Robin King

Director of Knowledge Capture & Collaboration, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

Bio

Robin King is the Director of Knowledge Capture and Collaboration at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. In this role, she promotes collaboration across WRI’s international network to better integrate urban planning, land use, and sustainable transportation using her experience working in policy matters in the Americas and Asia.

Prior to WRI, she worked as Principal Research Scholar at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), in Bangalore, India, where she helped lead the Next Generation Infrastructure Laboratory since August 2008. She also is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University. Previously, she served as Academic Director of the Masters Program in Latin American Studies in SFS at Georgetown, and held posts at the G7 Group, the Organization of American States, the US Department of State, and Mellon Bank.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She spent a year as a Rotary Exchange student in Oruro, Bolivia, and more than a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico.

Blogs

To Fix City Slums, Don't Just Knock Them Down: Involve Residents in Upgrading Efforts
by Maria Hart and Robin King - November 13, 2019
Historically, cities have upgraded poor neighborhoods by razing and reconstructing them, often displacing residents. But to actually improve affordable housing and give residents access to services and opportunities, cities need a different approach.
India's Boom Pushed Cities to Their Limits. Here's How Pune Coped.
by Valeria Lvovna Gelman and Robin King - August 16, 2018
Civil society organizations in Pune pushed for reforms to waste management and transport. Government worked with them—to a point.
The Crisis in Affordable Housing Is a Problem for Cities Everywhere
by Robin King - October 02, 2017
Affordable housing has moved to the fore of global concerns, but cities and developers still don't adhere to the key lesson: to make development inclusive, involve communities in the process.
Confronting the Urban Housing Gap
by Robin King - July 12, 2017
Affordable housing is a critical need in the cities of the global south. Innovative approaches can help replace slums with healthier environments.
3 Challenges to Safe and Affordable Urban Housing
by Robin King and Terra Virsilas - October 12, 2016
A good home gives families a base to build the foundations of society, but in urbanizing areas, good housing can be difficult to find. People like Jussara and her family in Porte Alegre, Brazil, face a trio of critical challenges to locating affordable housing that apply in many growing cities worldwide.
Demystifying Transit-Oriented Development
by Luis Zamorano - June 03, 2014
To help city leaders shift to a planning paradigm that creates more compact neighborhoods and sustainable cities, EMBARQ has released a Transit-oriented Development Guide for Urban Communities.

The guide combines best practices from existing communities and design guidelines for creating healthy, sustainable, people-oriented cities.
A Safe City is a Just City
by Ben Welle and Robin King - April 04, 2014
Improving developing cities’ traffic safety is a critical task for ensuring that these growing urban centers become safe, equitable places to live. A key part of achieving this safety? Sustainable urban design.

The connection between safety and justice is a major theme of the upcoming World Urban Forum (WUF7), organized by UN-HABITAT, which this year focuses on “urban equity in development—cities for life.” At the event, EMBARQ experts will host a Cities Safer by Design for All networking session. The event will convene key experts and explore ways that urban design can improve safety—and in turn, justice—in developing cities around the world.
4 Ways Cities Benefit from Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
by Robin King - December 10, 2013
New research shows that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can reduce travel time by millions of hours for commuters worldwide. For instance, BRT users in Istanbul, Turkey, can save 28 days per year by shifting from other transport modes to BRT. Commuters in Johannesburg, South Africa, meanwhile, can save an estimated 73 million hours between 2007 and 2026. That’s the equivalent of more than 9 million eight-hour work-days.

External Publications

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Robin King

To Fix City Slums, Don't Just Knock Them Down: Involve Residents in Upgrading Efforts

India's Boom Pushed Cities to Their Limits. Here's How Pune Coped.

The Crisis in Affordable Housing Is a Problem for Cities Everywhere

Confronting the Urban Housing Gap

3 Challenges to Safe and Affordable Urban Housing

Demystifying Transit-Oriented Development

A Safe City is a Just City

4 Ways Cities Benefit from Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Surabaya: The Legacy of Participatory Upgrading of Informal Settlements

Guadalajara: Revisiting Public Space Interventions through the Via RecreActiva

Pune: Civil Society Coalitions, Policy Contradictions, and Unsteady Transformation

Porto Alegre: Participatory Budgeting and the Challenge of Sustaining Transformative Change

Confronting the Urban Housing Crisis in the Global South: Adequate, Secure, and Affordable Housing

Cities Safer by Design

Urban Design Recommendations for Healthier Cities, Fewer Traffic Fatalities

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