Larissa Larsen is an associate professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Program (URP) at the University of Michigan. She teaches graduate classes in environmental planning, land use planning, and physical planning and design. She regularly oversees graduate community-based capstone projects in Detroit neighborhoods. Larissa is the Physical Planning and Design Concentration Coordinator for the Master of Urban Planning Program. Larissa holds an appointment in the School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Larissa's research focuses on identifying environmental inequities in the built environment and advancing issues of urban sustainability and social justice. Some of her past research has examined urban heat islands, water consumption, and neighborhood mobilization against environmental problems. Most of her current work involves climate adaptation planning, stormwater management, and urban heat island studies. She frequently collaborates with Dr. Marie O’Neill in the School of Public Health to conduct urban heat vulnerability assessments and to test urban heat mitigation strategies.  In 2015, she began a green infrastructure planning project with Dr. Kumelachew at Addis Ababa Univeristy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and she returns each June with graduate students to advance their collaborative projects. Larissa is a member of the CAPHE project (Dr. Amy Schulz, School of Public Health) that is a community-based participatory research and planning effort to reduce air pollution in Detroit, Michigan.