Dr. Samina Raja is the Principal Investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Her research, teaching, and civic engagement focuses on the role of community-led local government planning and policy in building  equitable, sustainable, and healthy communities. Her current projects focus on using the food system as a lever and space for promoting food and health equity.

Her research is published in leading planning and health journals. She is the lead author of the Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning: Transforming Food Environments, Building Healthy Communities, one of the earliest guidance reports on food systems planning published  by the national American Planning Association. For additional publications, please visit the publications page.