¶¡ÏãÔ°AV

Biography

Andy Yan is the director of the City Program at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Andy has worked extensively in the non-profit and private urban planning sectors, with projects in the metropolitan regions of Vancouver, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and New Orleans. He specializes in the fields of urban regeneration, applied demographics, Geographic Information Systems, neighbourhood development, public outreach, social media and quantitative research.

Andy holds a Master of Urban Planning from the University of California – Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours distinctions in geography and political science from ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV. He is a Registered Professional Planner and a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional.

In academic service, Andy is an associate professor of professional practice in urban studies at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV. He is currently a co-applicant and collaborator on three successful grants from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), as well as the 2022 Lambda Alpha International research grant.

In community service, he is a current member of the board of directors for the Planning Institute of British Columbia and the Jack Webster Foundation. He was also most recently a member of City of Burnaby’s Zero Emission Buildings Taskforce. He has served as an expert for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Housing Supply Challenge Program, and as a jurist for the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship and Real Estate Foundation of BC’s Land Awards.

Previously, he was a two-term appointee to the City of Vancouver City Planning Commission and a former member of the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board Advisory Panel. He was also a member of the board of directors for the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House.

Andy’s work has been featured in a number of local, national and international publications, both in print and online, as well as academic venues. Media outlets where Andy has appeared include BNN, BC Business, Business in Vancouver, the national and local editions of the Globe and Mail, the Georgia Straight, the Huffington Post, ²Ñ²¹³¦³¢±ð²¹²Ô’s, Ming Pao, North Shore News, the Province, Sing Tao, Squamish Chief, Surrey Now-Leader, the Tyee, the Vancouver Courier, Vancouver Magazine, the Vancouver Observer, the Vancouver Sun, Walrus Magazine and Yahoo News.

Internationally, he has been interviewed and cited by the Australian Financial Review, Bloomberg, the , the Financial Times (U.K.), the , , , Mother Jones, the , the New York Times, the , , the San Francisco Chronicle, theToronto Star, Vice magazine, the Washington Post and the .

He has also served as an expert witness on housing to the  and the .

Andy has received both the Planning Institute of British Columbia’s award for Leadership in Advocacy and Innovation and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Advocate for Architecture award. He was also the recipient of the 2018 ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV President's Media Newsmaker of the Year Award and 2022 ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Social Media Newsmaker of the Year. He has been listed as one of the 500 most influential business leaders in British Columbia by .

Some of his recent work includes:

Barer, J., Silberberg, L., and Yan, A. (2024).  Lambda Alpha International.

Chapple, K., Brown, J., Smit, A. and Yan, A. (2023). Up to the Task: How Universities Can Support Cities. in The State of Canada’s Cities Report: At the Crossroad Maximizing Possibilities. Canadian Urban Institute, p.24-28 

Yan, A. (2023). The Civic Arts in the City of Optimists. Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver. 

Census Making and City Building: Data Perspectives on the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots and the Development of Vancouver. In H. Tsang (Ed.),  Vancouver: Arsenal Press. p.149-165.

, Vancouver Sun, Feb 4, 2022.

You can follow Andy on Twitter at  and through the City Program at .