Linda Shi’s research concerns how to plan for urban climate adaptation in ways that improve environmental sustainability and social justice. She studies how aspects of urban land governance — including the fiscalization of land use, property rights regimes, and metropolitan regional institutions — shape climate vulnerability and adaptation responses. An urban environmental planner by training, Shi has worked for AECOM, the Institute for International Urban Development, and the Rocky Mountain Institute and consulted for the World Bank and American Institute of Architects on projects and research in the U.S., Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Shi received a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, a master’s in urban planning from Harvard GSD, and a bachelor’s and master’s in environmental management from Yale University.

As a 2020–21 Global Public Voices fellow, she collaborated with Colleen Chiu-Shee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).