Two IOC Affiliates Receive Urban Affairs Association Awards

Two Initiative on Cities affiliates will receive awards from the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). IOC Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Kenton Card and Derek Hyra of the IOC External Advisory Board have been recognized for their achievements in urban research and activism.

Dr. Card is a filmmaker, teacher, and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Initiative on Cities at Boston University. He completed his PhD in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs in 2023 and has worked at the Initiative on Cities since September 2023. Dr. Card was awarded the 2024 Janet Smith Emerging Activist Scholar Research Award, sponsored by the Voorhees Family and Individual Donors. The committee applauded Dr. Card’s “ethos of an activist-scholar in his focus on developing ‘projects with frontline communities directly experiencing housing precarity’ and working ‘toward materializing their self-determination in projects and policy.’”

Derek Hyra is a Professor of Public Administration and Policy and the Founding Director of the Metropolitan Policy Center at American University. He has been awarded the 2024 Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award, co-sponsored by SAGE Publishing and the UAA. The committee commended Hyra’s extensive work on housing, race, and urban policy that “exemplifies the integration of activism, scholarship, and community engagement that distinguishes this award.”

IOC Faculty Director Loretta Lees, the 2022 recipient of the Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award,

Congratulations, Dr. Card and Professor Hyra!