Doctoral Student Profiles

Greg's research explores crowdsourcing for participatory planning, particularly through cases in sustainable transportation and health. Currently, ​he is a Ph.D. candidate and member of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture's Urban Information Lab working on his dissertation, called "Sociotechnical Co-production of Planning Information: Opportunities and Limits of Crowdsourcing for the Geography and Planning of Bicycle Transportation". He also works as a researcher with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, leading projects such as Street Noise Relationship to Vulnerable Road User Safety.

Previously, Greg worked as a state park planner and regional transportation planner, and taught Transportation Systems at Texas State University. Greg is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, bicycles whenever possible, and sometimes tweets @gregpgriffin.

Meghan Kleon is a PhD student in Architecture, a Sustainable Cities Doctoral Initiative Fellow, and the coordinator of the Graduate Portfolio Program in Sustainability at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is focused on the intersection of sustainable design and historic preservation. She has a BA in Architecture from Miami University (Ohio), an MS in Sustainable Design from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She currently serves on the City of Austin Historic Landmark Commission. Prior to her graduate work at UT Austin, Meghan worked as the Architectural Resource Coordinator for the Cleveland Green Building Coalition (now the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council), where she organized and facilitated the Emerging Green Designers symposium for young design professionals; collaborated with partner agencies to fund, design and produce affordable green housing; and coordinated green building educational programming, including lecture series and green building tours.

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.

Hao’s interests include travel demand modeling and the integration of urban design and land use modes with transportation planning. During his master’s study at UT Austin, he participated in Austin’s MXD study sponsored by the Center for Transportation Research, the Sustainable Places Project, and the Project Connect study sponsored by the City of Austin. He now works at Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization on the demographic allocation for Austin MSA’s 2040 long-range transportation plan.

Originally from Mexico City, Ariadna is a Ph.D. Candidate for the Doctoral Program in Community and Regional Planning. Civil engineer and Fulbright and CONACYT fellow. She holds an MSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) in Mexico City where she graduated with honors. The Mexican Environmental Ministry recognized her master’s degree thesis because she developed the first inventory of greenhouse gasses in university facilities in Mexico which had been used as a  reference for other colleges.

Ariadna gave speeches and presentations on strategies to tackle climate change in the built environment for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CCE) of North America. From 2009 to 2013, she worked at the Mario Molina Center as a specialist in sustainable housing and vulnerability to climate change. The Mario Molina Center is a Mexican think tank on climate change and energy which is directly managed by the Mexican Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1995), Dr. Mario Molina. At the Mario Molina Center, she led the environmental assessment of the  "Evaluation of the Sustainability of Mexican Social Housing," which federal institutions and private sector have used to design housing policies and strategies. 

Ariadna presented her doctoral research at the Urban Affairs Association Conference in 2013 and 2016; at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Conference in 2014, 2015, and 2016; at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology (ISSST) in 2015; and at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in 2016.

In her dissertation, Ariadna seeks to unpack sustainability in forms of housing development in Mexico City's Metropolitan Area, particularly in consolidated informal settlements, known as colonias populares.  A sustainable form of housing development enables the urban poor to exercise their right to live in a resilient, compact, and climate just city (Adger, 2006; Agyeman, 2005; Davoudi, 2009; Shrestha, Ojha, McManus, Rubbo, and Dhote, 2014; Steele et al., 2012). 

Ariadna's research interests include climate justice and just sustainability, radical and insurgent planning theory, and environmental life cycle assessment. 

Ariadna serves as Teacher Assistant of the Quantitative Methods class, which is taught by Dr. Jake Wegmann, for the MSc Program in Community and Regional Planning.

Kristina is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. student in Community and Regional Planning and an IGERT Fellow in the School of Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin. She started her doctoral studies after 11 years working as a systems engineer in the defense industry and a master's degree from Washington University, where she studied international energy policy. Kristina's academic interests include modernization of electric and water infrastructure in and around the state of Texas and she is inspired by the sustainability work of Sir Patrick Geddes. She has two young children and has a strong interest in improving our energy footprint for future generations. Kristina’s work includes international collaboration with the Technical University of Munich and presentation and publication in the Smart Greens Conference, and the Young Researchers in Sustainable Buildings Conferences in the summer of 2013.

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.   

Stephen is a PhD student in Community & Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, his research explores the effects of urban and regional neoliberalization on public transportation provision, specifically, how public transportation deployed as an urban revitalization strategy effects its use by the transit dependent. His research seeks to contribute to critical theoretical discussions around the "politics of infrastructure" and its impacts on urban governance strategies. Stephen previously worked as Comprehensive Planner for the City of Columbia, South Carolina. He holds a M.S. in Community & Regional Planning from UT-Austin and a B.A. in Political Science from Kent State University.