Confronting COVID-19 in Our Communities: Perspectives from Around the Nation

Confronting COVID-19 in Our Communities is an online panel of the 30th RPA Assembly.

Vanessa Barrios conducts research and outreach on projects related to affordable homes, community engagement, and equitable economic development in the region.

Vanessa spearheads the Health Regions Planning Exchange, an RPA-led initiative that convenes a network of planners, practitioners, and advocates from 11 regions across the country to address health and equity in planning. Prior to joining RPA in 2016, she worked as a case manager, housing navigator, and outreach worker at People Assisting the Homeless, a homeless service organization that serves the Greater Los Angeles area.

Vanessa has a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of California, Riverside, and a master’s in urban planning from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University where she focused on international development planning. This specialization culminated in an analysis of local economic growth in the 30 regions of Tanzania and provided recommendations for industry potential and quality of life improvements. Vanessa currently resides in Brooklyn where enjoys tending to her small but mighty windowsill garden.

Mariana Huerta Jones is the Campaign & Communications Manager with Alliance for Community Transit - Los Angeles (ACT-LA). At ACT-LA, Mariana leads the coalition’s equitable community planning program and builds capacity for local groups to engage in city land-use planning and advocacy processes. She also leads ACT-LA’s communications strategy. She has over 13 years of experience as a community organizer, researcher, and policy advocate working on economic justice and anti-displacement campaigns. Mariana holds a Masters’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a BA in Feminist Studies from Stanford University.

Debbie Liu (she/her/hers) is the community engagement Associate at Metropolitan Planning Council. She was formerly with Asian Health Coalition (Center for Asian Health Equity) and had spent her early career leading the Coalition for a BetterChinese American Community (CBCAC) to empower Chinese Americans living in Chicago’s Greater Chinatown through civic engagement and community development. Her research background is in gentrification and displacement and she co-authored the ​“Chinatown Anti-Displacement Community Research Project Report and Map.” Her interests are in improving health outcomes through equitable urban planning and policy change. Debbie was born in Chicago and received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Laura Wiens is the Executive Director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT). Over the past two years, she has led successful campaigns to prevent the criminalization of fare evasion and massive transit service reductions in marginalized communities. PPT Transit ride leaders are now advancing campaigns for fare equity, affordable housing and transit policy, and transit as a climate solution.Laura has her roots in labor organizing with Unite HERE, and draws from that experience to mobilize transit riders in the fight for equity, access and transparency within our public agencies. Laura believes in the collective power of people to transform their communities.