Age Friendly Cities and Communities Working Group
Led by Shengxiao (Alex) Li and Mei Fang (Simon Fraser University), the Age Friendly Cities and Communities Working Group is one of the working groups within the Sustainable Cities and Landscape Initiative, initiated by the University of Oregon.
As an interdisciplinary and international knowledge-sharing platform, the working group brings together more than twenty scholars at different career stages and from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including urban planning, geography, public health, gerontology, and social work. Our members are based across North America, Europe, and Asia.
The working group examines the challenges of urban aging faced by cities and communities in aging societies and proposes context-based, sustainable solutions. We also promote education and collaboration to support the next generation of leaders in advancing inclusive, age-friendly planning.
Under the leadership of Alex and Mei, the working group has fostered interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars in age-friendly planning and facilitated a variety of academic activities. For example, Alex and Mei have recently served as guest editors for two special issues in leading journals in urban planning and public health.
The working group holds an annual meeting as one of its core activities. In the summers of 2025 and 2026, we successfully organized two online meetings. In 2027, we plan to host our first hybrid meeting in Singapore in conjunction with the SCL Conference. Stay tuned for more details!
If you are interested in joining the working group or participating in the annual meeting, please feel free to contact Alex and Mei (mei_fang@sfu.ca).
Active members
Take a look at our active members here:
- Samantha Biglieri, Associate Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
- Tine Buffel, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology, University of Manchester, UK
- Alan DeLaTorre, Senior Council Aide to Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, City of Portland; Commissioner, Governor's Commission on Senior Services in Oregon, USA
- Beatriz Fernandez, Associate Professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
- Sally Fowler Davis, Professor in Allied Health, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
- Maxwell Hartt, Department of Geography and Planning, Queen's University, Canada
- Andy Hong, Assistant Professor, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, USA
- Matthew S. Kaplan, Professor in Intergenerational Programs and Aging, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, USA
- Emi Kiyota, Associate Professor in Practice in Architecture, Director of the Centre for Environment and Ageing Well, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Anthony Kupferschmidt, the Seniors Advisory Committee, City of Vancouver, Canada
- Leslie R. Lewis, Continuing Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning; Director, Urban Health and Equity Initiatives; Co-Director, Life Course Scholar Program, University of California San Diego, USA
- Atiya Mahmood, Professor, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University, Canada
- Kar Him Mo, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies Programme, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Izzy Yi Jian, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Joshua Newton, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Homelessness Hub, University of California San Diego, USA
- Bo Qin, Professor in School of Public Administration, Renmin University of China, China
- Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell, Teaching Professor and Chair, Department of Urban Studies and Planning; Faculty Director, Homelessness Hub, University of California San Diego, USA
- Judith Sixsmith, Professor of Health Sciences, University of Dundee, UK
- Elise Stone, Research Assistant, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University, Canada
- Guibo Sun, Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Manchester, UK
- Mildred Warner, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, USA
- Ryan Woolrych, Professor in Ageing and Urban Studies and Director of the Institute for Place, Environment and Society, Heriot-Watt University, UK
- Rebecca White, PhD Candidate, Science and Technology for Aging Research Institute, Simon Fraser University, Canada
- Fei Sun, Professor, School of Social Work, Michigan State University, USA