THINK.urban is made up of recent Portland State University graduates in Urban Studies katrina johnston and tiffany conklin, and current PhD student allison duncan, and make up the current executive committee. We bring a range of experience in urban design research, landscape architecture, urban ecology, public space, and social science, combining academic rigor with creative expression.

allison.duncan | allison@thinkurban.org

Allison is a PhD student in urban studies at Portland State University focusing on active transportation and public space.  She received her MLA from the University of Arizona and has worked on a broad assortment of project types including Master Planned Communities, cemeteries, and shopping centers as well as numerous native plant preservation projects.  Currently she is working on a project on Complete Streets in conjunction with the National Complete Streets Coalition.  When not doing urban design work, she loves to ride her bike or do agility with her dogs.  She dreams of traveling to Madagascar.

katrina.johnston | katrina@thinkurban.org

Katrina has a masters of urban studies at Portland State University with a focus in public space. For her thesis she conducted a spatial ethnography of the Urban Center Plaza on the university’s campus analyzing social and travel behavior in the space. Before moving to Portland for her degree, she was finishing a BA in Anthropology and working on a research project at Arizona State University involving open space in ancient and contemporary cities around the world. Her major interests are human behavior in space, urban design, and quality of life through the built environment. Her biggest regret is that William H. Whyte wasn’t her grandfather (no offense, Pop-pop). In her spare time she likes to paint and if she could live in any city it would be Copenhagen (though Portland is a close second).

tiffany.conklin | tconklin@pdx.edu

With over 10 years of research experience, Tiffany specializes in the management and implementation of qualitative and quantitative research projects. She works at Portland State University Survey Research Lab collecting data for a variety of state and local governments, universities, and agencies.  Tiffany completed her masters in urban studies at PSU, focusing on the presence, acceptability, and regulation of artistic expression in public space. She started PDX Street Art Advocacy, a grassroots organization that helps people creatively activate the empty spaces around them and strives to make the process of creating authorized street art in public spaces a more collaborative and open process between artists, communities, and cities.