Jenna Davis

Jenna Davis is an urban planner whose research interests include housing and zoning policy. Her research investigates how zoning regulations shape urban development and impact housing inequalities in the United States. She also investigates the political economy of zoning reform. In her scholarly work, she uses mixed methods, employing econometric and spatial analysis approaches, as well as leveraging qualitative methods such as interviews and discourse analysis. Her work previously has been published in Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of the American Planning Association, and Land Use Policy. Davis previously served as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, where she conducted research on the educational outcomes of homeless students in the New York City public school system. Jenna also worked at the Citizens Budget Commission, performing research on property tax reform in New York City, and worked in marketing and operations at a real estate technology startup.

She is currently completing her dissertation in urban planning at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She holds a MRP in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a BA in urban studies from Barnard College. At Barnard, Davis teaches classes on the built environment, housing policy, and research methods including: Neighborhood and Community Development, Introduction to Urban Planning, Housing Policy, and the Urban Studies Senior Seminar.