Carrie Mitchell (She/Her)

Carrie Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Environment, where she has held a tenured position since 2019. Her research spans urban planning, governance, and resilience, with a growing focus on how AI-assisted technologies can generate evidence for more equitable and safer cities. She brings a genuinely international perspective to this work, with research experience across Canada, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand and India.

Before joining Waterloo, Mitchell spent five years as a Senior Program Officer at the International Development Research Centre, where she managed over CAD $10 million in research funding across South and Southeast Asia. She holds a Masters of Science in Planning and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Toronto, where her doctoral research examined the informal waste-recovery industry in Hanoi in the context of rapid urban change.

Mitchell's scholarship has earned significant recognition, including over 250 citations for her 2019 World Development article critically examining how equity is operationalized within the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Her co-authored piece on urban resilience implementation (Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2018) has become a widely cited reference in both academic and policy circles. She is a Fellow of the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a member of the Water Institute and Waterloo Climate Institute.

Her current research program integrates AI-assisted sensor technology with questions of urban governance and public safety. She is the principal investigator of CIVIC, a project funded by the University of Waterloo's Global Futures Fund, that deploys AI sensors to monitor and analyze neighbourhood street activity, with the aim of generating community-level evidence to support safer, more equitable urban mobility.

An engaged public scholar, Mitchell has translated her research into accessible public discourse through media appearances on CBC, CTV, and Global News, as well as op-eds in The Globe and Mail, most recently on road safety, automated speed enforcement, and children's wellbeing in urban spaces. She is the founder of the Wortley Village Lab and interim President of the Old South Community Organization and has presented her research to municipal councils and national audiences alike.

Mitchell was recognized with the University of Waterloo Faculty of Environment Teaching Award in 2024 for her evidence-based approaches to pedagogy, including her work as Principal Investigator of WiSER@Waterloo, an initiative examining student wellbeing and belonging in higher education.

• urban resilience

• climate adaptation

• urban governance

• equity and planning

• road safety

• AI-assisted sensing

• community evidence

• science-policy interfaces

• cities and sustainability

Carrie Mitchell's research examines how cities govern themselves in the face of uncertainty, with a particular focus on how evidence is produced, interpreted, and used (or ignored) in urban planning and policy. Her work sits at the intersection of urban resilience, climate adaptation, and governance, asking not just whether cities can adapt, but whether they do so equitably. Her most cited work critically examines how resilience frameworks, despite their widespread adoption in global urban policy, often depoliticize inequality and sidestep structural questions of justice. This line of inquiry spans Canadian cities and Global South contexts and engages with questions of institutional design, science-policy interfaces, and the conditions under which adaptation knowledge actually shapes decisions.

More recently, Mitchell's research has taken a technological turn, examining how AI-assisted sensing can generate new forms of community-level evidence about urban environments. Through the CIVIC project, she is deploying AI sensors to monitor neighbourhood street activity, with a particular focus on road safety and vulnerable road users. This work builds directly on her longstanding interest in infrastructure and urban service delivery.

Across these threads, Mitchell's research is animated by a consistent concern: that the gap between what is known and what gets done in cities is not merely a technical problem, but a political and institutional one. Her work seeks both to understand that gap and to close it.

• 2008, Doctorate, Human Geography, University of Toronto, Canada

• 2003, Master of Science in Planning, University of Toronto, Canada

• 2000, Honours Bachelor of Arts, University of Guelph, Canada

• 2024 Faculty Teaching Award, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

• 2023-2025 Associate Director, Undergraduate Studies, School of Planning, University of Waterloo

• Interim President, Old South Community Organization, London, Ontario

• PLAN 102 - Professional Communication
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• PLAN 350 - Research Methods for Planners
  • Taught in 2026
• PLAN 440 - Urban Services Planning
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• 1. J Ventura, G Oulahen, C Nguyen, CL Mitchell, D Henstra, J Thistlethwaite. (2024). Flood adaptation policyalignment with resident perceptions of resilience in Vancouver, British Columbia. Journal of EnvironmentalPlanning and Management. 76(1): 1-19.PublishedRefereed?: Yes, Open Access?: NoContribution Percentage: 0-102. Greg Oulahen, Christopher Randall, Calvin Nguyen, Carrie Mitchell. (2024). Public perceptions of resilienceand vulnerability concepts for adaptation. The Professional Geographer. 76(1): 13-23.PublishedRefereed?: Yes, Open Access?: NoContribution Percentage: 11-203. Joanne Fitzgibbons & Carrie L. Mitchell. (2021). Inclusive resilience: Examining a case study of equitycentred strategic planning in Toronto, Canada. Cities. 108(January 21)PublishedRefereed?: Yes, Open Access?: NoContribution Percentage: 41-504. Zack Taylor, Joanne Fitzgibbons, Carrie L Mitchell. (2021). Finding the future in policy discourse: Ananalysis of city resilience plans. Regional Studies. 55(5): 831-843.PublishedRefereed?: Yes, Open Access?: NoContribution Percentage: 21-305. Mitchell, C. L., & Graham, A. (2020). Evidence-Based Advocacy for Municipal Climate Change Action.Journal of Planning Education and Research. 40(1): 31-43.PublishedRefereed?: Yes, Open Access?: NoContribution Percentage: 71-80

• ‘New, bigger signs’ to curb speeding arrive in Waterloo Region [Television interview]
• Choosing safety over speed. (Story features C. Mitchell).
• CTV News Kitchener – interview on City of Waterloo’s proactive traffic safety plan [Television interview]
• How will drivers behave with speed cameras unplugged? Hamilton Spectator. (Story features C. Mitchell’s research on the impacts of the ASE ban).
• CTV News Kitchener – interview on Ontario’s speed camera ban and regional road safety impacts [Television interview]
• Afternoon Drive with Matt Allen – interview on the ASE ban and ongoing research [Radio interview]. CBC Radio London.
• All in a Day with Alan Neal – interview on the ASE ban and ongoing research [Radio interview]. CBC Radio Ottawa.
• Up North with Jonathan Pinto – interview on the ASE ban and ongoing research [Radio interview]. CBC Radio Sudbury.
• Global News at 6 – segment on Ontario’s automated speed enforcement ban and public safety [Television segment]. Global News Toronto.
• Despite Ontario’s ban, the speed cameras are still watching you. The Toronto Star. (Features C. Mitchell)
• Eulogy for a speed camera: As Ontario’s ban begins, an ode to the oft-felled Parkside Drive sentry. The Toronto Star. (Features C. Mitchell)
• UW associate prof starts petition calling on province to reverse course on speed cameras ban [Radio interview]. CBC The Morning Edition – Kitchener-Waterloo. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
• Speed Cameras Save Lives Petition [Television segment]. Rogers TV Community News – Waterloo Region.
• Children’s safety matters more than shaving a few seconds off someone’s commute [Radio interview]. QR Calgary with Andrew Schultz. Corus Entertainment.
• Counting cars using AI on a busy London street [Radio interview]. CBC London Morning with Andrew Brown. CBC London
• London neighbours set up AI cameras to prove this Old South intersection is dangerous [News article featuring C. Mitchell]. CBC London
• Children’s safety matters more than shaving a few seconds off someone’s commute. The Globe and Mail [Opinion Editorial]