Assistant Professor of Teaching
Department of Urban Planning & Public Policy
School of Social Ecology
jdgarris@uci.edu
Research Areas
Environmental justice, climate adaptation, geographic information systems, and spatial analysis
Professional Bio
Dr. Garrison’s research combines quantitative, qualitative, and spatial methods to analyze how climate change, historical inequality, and on-going social change interact to shape the possibilities for environmental justice. Her recent projects examine how a history of parks inequality shapes LA and New York’s ability to adapt underserved neighborhoods to heat waves via urban forestry, and how climate change, the suburbanization of poverty and immigration, and housing development patterns are redistributing wildfire vulnerability in Southern California’s wildland-urban interface. Her work has been published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, the Journal of the American Planning Association, Nature Climate Change, Environment and Planning, and Cities, as well as a new Routledge reader, Planning for Climate Change.
Through inquiry-based, community-engaged learning, Dr. Garrison’s courses train students to create and apply new knowledge to advancing sustainability and social equity via hands-on projects. She has taught urban planning, research design, geographic information systems, sustainability, and climate action planning at UCI, UCSD, and MIT. She received a Curriculum Innovation Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in 2021, as well as a Teaching Case Study Award from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 2022. In 2023, she was the Dean’s Honoree for the School of Social Ecology and received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Pedagogical Development during the UCI Celebration of Teaching.
Prior to joining UPPP, Dr. Garrison was Program Director of the UCI Sustainability Initiative and Director of UCI Campus as a Living Lab, an interdisciplinary program in which students work with faculty, campus planners, and housing, dining, and facilities staff to improve campus sustainability. Prior to her academic career, she worked as an environmental planner and GIS analyst in Southern California.
Education
- PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, MIT
- Master of Urban and Regional Planning, UCI
- MA in United States History, UCLA
- BA in History, UCI