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 fifth-year Ph.D. student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research combines transportation and disability justice. Her dissertation focuses on first and last mile access to transit for people with disabilities in Austin, TX and Seattle, WA. 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 participating in agility and dock diving with her dogs.

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 PhD student in the Community and Regional Planning program. His research focuses on the complex relationships among travel behavior, travel attitudes and the built environment, particularly the impacts of transportation and land use systems on travel behavior, and on the strategies for reducing automobile use and promoting equitable, healthy and sustainable transportation options. 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.
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. 

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 trained as both a planning practitioner and interdiscplinary social scientist, specializing in social and environmental justice in planning. She just received her Doctorate in Community and Regional Planning Program at The University of Texas at Austin in May (2020), and was one of only two planning doctoral students in the National Science Foundation IGERT Trainee in Energy Grids and Sustainable Energy (2014-16).  She earned a Graduate Portfolio in Mexican American Studies. She recently completed a year-long appointment as Visiting Instructor for 2019-20 in Urban Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, where she taught The Urban Experience, Research Methods: GIS, Latinx Urban Planning and Justice and the City. 

Originally from Laredo, Texas, Dr. Wirsching’s research examines the multilayered contexts in and of planning to critically inform community planning and scholarship. She also 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 degree 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.  Dr. Wirsching's passion for giving back to her community continues to be evident in her current interdisciplinary academic pursuits.  Her 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 conducted her study along the Texas-Mexico border in Webb County, Texas, where Laredo is the county seat.  

Dr. Wirsching is interested in teaching from the intersections of critical pedagogical studies, planning, and social science scholarship, incorporating topics in urban planning and governance, Latinx border studies, energy and the environment, and research methods. She aims to create an empowering academic and experiential student learning environment that recognizes and celebrates students’ personal and geographic backgrounds while equipping students with knowledge and tools to ultimately give back to their own communities. 

Dr. Wirsching has served as a member of the UT Austin School of Architecture Diversity Task Force, part of the leadership teams of student organizations focused on diversity and inclusion, and, in her professional pre-graduate school life, worked in undergraduate admissions and academic student affairs, and graduate recruitment for historically underrepresented student populations at UT Austin. Christina also worked as a planner and/or researcher for the City of Austin, State of Texas, Texas Low Income Housing Information Service (Texas Housers), and the Center for Sustainable Development at UT Austin. She currently teaches community development and justice oriented planning courses at The University of Texas San Antonio, and is a community development policy and compliance manager. 

I’m a postdoctoral fellow in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. I finished my Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. My research investigates the connections between city-led climate adaptation planning and environmental racism in the United States. I use mixed methods including plan evaluation, spatial statistics, and case studies to identify the ways structural racism influences exposure to climate risks and proximity to adaptation interventions, and how urban planners and community activists navigate these dynamics.

Before landing in Texas, I studied Global Environmental Policy and International Development (MA, 2008) at American University, and Environmental Policy and Planning (BA, 2003) at Alaska Pacific University.