This summer, SPUR hosted a talented group of policy researchers through partnerships with fellowship and practicum programs at high schools, colleges, and graduate programs. Learn more about the work they’ve done with SPUR and where they’re headed after collaborating with us.
Leo Biehl worked on housing policy with Erika McLitus, SPUR’s housing and planning policy manager, under the Gordon Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. His research analyzed the impacts of the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482) on the housing markets of San Francisco, Oakland, and San José, contributing to SPUR’s work on tenant protections and housing affordability. In the coming year, Leo will pursue a Fulbright Grant in Austria, where he will study Vienna’s social housing system.
Rohan Lalla is pursuing a master’s degree in city planning at UC Berkeley with a concentration in housing, community, and economic development. He joined SPUR’s Sustainability and Resilience team this summer to provide research support on two projects. The first considered how municipalities could finance meaningful resilience projects at the local level, and the second investigated the relationship between code compliance and upfront housing construction costs, with a focus on energy efficiency mandates. He’s now a graduate student researcher in the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s green economy program.
Juliana Lamm-Perez worked on SPUR’s Transportation and Housing teams through a summer fellowship from Stanford University’s Public Policy Program. With Laura Tolkoff, SPUR’s transportation policy director, she researched the appropriation of flexible federal highway funds for transit in California’s largest metropolitan areas. She also collaborated with Sebastian Petty, SPUR’s senior transportation policy advisor, and fellow intern Julian Rapaport on an article about the regional nature of Bay Area transit. She supported Annie Fryman, SPUR’s director of special projects, on various projects related to San Francisco’s new housing element rezoning. She will complete her master’s degree in public policy from Stanford University this year.
Eva Levenson was a CORO Exploring Leadership fellow at SPUR, where she worked with Maeve Skelly, SPUR’s governance and economy policy manager, to learn more about career pathways and job opportunities in government. She compiled data on the Bay Area’s many governance entities for a forthcoming article in The Urbanist, our annual magazine. Now in her senior year at Berkeley High School, Eva was recently appointed to the board of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville.
Anokhi Mehta worked with Maeve Skelly, SPUR’s governance and economy policy manager, and Nicole Neditch, SPUR's governance and economy policy director, as a summer research intern. Anokhi researched city charter reform processes in cities around the country to inform SPUR's forthcoming policy recommendations for San Francisco and Oakland. She’s now in her sophomore year at Barnard College.
Julian Rapaport worked with Annie Fryman, SPUR’s director of special projects, through the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program at the University of Chicago. He researched San Francisco’s rezoning effort and its potential impacts on traffic and public transit use. With fellow intern Juliana Lamm-Perez, he examined the commuting patterns of transit riders in the Bay Area in conjunction with transit funding efforts. This fall he will return for his third year at UChicago, where he’s majoring in public policy and urban studies.
Sahil Srivastava began working with Laura Tolkoff, SPUR’s transportation policy director, in late 2024. As part of the transportation policy team, he contributed to legislative advocacy by collecting traffic safety data for California congressional districts. He supported the team’s communications efforts by updating records for elected officials and community partners. Now in his senior year at Palo Alto High School, Sahil plans to major in urban planning in college.