| Rachel Garshick Kleit, Ph.D., is Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the College of Engineering and Professor of City and Regional Planning (CRP) in the Knowlton School of Architecture, both at the Ohio State University (OSU). Dr. Kleit holds a Bachelor of Arts, with Highest Honors in History, cum laude, from Brandeis University (1987), an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University (1993), and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1999). From 2012-2018 she was the Section Head of the City and Regional Planning in the Knowlton School. Prior to coming to Ohio State, Dr. Kleit was on the faculty at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Her research focus is on affordable housing and social inequality. She has interests in the social impacts of housing, housing mobility, and instability, public housing authorities as developers, fair housing, and fair access to credit.
Her research has concentrated on the social network impacts of mixed-income housing, the influence of public housing redevelopment on the lives of original residents, the combination of social services and housing, and housing mobility and instability. This work led to her most recent project on understanding the factors causing some public housing authorities to build or own units that are not part of the public assisted housing stock. She has also published research on the equity impacts of economic development and workforce policies on poverty and inequality, as well as on the changing relationship between housing and inequality since the US mortgage crisis. She has published widely in scholarly journals, including Housing Policy Debate, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Urban Affairs, Social Networks, and Urban Studies. As Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Ohio State’s College of Engineering, she oversees recruitment, retention, promotion, and tenure, and conduct for 391 tenure-line, clinical, and research faculty. As Head of the City and Regional Planning Section at OSU, she oversaw three-degree programs (Bachelor of Science in City and Regional Planning (BSCRP), Master of City and Regional Planning (BSCRP), and Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning), over 200 students, 15 tenure-line faculty, and over 30 associated professional lecturers. In her role as chair of the Move to PROSPER steering committee, she worked with Amy Klaben to develop the strategy, format, and structure of Move to PROSPER, and continues in oversight and big picture strategy role. |