Zahra Jaffer

Zahra Jaffer is a first-year doctoral student in the Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of Michigan. Her research interests explore the evaluation frameworks that allow for planners to better understand and communicate the outcomes of planning policies. This includes mechanisms for engagement with community members, knowledge keepers, and those with lived experience of marginalization, to provide input and be able to see themselves and their needs reflected in planning policy. She believes that an interdisciplinary approach is crucial to illuminating the intersections between housing, climate, transportation, and spatial justice.

Prior to joining Taubman College, Zahra worked as an environmental consultant for a year in Dubai, and as a planner for over 12 years in Kitchener, Ontario, serving a range of public sector organizations across the province. Her areas of practice included community planning, climate change adaptation, social equity analysis, infrastructure planning, and public engagement. Her work on public engagement for municipal planning projects has been the recipient of awards and recognition from the International Association of Public Participation (2018). She is a full member (RPP) of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Zahra received a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Environmental Biology from the University of Toronto at Scarborough in 2010, and a Master of Environmental Studies in Planning at the University of Waterloo in 2013. Her Master’s thesis focused on the environmental policy and regulatory formulation process in Nairobi, Kenya, and received an Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies award. During this time, she also worked as a Research Assistant with Dr. Luna Khirfan and collaborated on published research on the transfer of planning knowledge from Canada to the Middle East (UAE and Jordan).

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Publications

• Olufemi, O. and Jaffer, Z. (2024). An intersectional approach to the affordable housing crisis: A logic model framework. Y Magazine Issue #15, Ontario Professional Planners Institute.
• Jaffer, Z. and Nooren, L. (2023). A Systems-Thinking Approach: Extreme Heat, Climate Change, and Learning to do what Works. Y Magazine Issue #14, Ontario Professional Planners Institute and OPPI Planning Exchange Blog, September 11, 2023.
• Jaffer, Z. (2017). How to make friends and influence people. Ontario Planning Journal, March/April 2017, Vol.32 No.2, Ontario Professional Planners Institute.
• Khirfan, L. and Jaffer, Z. (2014). Sustainable Urbanism in Abu Dhabi: Transferring the Vancouver Model. Journal of Urban Affairs, 36(3), 482–502. https://doi.org/10.1111/juaf.12050
• Khirfan, L., Momani, B., and Jaffer, Z. (2013). Whose authority? Exporting Canadian urban planning expertise to Jordan and Abu Dhabi.  Geoforum. Volume 50, pages 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.07.007
• Khirfan, L. and Jaffer, Z. (2012). Canadian Planning Knowledge in the Middle East: Transferring Toronto to Amman and Vancouver to Abu Dhabi.  The Canadian Journal of Urban Research, special issue on Canadian Planning and Policy, pages 1–28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26193896

Conference Presentations

Canadian Institute of Planners Annual Conference

• 2025: The Role of Journey Mapping to Understand the Experience of Persons with Disabilities (Lead Presenter)

Ontario Professional Planners Institute Annual Conference

• 2022: Session 101: Welcome Panel for Students (Panelist)
• 2022: Session 301A: Doing what needs to be done: Centering climate justice in planning (Lead Presenter)
• 2022: Session 603: Ableism and Cities Past, Present, and Future (Organizer, Moderator)
• 2021: Session 501: Toronto MCR Engagement Process: Experience Exchange (Co-Presenter)
• 2019: Session 202B: A Risk-Based Approach to Climate Change Planning in the Town of Ajax (Presenter)