Elisabeth Infield

PhD in City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania
Masters in Management and Finance, Northwestern University
BA in Business Administration, Cleveland State University

Biography

Elisabeth Infield, PhD, is the Director of the PhD in Regional Planning Program and a professor of regional planning at UMass Amherst.  She teaches and researches in land use planning, with a particular focus on planning for climate change adaptation and large-scale landscape planning. Through studios and projects, Professor Infield works with regional planning agencies and communities on master plans, special projects, and climate change planning.  She served as Department Chair from 2013-2017 and Program Director for the PhD in Regional Planning for over ten years prior to that.  Her most recent book is Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities, co-edited with Yaser Abunnasr and Robert L. Ryan (2019, Routledge Press).   

Prior to coming to UMass, Professor Infield taught at Iowa State University (1995 to 2001). During her doctorate, she worked in land use and energy consulting; before her doctorate, she worked in real estate consulting and development, providing financial and marketing analysis to major real estate developers across the United States.

• SUSTCOMM 297G /REGIONPL 585: Planning for Climate Change
• REGIONPL 630: Public Participation
• REGIONPL/LANDARCH 635: Research Issues in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

• Infield, E., Seasons, M., & Lyles, W. (2024). Teaching climate change planning: fostering hope while building capacity. Planning Practice & Research, 40(1), 164–182.
• Infield, E., Renski, H., et al. (2024). Insights for Receiving Communities in Planning Equitable and Positives Outcomes Under Climate Migration: Expert Convening Results. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
• Infield, E. (Hamin), Shi, L., García, I., Minner, J., Whittington, J., Goh, K., Hsu, D., Agyeman, J., Boswell, M., & Stone, B. (2023). Planning for Climate Leadership. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 43(4), 750-757.
• Infield, E., Renski, H., Ryan, R., & Abunnasr, Y. (2018) Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities. New York: Routledge.