The LAC Cities Initiatives is led by three cutting-edge urban scholars of Latin America who bring expertise along with tireless enthusiasm and energy to this project.

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Co-Director Nikolai Alvarado (pictured left) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science. His research lies at the intersection of urban politics, environmental racism, and South-South migration and focuses on migrant-led urbanization in the Global South through examining everyday political strategies that migrants use to acquire urban rights and navigate exclusionary migration regimes.

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Co-Director Magdalena Novoa (pictured right) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban & Regional Planning. Her work focuses on the intersections of historic preservation and social justice, the politics of cultural heritage and memory, gender and deindustrialization, grassroots organizing and alternative planning approaches in the Americas. 

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Co-Director David J. Isern (pictured left) is the Associate Director for Academic Affairs and an Assistant Professor at the Illinois School of Architecture. His work looks at the Global South’s social and cultural epistemes as methods and principals to understand, design, and build the urban ayllu (space) using popular and culturally rich alternatives that help highlight the value of traditional and bottom-up approaches for urban growth.