Alejandra Reyes

Biography

Alejandra Reyes, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. A scholar of housing policy and urban governance, Reyes examines the political economy of housing access, financialization, and development in Mexico and the United States, with particular attention to how state policies and local governance structures shape housing outcomes. Her research addresses tensions between housing finance systems, production patterns, and accessibility, as well as the evolution of metropolitan governance and policy implementation across different scales of government.

Reyes received a Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018, where her dissertation examined Mexico's housing paradox of simultaneous inaccessibility and vacancy. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy from 2018 to 2019. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, CONACyT Mexico, and the ConTex program of the University of Texas System. In 2023, she received the Best Journal Article Faculty Award from the Global Planning Educators Interest Group at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning for her co-authored article on housing financialization in Brazil and Mexico published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Reyes served as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning's Global Planning Educators Interest Group and an editorial member of the Radical Housing Journal. Her research has been published in journals including Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Journal of Urban Affairs, Habitat International, and Cities. At UC Irvine, she teaches courses on housing policy, public policy and governance, and the political economy of housing at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Education

• Ph.D. in Community & Regional Planning, University of Texas at Austin, 2018
• M.S. in Community & Regional Planning, University of Texas at Austin, 2013
• B.A. in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 2008

Distinctions

• Best Journal Article Faculty Award, Global Planning Educators Interest Group (GPEIG), Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, 2023
• Latin America & the Caribbean Doctoral Fellowship, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2017-2018
• Science & Technology Fellow Abroad, CONACyT Mexico, 2013-2018
• Dr. Kent Butler Student Project Planning Award, Central Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association, 2012
• Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award, University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, 2013
• University of California Underrepresented Scholars Fellow & Mentee, 2025-2026
• ConTex Doctoral Fellowship, University of Texas System, 2017-2018
• University Graduate Continuing Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 2016-2017
• Potter Rose Graduate Fellowship Award, University of Texas at Austin, 2013-2018