Omar Pérez Figueroa

Omar Pérez Figueroa is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is dedicated to supporting underrepresented and disenfranchised communities in addressing environmental inequalities, particularly those impacted from extreme weather events and water injustice issues. At UIUC he is also an affiliated faculty member with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the U of I Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE). He graduated cum laude in 2010 with a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. In 2011, he was awarded the Truman Foundation Scholarship, which he used to complete a master’s degree in water, Interdisciplinary Analysis, and Sustainable Management from the University of Barcelona. He later completed a PhD in Environmental and Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine, supported by the Ford Foundation. He’s current research sets at the intersection between climate justice and housing, public policy participation and urban design.