Dr. Susanna Schaller is an Associate Professor in Urban Studies, Administration and Planning at the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education, The City College of New York Downtown. She earned her PhD in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. Her most recent work focuses on business improvement districts (BIDs) in Washington, DC. Her book Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C. was recently published by the University of Georgia Press. (www.ugapress.org.)
Dr. Schaller's research examines how public-private partnerships restructure urban governance and redevelopment regimes. Her book specifically examines and historically contextualizes the work of business improvement districts in Washington, DC. Schaller's work unpacks how a new BID-public private partnership regime emerged in the 1990s to implant place making strategies. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Urban Studies, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Geography, the Journal of Planning Education and Research as well as the Journal of Education Policy.
Her professional practice has focused on urban governance and economic development as well as small business development and microfinance. She has served as Senior Planner to the Municipal Art Society in New York and has worked with community groups to evaluate rezoning plans for New York City neighborhoods. She has also worked with community-based organizations, including community development finance institutions and community development corporations, to develop microenterprise and small business lending and training programs and to conduct community visioning and strategic planning workshops.