Lesli Hoey is director of the urban and regional planning doctoral studies program and an associate professor of urban and regional planning. She teaches graduate courses in food systems policy and planning, international planning in low-income countries, and program evaluation methods. She uses food systems as a lens to study the socio-political and institutional factors that mediate the ability of citizen planners and professional planners to achieve a more equitable, sustainable and healthy society. She is particularly interested in the intersection of food policy advocacy, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Her current projects examine collaborative initiatives aiming to improve healthy food access and local food economies in Michigan; factors in rapidly urbanizing metropolitan areas influencing Bolivia’s dual burden - the persistence of undernutrition alongside the rise in obesity; and strategies for leveraging existing data and insights into the policy process to enhance the sustainability of diets in Kenya and Vietnam