Bio:
Dr. C. Scott Smith is a public health epidemiologist at the Cook County Department of Public Health, with expertise in geographic information systems (GIS), urban planning, and spatial analytics. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersection of transportation, public health, environmental hazards, and social equity. He has led numerous federally funded projects, applying advanced spatial modeling techniques to study multimodal accessibility, housing and employment patterns, and environmental riskscapes.
Dr. Smith has served as a Research Professor at Western Michigan University's Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities, where he investigated the distributive equity of U.S. bike-sharing systems, multimodal transit access, and novel approaches to advancing ADA compliance in public rights-of-way. Previously, he managed Arizona State University's Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis Lab, leading NSF-funded research for the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project. His research has been published in leading journals, including Public Health Reports, Research in Transportation Economics, Environmental Management, and Environment and Planning A.
He holds a PhD in Planning, Policy, and Design from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Environmental Planning and BS in Geography from Arizona State University. An AICP-certified planner, Dr. Smith has also worked in municipal and regional planning, serving as Transportation and Land Use Manager for the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference. He actively supports community initiatives in Oak Park, where he serves on the Village's Community Design Commission and administers waste-free programs at his son's school. An outdoor enthusiast, he enjoys bicycling and kayaking.