Deirdre Pfeiffer | ASU Search
Deirdre Pfeiffer
Associate Professor
School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Other ASU affiliations
Institute for Social Science Research
Institute for Social Science Research Affiliated Faculty
Senior Global Futures Scientist
Global Futures Scientists and Scholars
[email protected]
Mail code:
5302
Campus:
Tempe
Long Bio
Deirdre Pfeiffer's scholarship, teaching, and community engagement focus on housing strategies to improve social outcomes, the relationship between housing and health, and the socioeconomic impacts of housing market disruptions.
Pfeiffer is Principal Investigator of the
Arizona Research Center for Housing and Economic Solutions (ARCHES)
, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Hispanic Serving Institution Center of Excellence jointly led by ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy and University of Arizona's Drachman Institute. ARCHES is advancing knowledge and evidence-based solutions related to problems of housing security, climate, and health in the arid Southwest.
Pfeiffer's current research on housing and health explores whether single-family home garages and driveways form an adaptive neighborhood infrastructure that has the potential to offer broad public benefits by studying how residents use these spaces for purposes other than to park cars and their potential future use in addressing pressing community issues like housing affordability, social isolation, and exposure to extreme heat. Pfeiffer also is advancing knowledge on the neighborhood built environment drivers of subjective wellbeing (aka "happiness") by examining how living in arid ecosystems 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. Pfeiffer's current research on housing and social outcomes integrates housing planning and policymaking and civil rights law to better understand barriers to Hispanic homeownership and use of code words in grounds for opposition to multifamily housing in public meetings.
Pfeiffer teaches housing planning and policy and planning methods. She recently co-created an award-winning course on Zoning for Equity, which is collaboratively taught at seven institutions nationwide. Her teaching excellence has been recognized through her students’ receipt of state and national planning awards and her nomination for eight university teaching and mentoring awards.
Pfeiffer is deeply committed to community partnerships to help solve pressing housing, health, and social equity issues and maintains an active agenda of community and professional service. She is Past President of the Board of Directors for the Southwest Fair Housing Council, a Park Steward with the City of Phoenix's desert mountain preserves, and a former Policy Fellow with the City of Phoenix Mayor's Office. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Education
Ph.D. Urban Planning, University of California-Los Angeles
M.A. Urban Planning, University of California-Los Angeles
B.S. Anthropology and Performance Studies, Northwestern University
CV
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Housing, health, social equity, community well-being and engagement, and mixed methods
Research Group
Arizona Research Center for Housing and Economic Solutions (ARCHES)
, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Hispanic Serving Institution Center of Excellence
Publications
(Selected recent)
Pfeiffer, Deirdre
and Xiaoqian Hu. 2024. “Deconstructing Racial Code Words.”
Law & Society Review
58: 294-328. https://doi.org/10.1017/lsr.2024.19
Pfeiffer, Deirdre,
Meagan Ehlenz, and Rababe Saadaoui. 2022. “Coping and Connecting through Creativity in the Neighborhood Realm during COVID-19.”
Journal of Planning Education and Research
. Published online October 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X221125443
Pfeiffer, Deirdre
, Alex Schafran, and Jake Wegmann. 2021. “Vulnerability and Opportunity: Making Sense of the Rise in Single-Family Rentals in U.S. Neighborhoods.”
Housing Studies
36(7): 1026-1046. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2020.1739235
Pfeiffer, Deirdre
, Meagan Ehlenz, Kelli Larson, Scott Cloutier, and Riley Andrade. 2020. "Do Neighborhood Walkability, Transit, and Parks Relate to Residents' Life Satisfaction? Insights from Phoenix."
Journal of the American Planning Association
86(2): 171-187. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2020.1715824
Pfeiffer, Deirdre
, Jake Wegmann, and Alex Schafran. 2020. “Exploring the Relationship between Housing Downturns and Partisan Elections: Neighborhood-Level Evidence from Maricopa County, Arizona.”
Urban Affairs Review
56
(6), 1630–1658. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087418824748
Pfeiffer, Deirdre,
Genevieve Pearthree, and Meagan Ehlenz. 2019. “Inventing What Millennials Want Downtown: Housing the Urban Generation in Low-Density Metropolitan Regions.”
Journal of Urbanism
12(4): 433-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2019.1626267
Pfeiffer, Deirdre
. 2018. “Rental Housing Assistance & Health: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.”
Housing Policy Debate
28(4): 515-533. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2017.1404480 . Reprinted in 2022 in
The Affordable Housing Reader
, edited by Elizabeth J. Mueller and J. Rosie Tighe. Routledge.
Courses
2026 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 525
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
PUP 525
Urban Housing Issues
2025 Fall
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 571
Quant Methods for Planners
2025 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
2024 Fall
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 571
Quant Methods for Planners
PUP 571
Quant Methods for Planners
2024 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 525
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
PUP 692
Research
2023 Fall
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 571
Planning Methods I
PUP 494
Special Topics
PUP 598
Special Topics
2023 Summer
Course Number
Course Title
SOS 596
Capstone: Scientific Paper
2023 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 525
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
PUP 579
Planning Methods II
2022 Fall
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 571
Planning Methods I
PUP 494
Special Topics
PUP 598
Special Topics
2022 Summer
Course Number
Course Title
SOS 596
Capstone: Scientific Paper
2022 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
SOS 499
Individualized Instruction
PUP 579
Planning Methods II
2021 Fall
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 571
Planning Methods I
2021 Summer
Course Number
Course Title
SOS 596
Capstone: Scientific Paper
2021 Spring
Course Number
Course Title
PUP 525
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 425
Urban Housing Issues
PUP 579
Planning Methods II
Honors / Awards
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning & Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Curriculum Innovation Award, 2023
ASU Knowledge Exchange for Resilience Fellowship, 2023
Chester Rapkin Award for Best Article in the
Journal of Planning Education and Research
, 2018
Editorships
Editorial Board Member,
Journal of Urban Affairs
Professional Associations
American Institute of Certified Planners
American Planning Association
Urban Affairs Association
Planners Network
Arizona Housing Coalition
Service
Special Advisor/Policy Fellow, City of Phoenix, Office of Mayor Kate Gallego, 2024 - 2025
Southwest Fair Housing Council,
Board Past President
, 2025 - present,
Board President
, 2023 - 2025,
Board President
Elect
, 2022 - 2023,
Board Member
, 2020 – 2022
Co-Creator of the
Arizona Healthy Community Map
City of Phoenix,
Park Steward
, 2021 – present
Rover Elementary PTA,
Vice President Communications
, 2023 – 2025,
Member
2019 - present
Rover Vine School Garden,
Committee Chair
, 2022 - 2024;
Committee Co-Chair
, 2021;
Committee Member
, 2019-2021, 2024 to present
Expertise Areas
Community Development for Social Equity
Health
Place, Culture, and Identity
Urban Design and Sustainable Cities
Urban Planning
US