Elizabeth Gallardo is an urban planner, designer, and researcher living and working in Los Angeles. An LA native, Elizabeth’s work focuses on revitalization through existing infrastructures, placemaking, social engagement, cultural production, and sustainability.  Elizabeth’s planning practice aims to fulfill the desire to have a unique, special, and poetic experience in the world, while adhering to regenerative economic, social and environmental practices.

Guided by the sentiment that planners create mechanisms in society that enable and encourage values and practices through the physical environment, Elizabeth’s work has increasingly focused on Complete Streets and cultural engagement through the nexus of mobility and culture.  By engaging people in their everyday street environment, planners not only affect the immediate result of an enjoyable experience and a more healthy lifestyle, but provide a space for social and cultural development.

Elizabeth comes from a liberal arts background, focusing on cinema studies, studio art, and politics at Oberlin College.  Elizabeth has studied Landscape Architecture and has a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.  She currently works for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation as an Assistant Bicycle Coordinator, developing programs and projects related to Active Transportation, economic and community development, and public-private partnerships. Current projects include: Bicycle Friendly Business, Bicycle Friendly Business Districts, and the People St Program.  Elizabeth occasionally teaches in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Cal Poly Pomona.