Dr. Lara-Valencia, faculty of the School of Planning and of the Southwest Borderland Initiative at ASU, is an urban planner who studies socio-environmental vulnerability, local development and urban growth along the U.S.-Mexico border. He received his doctorate in urban planning from the University of Michigan and did graduate (master's in regional development) and undergraduate work (bachelor's in economics) in Mexico. He worked for more than a decade in border universities in Mexico (COLEF, UABC, COLSON) and has been a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Fellow in the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California at San Diego, the University of Arizona, and the University of Texas in Austin. He has lectured in Mexico and the United States, where he has taught courses on urban land use planning, urban economics, environmental planning and research methods for planners.

Dr. Lara-Valencia's major areas of inquiry include socio-environmental vulnerability, urban health, regional development, binational planning and the role of community networks on sustainable development. His policy research focuses on issues of equity and efficiency of policy making in the Southwest and the impact of globalization and free trade in urban communities along the US-Mexico border.