Dr. Arthi Rao

Biography

Arthi Rao is a Part-Time Lecturer at the School of City & Regional Planning and a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at Georgia Tech. She specializes in Health and Environment, with a consistent focus on social determinants of health, healthcare access, and the development of healthy communities. Rao has an interdisciplinary educational and professional background in Urban Planning, Epidemiology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Her research interests include the application of spatial methods such as spatial clustering and data mining/classification techniques, as well as hierarchical modeling. She utilizes integrated methods to create decision-support tools for both academic and industrial applications. Rao frequently collaborates with researchers at Morehouse School of Medicine and serves as a subject matter expert for the American Planning Association, focusing on healthy communities research utilizing geospatial methods. Her published work spans topics such as Health Impact Assessment (HIA), sustainability, walkability analysis, and regional planning, highlighting her contributions to therapeutic landscapes. Additionally, she teaches courses such as "Public Health and the Built Environment" and "Public Health Analytics" at Georgia Tech.

Research Interests

Courses