Deirdre Pfeiffer

Deirdre Pfeiffer's scholarship focuses on housing strategies to advance social equity, the relationship between housing and health, and the socioeconomic impacts of housing market disruptions.

Pfeiffer's recent research on the neighborhood built environment drivers of subjective wellbeing (aka "happiness") examines how neighborhood park access and walkability and living in and among garage homes -- car-oriented single-family homes where the garage and driveway take up a large portion of the front yard --  relate to residents' subjective wellbeing. She also is exploring how single-family home residents adapt their garages and driveways for uses other than to park cars to demonstrate how they form an adaptive infrastructure that has the potential to offer broad public benefits. Another of Pfeiffer's projects investigates use of racial code words in reasons for opposition to local housing development in an effort to reduce racial bias in local housing decisions and help courts better adjudicate violations to fair housing that occur.

Dr. Pfeiffer teaches courses on housing planning and policy, planning methods, and public participation in planning. She recently co-created an award-winning course on Zoning for Equity, which is collaboratively taught at seven campuses nationwide. Her teaching excellence has been recognized through her students’ receipt of state and national planning awards and her nomination for six university teaching and mentoring awards. 

Pfeiffer is deeply committed to community partnerships to help solve pressing housing-related issues and maintains an active agenda of professional service. She is a Senior Associate Editor at Journal of Urban Affairs and President of the Board of Directors for the Southwest Fair Housing Council. She regularly offers expert testimony on issues related to housing affordability and fair housing. Dr. Pfeiffer holds a MA and PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.