Regular Faculty
Martha Matsuoka, Chair
Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy; Executive Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute
A.B., Occidental College; M.C.P., UC Berkeley Ph.D., UCLA
Martha Matsuoka ’83 focuses her teaching and research on community-based organizing and social movements for environmental justice, particularly in planning and policy.
Claire Cahen
Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., Pomona College; M.Phil, Ph.D., Graduate Center, CUNY, New York
Claire Cahen is an urbanist, researcher and educator who studies municipal austerity and public sector union renewal.
Peter Dreier
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics; Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., Syracuse University M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Peter Dreier has been involved in urban policy as a scholar, government official, reporter, and advocate for 30 years.
Karla Peña
Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., California State University Northridge; M.S., University of Michigan; M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University
Karla Peña's teaching and research is centered on social movements and the political ecology of natural resource extraction and environmental change, from a local and global perspective.
James Sadd
Professor, Environmental Science
B.S., University of Southern California; M.S., University of Texas; Ph.D., University of South Carolina
Dr. Sadd teaches courses in Geographic Information Systems in which students evaluate many types of information using spatial analysis and statistical tools.
Bhavna Shamasunder
Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy
B.S./B.A., UC San Diego; M.ES., Yale University; Ph.D., UC Berkeley
Bhavna Shamasunder teaches and conducts research at the intersection of environmental health & justice with a focus on inequalities in chemical exposures faced by low-income communities and communities of color who live and work in urban and/or industrial environments.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Sharon Cech
Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., Bard College; M.A., UCLA
Sharon Cech (she/her) is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College (UEPI). With over a decade of experience working to advance farm to school, farmers…
Joshua Nicholas McGuffie
Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A, University of California, Los Angeles; M.Div., Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary; M.A., Oregon State University; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (in progress)
Rosa Romero
Visiting Instructor, Urban & Environmental Policy
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.Ed., University of Hawaii, Manoa
Rosa Romero is a Program Director at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College. Rosa specializes in Farm to Preschool, Garden and Health curriculum development and…