Eugenie Birch, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Penn IUR, at the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected chair of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s World Urban Campaign, a global coalition of public, private and civil society partners acting to promote sustainable urbanization.

Birch was elected chair of the WUC at UN-HABITAT’s 7th World Urban Forum (WUF7), the world’s premier conference on cities, held in Medellin, Colombia April 5-11. Previously, Birch served as co-chair of the WUC for four years. Birch was elected to her new role as chair for a two-year term ending in 2016.

Over the next two years, under Birch’s leadership, the WUC will help to shape the WUF7’s Post-2015 Development Agenda, a conceptual framework that addresses the critical interplay of equity, inclusive growth and sustainable urban development while also addressing human rights, inequality and gender disparities. Birch will also steer the WUC as it helps prepare for the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in 2016, which aims to reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable urban development.

Eugenie Birch is the co-director of Penn IUR and the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Education in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. A University-wide initiative, Penn IUR fosters excellence in urban research, instruction and civic engagement and works to enhance the field of urban-focused knowledge through a commitment to cit¬ies on a local and global scale. Penn IUR advances urban scholarship, develops methodological tools for urban research, and applies research to public policy.

The World Urban Forum is organized by UN-HABITAT, a United Nations agency that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. WUF is held every two years to bring together leaders from government, NGOs, research and the private sector to help solve problems of urban sustainability. The World Urban Campaign was launched in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2010, at UN-HABITAT’s 5th World Urban Forum.

Read the original release on the Penn IUR page here.