Doctoral Student Profiles

RWJF Health Policy Research Scholar
Doctoral Candidate, Community and Regional Planning

Angeliz E. Encarnacion Burgos is a PhD student in Community and Regional Planning and a RWJF Health Policy Research Scholar from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. She completed her BS and Master’s in Planning at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Before entering to the Program, she was working as Associate Director of Research Affairs at the University of Puerto Rico School of Dental Medicine, and as Executive Coordinator of the Caribbean Oral Health Initiative. Previously, she worked for two years as GIS Analyst and Community Planner in the Caño Martín Peña ENLACE Project through the AmeriCops Vista program. Her research agenda is centered on the city as a contested landscape; and is particularly focus on exploring social exclusions, inequalities, development, and health issues in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Region. Furthermore, is grounded outside the traditional planning discourse and relies, mainly, on critical urban theory.  Angeliz’s goal is to bridge planning reflective research practices with a different way of seeking social justice through active research interactions with diverse communities. This research practice aims to advance alternative planning frameworks to produce knowledge and reframe theories of action within the discipline through the inclusion of everyday life experiences of urban residents.  She genuinely believes these research interactions are crucial to achieve a democratic, just and imperishable form of urbanization. 

Kaylyn is a first-year Ph.D. student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the equity and accessibility impacts of public transit service changes in U.S. cities. Kaylyn has a Master of Science in Applied Urban Science and Informatics from New York University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, Kaylyn researched urban infrastructure vulnerability and transportation networks with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency. Currently, she works as a graduate research assistant to Dr. Alex Karner quantifying the social equity of transportation projects. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Austin with her Siberian Husky, Khloe.

Adam Ogusky’s research interests include the intersection of the philosophy of ethics and planning processes, as well as art and cultural planning. He received a B.A. in Geography from Dartmouth College in 2004 and an M.S. in Planning from UT Austin in 2010. After graduation, he moved to New Mexico and worked in arts education in Albuquerque, followed by stints as a planner for the local planning department and as a potter in Taos.

Mashrur Rahman is a first-year PhD student in the Community and Regional Planning program. His research focuses on strategies and policies that help to achieve sustainable transportation goals with an emphasis on public transportation planning. Currently he is working as a graduate research assistant in the USDOT Tier 1 UTC: Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2) in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.
 
Mashrur was awarded Fulbright Scholarship by the US Department of State in 2017. Prior to attending UT Austin, he achieved Master's degree in Transportation Science from the University of California Irvine. He also holds both Bachelor and Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Mashrur has more than two years of teaching experience in the field of planning in his home country. In his Master's thesis Mashrur identified key policy issues addressing the first and mile (FMLM) problem of the public transit commuters in Dhaka.
 

Originally from Monterrey, México, León Staines graduated as an Architect in 2007 and holds a Master's in Sciences in Urban Affairs from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, where he has been a professor since 2012. From 2010-2012 he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina studying a Master in History and Theory of Architecture where his view on Latin America broaden on the correlation that exists between the problems, differences, and similarities of the region. He also worked at the urban planning office in Monterrey where Leon’s research interests were clarified on spatial justice and participatory processes to improve informal communities. His research is focused on Latin America. 

In the Urban Design field, León has been distinguished with a National (Mexico) 1st Place with Morelos St. "XXIV CEMEX Award" category: Accessibility Congruence, and a 2nd Place internationally in the same category. 

His doctoral studies are funded by a scholarship from ConTex-CONACYT. 

Andrea "Christina" Wirsching, is a PhD candidate in the Community and Regional Planning Program at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), and a fellow in the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (NSF IGERT) program at UT Austin in Sustainable Energy and Smart Grids.  She is also in the Graduate Portfolio Program in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Originally from Laredo, Texas, Christina’s research examines the multilayered contexts in and of planning to critically inform community planning and scholarship. She holds a Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning degree as well as a BA in Geography from UT Austin, where she established a strong foundation in environmental resource management and secondary science education.
 
Her master’s research focused on historiographies in planning.  Her thesis examined the controversy within the historical context of the Holly Street Power Plant and surrounding Mexican American neighborhood, connecting to her deep familial ties in this East Austin, Texas neighborhood.  Christina’s passion for giving back to her community continues to be evident in her current interdisciplinary academic pursuits.  Christina’s dissertation research incorporates traditional impact assessments and spatial analyses of communities effected by the oil and gas industry with histories of governance and land development, with the goal of painting a more nuanced picture of what this looks like on the ground and how we got there.  She is conducting her study along the Texas-Mexico border in Webb County, Texas, where Laredo is the county seat.  
 
Christina served as a member of the UT School of Architecture Diversity Task Force, part of the leadership teams of student organizations focused on diversity, and, in her professional pre-graduate school life, worked in STEM academic student affairs and graduate recruitment for historically underrepresented student populations at UT Austin. She is qualified to teach a variety of courses related to planning and research methods, ranging from history and theory, research design and methods, critical cartography and practical applications of GIS, to courses similar to one she designed and taught, Latino Urban Studies, which integrates Mexican American and Latino Studies and planning.  Her course was the first of its kind at UT Austin designed and taught by a planning scholar.   

I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. My research examines the relationship between race, class and climate adaptation projects in U.S. cities.
 
Before landing in Texas, I studied Global Environmental Policy and International Development (M.A., 2008) at American University, and Environmental Policy and Planning (B.A., 2003) at Alaska Pacific University. I’ve taken big breaks between educational adventures to ground my classroom experiences in our beautifully messy world.  Work stints have included guiding sea kayakers in the wilds of Alaska, wearing a suit in DC while trying to conserve forests with the World Wildlife Fund, and managing a research institute amongst the rolling green mountains of Vermont.