Dr. Luisa Sotomayor is an assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She brings an urban policy and community planning lens to housing affordability problems. Her research and teaching focus is on urban inequalities, governance, urban politics and housing. Specifically, she is interested in how regimes of socio-spatial inequality consolidate in contemporary cities, and the potential of grass-roots activism, planning tools, and urban policy to address the urban divide. Before starting her PhD program, Luisa worked as a research officer and as a consultant for several institutions. She maintains a strong link to non-for-profit and community-based organizations in both Canada and Colombia on issues related to urban policy, poverty alleviation, affordable housing, youth unemployment and community development.

She brings to StudentDwellTO her experience managing large research teams to complete large sets of qualitative data gathered through focus groups. Sotomayor is an experienced facilitator and contributes to the development of the questions and training of the peer student researcher facilitators.  Her invaluable lense to examine the socio-spatial imbalances across the city adds depth to the project.