overview

• Alison Chopel is a professor at the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her expertise focuses on community-based participatory research, qualitative methodology and social epidemiology. Dr. Chopel’s focus on the social determinants of health has led her from practicing in the public health sector to focusing on economic equity, community development, and systems thinking as a foundation for promoting community well-being. She has designed and led participatory, trans-disciplinary, and mixed methods research in diverse areas, most recently exploring the equity impacts of disaster recovery funds and the community impacts of abandoned buildings, as well as their transformation into habitable spaces habitable through their collective rescue by surrounding community members. When not researching or teaching, she’s playing with her cat, clumsily practicing flamenco dance, or volunteering in her local community center, a school that was closed by austerity measures, then rescued by neighbors in the wake of Hurricane María and is now an active hub for healing, the arts, environmental care and awareness, culture and general merry-making.