Willow S. Lung-Amam

Willow Lung-Amam, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park. At UMD, she serves as Director of Community Development at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, Director of the Urban Equity Collaborative, and Director of the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network. Dr. Lung-Amam’s research focuses on suburban poverty, racial segregation, immigration, gentrification, redevelopment politics, and neighborhood opportunity. She is the author of The Right to Suburbia: Combating Gentrification on the Urban Edge and Trespassers? Asian American and the Battle for Suburbia. Her research has appeared in popular media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, National Public Radio, New Republic, Bloomberg’s CityLab, and Al Jazeera. Dr. Lung-Amam holds nonresident fellowships at the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center and the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies program.

Research interests:

• Suburban poverty
• Racial segregation
• Immigration
• Gentrification
• Redevelopment politics

Affiliations:

• Director, Small Business Anti-Displacement Network
• Director, Urban Equity Collaborative
• Director of Community Development, National Center for Smart Growth