AJ Kim is an Associate Professor of City Planning in the School Public Affairs at San Diego State University. Dr. Kim’s research is focused on immigrant participation in the informal economy and ethnic labor markets, as well as problems of community development and urban inequality more broadly. They have partnered with Los Angeles and Atlanta area municipalities and NGOs on planning for immigrant integration, with a focus on the experiences of undocumented/unauthorized Asian, African, and Latinx immigrants and refugees. They have degrees in Gender and Feminist Studies (BA), Ethnic Studies (MA) and Urban Planning (UCLA, PhD). Their research has received grant awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Studies Association, GT Center for Urban Innovation, UC Center for New Racial Studies, and the UCLA and Berkeley Institutes for Research on Labor and Employment. Professor AJ Kim's studio research on demographic change and immigration in the Atlanta metro area has also received awards from the Georgia Planning Association (2017) and the Dale Foundation Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning (2018). Their book on issues of localized conflict, uneven "integration" and the emergence and growth of major immigrant destinations in suburban and urban places, is forthcoming.