Larissa S. Larsen has been promoted to associate professor of urban planning, with tenure. Larsen is an exceptional teacher who has been selected by students three times for the outstanding teacher award during her time at Michigan. Larsen’s courses serve as central contributions to the Urban and Regional Planning curriculum and include Theories of Urban Design, Environmental Planning, Physical and Urban Design Studio, and the program’s Capstone Project course.

Thanks to her notable teaching strength, students in Larsen’s classes have received awards from organizations such as the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) and the Michigan Chapter of the ALSA. Students uniformly praise the education they have receive from Larsen, consistently noting that she is both a teacher and a mentor who is able to challenge them, connect with them, and integrate the theory and practice of planning in ways that have enriched both their student and professional lives and experiences.

Larsen’s scholarly work is highly interdisciplinary, collaborative, and innovative. She works closely with specialists from outside her own field, thus expanding the scope of her work and adding an important depth. Larsen has a strong record of acquiring research funding from diverse sources and her research has centered on relationships among land use patterns, built urban forms, and environmental impacts, particularly in the context of social and environmental justice.