Downtown Los Angeles Chancellor’s Society Regional Event

Financing the Future: The Economics of a Sustainable LA
Over the coming decades, environmental challenges could significantly disrupt the economy, human health, and quality of life in Los Angeles County. Professor DeShazo, an expert on economics, public finance, and organizational governance, will discuss the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge in the context of the financing alternatives and incentives to fund the individual and mass projects needed to make LA sustainable by 2050.

The Sustainable LA Grand Challenge is an ambitious research project through which UCLA has committed to developing a comprehensive plan by 2020 to transition Los Angeles by 2050 to fully sustainable. This means 100% renewable energy, 100% locally sourced water, and enhanced ecosystem and human health.

Visit the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge website to learn more about the initiative and to review the 5-Year Work Plan due in 2020.

About J.R. DeShazo

J.R. DeShazo is the Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California at Los Angeles. He also is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Public Policy in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, where he is an expert in economics, public finance, and organizational governance.

Dr. DeShazo holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Harvard University and a M.Sc. in Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

He was the Director of the Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at UCLA for 5 years (2004-2011). He was awarded Professor of the Year, Masters Program in Public Policy, UCLA in 2001, 2005, and 2007.

He received the Center for American Politics and Public Policy Fellowship at UCLA in 1999. He was a faculty associate at the Harvard Institute for International Development (1997-2000), where he was the Commencement Marshal at Harvard University in 1997, received the Harvard University Fellowship in 1992-1995, and was a Marshall Scholar Nominee in 1989.

Dr. DeShazo has published over 40 articles and has over 800 citations in Google Scholar. Dr. DeShazo’s recent research has focused on local public finance, regulatory reform, climate change policy, and solar energy policy. He advises the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Metropolitan Water District, and the Los Angeles Planning Department, among key agencies.