About
Scholar, planner, educator, and program builder.
My career connects architecture, planning practice, community development, and academic research. I study how urban systems distribute opportunity and risk, and I build educational and institutional pathways that connect universities, public agencies, communities, and students.
Biography
Dr. Sowmya Balachandran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development in the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research examines the spatial, institutional, and policy conditions that shape housing stability, transportation access, community development, climate adaptation, and regional resilience.
Her work is informed by more than two decades of planning and community development experience across India, Mauritius, Mexico, Cuba, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States. She has worked on land-use planning, zoning, post-disaster redevelopment, affordable housing, sanitation planning, transit-oriented development, and neighborhood development.
Across research, teaching, and service, she develops peer-reviewed scholarship, policy reports, planning tools, community-facing products, and educational pathways for students and practitioners.
Professional trajectory
A career connecting planning practice, housing innovation, community development, and academic research.
Bachelor of Architecture, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
M.Tech. in Urban and Regional Planning, CEPT University.
Co-founded Alchemy Urban Systems.
Co-founded DBS Affordable Home Strategy.
Established Griha Pravesh, a housing facilitation center for low-income households.
Completed Ph.D. in Regional Planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Florida State University.
Assistant Professor, University of North Texas.
Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston.