Rate My Professor Pamela Robinson

Dr. Pamela Robinson, MCIP, RPP, FCIP, is a Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she holds additional roles as Interim Academic Director of city building TMU, and Interim Director, Professor, and Director of the Civic Sandbox. She earned a BAH, an MPL, and a PhD in Geography from the University of Toronto. As a registered professional planner with over 30 years of experience, Robinson's career has focused on complex emergent challenges facing Canadian communities. Initially concentrating on cities and climate change, her work has evolved to explore how new technologies influence planning and community design. Her current research investigates who is planning the Canadian smart city.

Robinson's academic interests encompass smart cities, platform urbanism, artificial intelligence in planning, urban sustainability, cities and climate change, open data, civic technology, open government, public engagement, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Notable publications include co-editing the book The Future of Open Data (2022); chapters such as 'Local Government Response to Climate Change: Our Last, Best Hope' in Changing Climates in North American Politics (2009, with Christopher Gore) and 'Beyond A Technical Response' in Planning for Climate Change; articles including 'Civic Hackathons: Innovation, Procurement, or Civic Engagement?' (Review of Policy Research, 2014), 'Pandemic-Driven Technology Adoption: Public Decision Makers Need to Tread Cautiously' (2021), 'Who Is Planning the Smart City?' (2023), and 'Strava Metro Data as an Urban Planning Input' (2025). She received the 2020 Inaugural Canadian Institute of Planners President’s Award: Academic and was inducted into the CIP College of Fellows. Robinson advises the Toronto Public Library’s Innovation Council, serves on the Metcalf Foundation Board of Directors, and contributes articles to Spacing Magazine. In teaching, she emphasizes land use planning, environmental design, planners' relationships with the public, and community-based learning to bridge theory and practice.