Dr. Zhixi Zhuang (MCIP, RPP) is a Registered Professional Planner, an Associate Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Academic Director of the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement. Her research explores the growing urban diversity in Canadian cities and how city-builders can instil the values of equity and inclusion into planning policies and practices. Specifically, she investigates the intersections of individual characteristics and the impacts on lived experiences in cities, and how diversity and differences shape places and communities. Her work focuses on the long-lasting marks of immigrant and racialized communities on urban and suburban landscapes, inscribing places with important cultural, historical, and political meanings. Her recent and ongoing research involves interdisciplinary projects examining the intersection of immigrant settlement, urban landscapes, and municipal policies, which has generated key peer-reviewed publications on topics such as building welcoming infrastructure to attract and retain migrants in non-traditional gateway cities, the influence of immigrant entrepreneurship on city building, ethnic place-making in ‘third places,’ migration and suburban transformation, and the role of municipal planning in immigrant settlement and integration.