Adjunct Professor & Practitioner-in-Residence

2022-2023 Jay Pitter

Jay Pitter, MES, is an award-winning placemaker whose practice mitigates growing divides in cities across North America. She spearheads institutional city-building projects specializing in public space design and policy, forgotten densities, mobility equity, gender-responsive design, inclusive public engagement and healing fraught sites. In addition to leading a practice on the forefront of equitable urban planning, placemaking and policy development, Ms. Pitter is also transforming the urbanism canon. She has developed an equitable planning certificate course, which unconventionally

Photo of Jay Pitter
included local residents alongside graduate students with the University of Detroit’s Mercy School of Architecture; a women-in-city-building course with the University of Toronto;  and an Engaging Black People and Power course spurred by the murder of George Floyd. Ms. Pitter has also presented at MIT, Harvard and Princeton universities, among many others. She was recently the John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning at the University of Toronto; the Planner In-Residence at the University of Waterloo; and was recognized with the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Dean’s Teaching Award in 2021 at York University. She is currently the Visiting Fellow in Equitable City-Building, Windsor Law Centre for Cities, and an Adjunct Professor and Practitioner at the University of Waterloo.  

Selected Academic Courses

University of Waterloo--PLAN 403 (2020-2021)
University of Toronto−Geography and Planning (2019-2020)
Canadian Women and Cities PLA1149−GGR1149−GGR2149
MScPl, MA and PhD Reading Course
University of Detroit Mercy−School of Architecture (2019-2020)
Inclusive Placemaking and Planning for Equitable Cities MCD5200
Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson University)−School of Urban and Regional Planning (2017)
Multicultural Cities and Planning Policies PL8101
University of Guelph-Humber−Media Studies (2015)
Contemporary Narrative AHSS2030

Selected Academic Lectures 

Cornell University, Department of City and Regional Planning  09.10.2021
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Urban Planning Core Studio | 09.04.2020
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Collective Wisdom Symposium | 09.21.2018
Princeton University, Mellon Forum: The Geography of the Post-Pandemic City | 11.06.2020
Seneca College, The Green Citizen Conference | 10.28.2020
University of Alberta, City-Region Studies Centre | 11.16.2016
University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design | 10.15.2020
University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Commencement Keynote Speaker Class of 2021 | 
Windsor University, Windsor Law Centre for Cities | 09.22.2020