Voices of Equity in Planning

Planners Discuss Equity-focused Community Improvements

This video series features the voices of planners who have been centering equity in their work to correct racial injustice, mitigate disparity, and improve the quality of life for marginalized people in all communities.

Videos were made possible by the generous gift of time from members of APA's Social Equity Task Force, appointed in 2018 by then-President Cynthia Bowen, FAICP.

Equity: The Planner's Responsibility

Planners offer a unique perspective on the junction of governmental policy, private interest, and serving the public interest in communities. Featuring members of the APA Social Equity Task Force.

Equity Doesn't Happen By Accident

Planners must be aware of the historical structures, institutions, and policies that perpetuate racial inequalities, and organize themselves to resist those structures or risk being complicit in the process. Featuring Kirk E. Harris, MPA, JD, PhD, Esq.

Equity is Our Central Duty

Integrating equity into planning work isn't easy. Planners need political and institutional cover so they can operationalize equity — turning conceptual understanding into changes in planning practice. Featuring Katie Bell Sata, AICP.

The Staying Power of Equity

The responsibility to create inclusive, equitable spaces is having a visible moment in our culture today, but the issue of equity has long been the purview of planners. Although planners' legacy includes redlining, exclusion, and displacement, there has also always been an equity movement within planning. Featuring Carlton C. Eley, MSURP.

Creative Placemaking for Equity

Urban flooding and climate change impacts are not distributed equally, with marginalized communities seeing disproportionate effects in their homes and neighborhoods. Planners must center equity and environmental justice in their work on these issues. Featuring Marcella Bondie Keenan, AICP.

Equity: The Time is Now

The issues of environmental justice, racial bias, and an apparent rise of white supremacist groups have reached a crisis point in recent years. Now is the time for planners to come together and use their unique, holistic perspective and skills to address equity for the benefit of all members of our communities. Featuring Susan Wood, FAICP.

We Cannot Plan for Equity From Our Desks

Planners must center equity by getting out into the community to better hear and understand the challenges their communities are facing. Featuring Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP, MLIS.

Planning, Equity, and Politics

Planning for equity is inherent in the profession, from the classroom, to everyday practice, to the values that underpin AICP Certification. Planners should look toward elected office as another way to use their skills and understanding of social equity for the public good. Featuring Wes Grooms, Ph.D.

An Equity wake-Up Call

The COVID-19 pandemic and social uprisings protesting racial injustice have been a wake-up call for planners to address health and equity in their work. Planners must understand the importance of representing the full range of cultural, social, and gender identities in their work as planners. Featuring Mehri Mohebbi, Ph.D.

The Evolution of Planning For Equity

Social equity today is not simply a civil rights issue or a focus on non-discrimination. A more well-rounded and complex view of equity requires understanding institutional and structural racism and how those forces have created the conditions under which planning is practiced. Featuring Victor Rubin.

APA Social Equity Task Force

The Social Equity Task Force was appointed in 2018 to identify ways planning practitioners are struggling with social equity and inclusive growth issues, and to identify actual tools and techniques that could be used — in a variety of settings — to implement effective change in this area.

The group, mobilized under the leadership of Chair Carlton Eley, delivered a comprehensive report to the APA Board of Directors in April 2019. The report was accepted by the Board and referred to APA's Equity Diversity Inclusion Committee for review and integration with APA's existing Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

APA is grateful to all Task Force members for their contributions to our learning.

APA Social Equity Task Force members Victor Rubin; Marcella Bondie Keenan; Kirk Harris; Susan Wood, AICP; Jess Zimbabwe; Carlton Eley, AICP; Wes Grooms; Cynthia Bowen, FAICP; Jonathan Bell; Kadie Bell Sata, AICP; and Majestic Lane gathered at APA Chicago in 2019. Photo by Michael Johnson.

Social Equity Task Force Members*

Carlton C. Eley, MSURP | Chair
Jonathan Pacheco Bell, MAUP, MLIS
Tracey S. Corbitt, AICP
Kimberly Driggins
Georgia Forbes, AICP
Charles "Wes" Grooms, MUP, PhD
Monica Guerra
Kirk E. Harris, MPA, JD, PhD
Marcella Bondie Keenan
Majestic Lane
Mehri Mohebbi
Lynn M. Ross, AICP
Victor Rubin, MCP, PhD
Kadie Bell Sata, AICP
Susan Alice Wood, FAICP
Jess Zimbabwe, AIA, AICP

*The Social Equity Task Force was appointed in January 2018, and served through December 2019.