Rebecca Lewis, PhD

Rebecca Lewis (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor in Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, the Co-Director of Research for the Institute of Policy Research and Engagement, and the director of the Community and Regional Planning graduate program. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree and a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning and design, both from the University of Maryland. She studies state land use policy, transportation finance, and housing affordability in rural areas. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of the American Planning Association and Land Use Policy, and has been funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, National Science Foundation, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.

Rebecca formerly served as the research director for Sustainable Cities Institute and Urbanism Next where she coordinated interdisciplinary faculty to address issues related to livability and later new mobility, autonomous vehicles and e-commerce. She contributed to Urbanism Next projects funded by the Bullitt Foundation, National Institute for Transportation and Communities, and the National Science Foundation. She has studied issues relating to the sharing economy (Airbnb in rural Oregon) and transportation financing in the age of new mobility.

Some of her published work for Urbanism Next includes:

• Multilevel Impacts of Emerging Technologies on City Form and Development (2020)
• Navigating New Mobility: Policy Approaches for Cities (2019)‍
• AVs in the Pacific Northwest: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Time of Automation (2018)