Elizabeth Gearin

Dr. Elizabeth Gearin (Ph.D., University of Southern California, AICP) is a planning and public policy consultant and a member of the Arlington County Planning Commission. She has worked as a housing and community development planner in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a community organizer in Chicago. 

Prior to her current work, Dr. Gearin served as a NSF-funded graduate researcher at the University of Southern California. Her dissertation focused on assessing the child-friendliness of three iconic suburbs in the Washington D.C. metro area. 

Before graduate school she served in a range of professional planning capacities, including as Housing Coordinator for the City of Livermore, California; as a Community Development Planner for the Contra Costa County California Redevelopment Agency; and as a Community Organizer in Chicago, Illinois for the Southwest Parish and Neighborhood Federation.

In addition to teaching at GW, she has taught at University of Southern California and in the Wilder School at the Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Dr. Gearin spent her middle school and high school years living in Taipei, Taiwan; Manila, The Philippines; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Bangkok, Thailand, which has given her a unique perspective on the sustainable urban planning field.