Lesli Hoey – Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Lesli Hoey

Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

Department Profile

Lesli Hoey teaches graduate courses in food systems planning, urban planning in developing countries, program evaluation, and qualitative research methods. Hoey’s research focuses on the ways planning mechanisms limit and build equitable, healthy and sustainable food systems. She is particularly interested in the intersection of program design and food policy advocacy, implementation, and evaluation.

Her past work, focused primarily on Bolivia and comparative research, has examined strategies for mainstreaming nutrition into national policy agendas, the challenges of multisectoral food policy, factors constraining nutrition interventions in rapidly urbanizing contexts, approaches for integrating evidence-based and experiential knowledge in food and nutrition evaluation, and “adaptive” forms of food policy implementation (i.e. iterative, collaborative, negotiated). Her current projects examine the links between food policy, urban agriculture and civic engagement in Southeast Michigan and the long-term food system impacts of innovative land redistribution planning in Bolivia.

Prior to pursuing a Ph.D., Hoey worked as a program evaluator and action researcher, focusing on equity-oriented K-12 and higher education programs in the US as well as rural development, malnutrition and food security projects in the Mississippi Delta, Peru, Albania and Bolivia. She earned a PhD and master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in psychology from Earlham College. Website here

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