Two Minutes

An immigrant and a planner

The combination of conflict and accommodation evolving in Iowa towns with increasing Latino populations brought Gerardo Sandoval to Iowa State. And he certainly has the credentials to understand and evaluate the issues: Sandoval is both an immigrant and a planner.

His family moved to the U.S. from Guatemala when Sandoval was 6, settling in a tough but vibrant Los Angeles immigrant neighborhood. He kept his head down, focused on school and eventually earned a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Launch pad: In August, Sandoval joined the ISU community and regional planning faculty. It's the perfect launch pad for research and teaching about his passion: the revitalization of immigrant low-income communities.

Adapting together: For his dissertation, Sandoval studied a large-scale redevelopment project in Los Angeles, looking at how the immigrant community was able to take advantage of top-down revitalization, which often undermines low-income minority communities. He found the city institutions that adapted to and co-evolved with immigrant communities saw some real improvements. "Here in Iowa, I'm curious as to what I will uncover."

-- Teddi Barron