Morgan is a doctoral student in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan. Her research interests focus on planning and policy that center around equity. Specifically, she is interested in examining alternative benchmarks and metrics for policy and development initiatives that emphasize well-being over more traditional, neoliberal evaluation measures such as cost-benefit analyses. She currently serves as the doctoral representative for the Taubman College Student Council. She also works as a Research Assistant for a Taubman Equity Innovation Project, Democratizing and Decolonizing Planning Education: Enhancing the Global Competence of Current and Future URP Students, where she is helping to develop a more international, radical curricula for planning students.
Morgan earned her master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, where she was an editor for the student planning journal, Agora. During her master’s program, she was appointed a Graduate Student Instructor position within the sociology department for four semesters. She also worked as a research assistant in Bolivia for a joint project between the School of Public Health and Urban and Regional Planning: Food Systems Typologies and Nutritional Impacts in the Transitioning Global South.
Prior to enrolling at the University of Michigan, Morgan obtained a master’s degree in the social sciences from the University of Chicago, where she studied sociology. Her coursework and thesis focused on the intersection between social movement theory and ethical consumption and production practices. During and after her time at the University of Chicago, she worked as a research assistant and project coordinator for the university’s Survey Lab and Urban Innovation Analysis. Morgan has also worked in community and international development in Mexico, Honduras, and Detroit, Michigan. It was this work that incited an interest in understanding how development is evaluated and how equity can be better advocated for.