and UC-Berkeley.