| Carlo A. Chunga Pizarro

Welcome! I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy Program at the University of California, Irvine, where I study the intersections of immigration policy and disaster planning. My research examines how immigration enforcement and local governance shape disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for undocumented immigrants and other system-impacted communities, and how cities can advance more equitable and sanctuary disaster policy. I am a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow and a Fellow of the William (Bill) Averette Anderson Fund.

For my projects and research, I use my applied planning experience alongside my academic work. I have served as a project manager and researcher with Texas Target Communities, contributing to comprehensive plans and housing needs assessments for underserved Texas municipalities, and currently a summer fellow with the Orange County Rapid Response Network. I was a visiting research scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a fellow at the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative’s Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods. Currently, I serve as the Executive Chair of the William (Bill) Averette Anderson Fund Student Council.

I hold a Master of Urban Planning and a B.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University. My work has appeared in GeoHealth, The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, Disaster Prevention and Management, and the Natural Hazards Center’s Research Counts.