Profile

Karen J. Gibson, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning

B.A. 1980 (English literature and creative writing) San Francisco State University; M.S. 1991 (public policy and management) Carnegie Mellon University; Ph.D. 1996 (city and regional planning) University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Gibson teaches courses such as urban poverty, community economic development, urban housing, and black urban history through documentary film. Her research focuses primarily on racial economic inequality and its spatial manifestations in the urban United States. Currently she is conducting a study of the political economy of neighborhood change in Portland’s historic black community, the Albina District.  Her publications have appeared in Feminist Economics, Transforming Anthropology, and the Journal of Planning Education and Research. She is board president of Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Inc (PCRI) and a board member of the Urban Affairs Association.  A native of San Francisco’s Mission District, she is married and has three grown children.

Associate Professor Gibson's contact information:
Office: Urban Center, room 370J
Phone: (503) 725.8265
E-mail: gibsonk@pdx.edu