Housing Reform and Discrimination

PITTSBURGH—Margery Austin Turner, a leading expert on urban policy and neighborhood issues, will launch the 2013 Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Speaker Series at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Race and Social Problems with a free public lecture at noon Sept. 12, titled “A Glass Half Full? Discrimination Against Minority Homeseekers.” 

Turner, senior vice president for program planning and management at the Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute, will speak at Pitt’s School of Social Work Conference Center, 20th floor, Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Registration is not required; lunch will be provided. Call 412-624-7382 or visit www.crsp.pitt.edu for more information.

In her position at the Urban Institute, Turner leads efforts to conduct a forward-looking agenda of urban policy research. She has analyzed issues of racial and ethnic discrimination and their contributions to neighborhood segregation and inequality. Turner has coauthored a book, Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation (Urban Institute Press, 2008), which looks at measures that have been taken during the past 20 years to improve distressed public housing communities and whether and how those policies can simultaneously address the problems of poverty and racial segregation.

From 1993-1996, Turner served the federal government as deputy assistant secretary for research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where she focused the agency’s research on the problems of racial discrimination, concentrated poverty, and economic opportunity in America’s major metropolitan areas. 

The Center on Race and Social Problems’ annual Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Speaker Series provides an opportunity for faculty, staff, students, and members of the community to engage in race-related discussions of mutual interest.

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