Deyanira Nevarez Martinez completed her Ph.D. in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine in 2021. She is currently a faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. She has a Master’s of Science in Planning from the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona and a Master’s of Science in Geographic Information Systems Technology from the Department of Geography also at the University of Arizona.

She has worked for the public and non-profit sectors. From 2009 to 2010 she worked for U.S. Congressman Raul M. Grijalva before moving to spearhead the campaign to fight Arizona’s ban on Mexican American Studies. Additionally, she has served as the Arizona State Coordinator for Mi Familia Vota Education Fund. Ms. Nevarez Martinez decided to pursue a degree in planning because she is passionate about equity and social justice in public policy.

Her research focuses on the role of the state in homelessness and housing precarity. A major theme in her work is the criminalization of poverty in the United States. Additionally, her work has looked at issues of gentrification, racial equity in land-use and transportation, racial segregation, and bail reform.