Gabriella Carolini

Gabriella Carolini was a 2020 principal investigator in the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT and currently associate professor of urban planning and international development in the department of urban studies and planning, where she leads the City Infrastructure Equity Lab.

Her teaching and research focus on equity in the governance and planning of infrastructure development across urban communities in the Americas and Africa, particularly in the water and sanitation arena. Alongside her colleague in the department of urban studies and planning, Lawrence Susskind, Gabriella leads the J-WAFS-funded 'Enhancing water affordability' project which researches the nature of water poverty in US cities, explores solutions to the crisis, examines potential local-level policy responses and explores how federal programming might support utilities and households in need.

Her work on urban infrastructure and international development has been published as a book, 'Equity, evaluation and international cooperation', with Oxford University Press (2022), and her articles can be found in leading journals, including Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, Journal of the American Planning Association, The Lancet, and the American Journal of Public Health, among others.