Lizzie Yarina is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, and a research fellow in the MIT Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism. Her work explores the spatial politics of design and planning in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the role of models in adapting to climate change within Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, supported by a Fulbright-Hays DDRA grant. Previously she was a researcher at the MIT Urban Risk Lab, a teaching fellow with MIT-SUTD, and a Fulbright New Zealand graduate student research fellow. In 2016 she completed a joint Masters in Architecture and City Planning at MIT, and she holds a Bachelors of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan. Lizzie has practiced as an architectural designer at William Rawn Architects and PLY Architecture.