Rate My Professor Jane Rongerude

Jane Rongerude is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University of Science and Technology, within the College of Design. She earned a PhD and Master of City Planning (MCP) in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Environmental Studies with a minor in Community Development from Portland State University. As faculty since 2010, she teaches courses on planning theory, housing, neighborhood planning and revitalization, and social justice and planning. Her research examines the role of housing within urban systems of poverty management, focusing on institutional and spatial arrangements that disperse, shift, and reform poverty across urban landscapes. She has built expertise in housing stability, housing policy, homelessness, neighborhood revitalization, and community development.

Rongerude's current work investigates housing instability through the lens of residential rental property owners' (RRPOs) decisions affecting rental housing outcomes, including owner characteristics, portfolios, and responses to disasters and market shocks. Key projects include the NSF-funded initiative 'Keeping Shelters in Place: Understanding the Relationship between Residential Landlord Decision-Making and Post-Disaster Housing Security' (grant #2139816), which analyzes data from nine U.S. cities to inform disaster preparedness. She also contributes to inclusive planning efforts, such as strengthening stormwater infrastructure in marginalized communities via social justice indicators and enhancing climate justice through community engagement. Rongerude received the Iowa State University College of Design Faculty/Staff Research Award and was elected president of Inclusion, the LGBTQIA+ interest group of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), with a two-year term. She serves as ACSP Vice President/President-Elect (2025-2027). Notable publications include 'Rental Registries and the Business of Providing a Home' (Journal of the American Planning Association, 2025), 'Providing Rental Housing: A Systematic Literature Review of Residential Rental Property Owner Decision Making' (Journal of Planning Literature, 2024), 'Barriers to Postdisaster Housing Reconstruction: Issues of Place and Power Mismatch' (Natural Hazards Review, 2023), and 'Best Practices for Online Team-Based Learning: Strengthening Teams through Formative Peer Evaluation' (2021). Her scholarship advances equitable planning practices and teaching innovations, including bias mitigation in peer evaluations.