Seema D. Iyer PhD is associate director and research professor for the Jacob France Institute (JFI) in the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business. Dr. Iyer oversees the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance at JFI, which is also part of the Urban Institute’s National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership of sites that provide longitudinal, community based data on demographics, housing, crime, education and sustainability. Her research focuses on the role of planning and data sharing in community empowerment and collaborative public innovation processes. From 2016-2017, she served as a consultant to the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Information Technology on the city’s Open Data program.
Academically, Dr. Iyer is the director of the undergraduate program in Real Estate & Economic Development. She teaches courses on real estate principles and local economic development. In 2019, she helped launch UB’s Real Estate Fellows Pitch for a Million competition to create pathways for early-stage developers interested in working with stable, middle-market communities in Baltimore. She received the 2020 Dean’s award for Public Service and the 2021 USM Regents Award for Excellence in Public Service.
Prior to joining UB, Iyer served as Chief of Research & Strategic Planning for Baltimore City’s Planning Department. She holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She earned her MA in regional science and BA in mathematics and Russian studies from the University of Pennsylvania. See full profile here http://www.ubalt.edu/merrick/faculty/alpha-directory-faculty/iyer-seema.cfm