Rachel Kleit promoted to associate dean
Professor Rachel Garshick Kleit, head of the City and Regional Planning Section at the Knowlton School of Architecture, has been named associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Engineering, effective March 1.
In her new role, Kleit will report to Dean David B. Williams and manage recruitment, retention and advancement of engineering faculty. In collaboration with college leadership, she will develop and implement academic policies and procedures. Until September 1, she will split time between her new administrative position and current role in the Knowlton School to assist with transition.
Kleit came to The Ohio State University in 2012 from the University of Washington, where she was associate professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and adjunct associate professor of urban design and planning.
“Rachel’s penchant for interdisciplinary collaboration, so evident in her teaching and research, aligns perfectly with the growth and direction of the college,” remarked Williams. “She is a planner and problem-solver at heart, and I very much look forward to planning and implementing the future of the college with her.”
Currently with 305 tenure track faculty members, the college intends to increase that number to 340 in the next few years, with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
Kleit’s research interests include housing mobility and location choice, affordable housing policy, housing as a poverty alleviation strategy, equity impacts of economic development, and urban and regional disparity. She teaches courses on affordable housing policy, metropolitan policy, social equity, and advanced planning theory. Kleit is an occasional guest on WOSU’s On the Record, engaging in discussions around economic inequality in Columbus and the city's recent Smart City Challenge win.
Kleit holds a BA cum laude in History with highest honors from Brandeis University, an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also received a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Urban Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship to support research on the New Holly HOPE VI site in Seattle.
