9 Jun 2025
As assistant director for academic programs for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Lorena Tover connects with and supports both faculty and students.
Lorena Tovar is an assistant director for academic programs for the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), where she runs the Master in City Planning (MCP) program. A longtime employee of MIT, she has gained a great breadth of institutional knowledge and values in the course of making connections with and supporting both faculty and students.
Tovar joined DUSP in April 2024, but she has been an employee of the Institute for almost 15 years. She worked in the Office of Minority Education (OME) and the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center before leaving MIT for a couple years after becoming a parent. When she returned to MIT, she came across a project coordinator role at the Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) at the MIT Media Lab — a part of the Institute she had always been curious about. Tovar likens the environment at CCC to that of a startup, which made her time in a research center very different from her previous jobs working directly with students. CCC, she says, was an “all-hands-on-deck” environment where she worked on projects with external community members, a nonprofit partner, and CCC researchers and practitioners. This role was very different from her previous, and current, positions.
When Tovar saw that DUSP was hiring for a student-focused job, she applied, excited about the opportunity to connect with students, something that she missed while working at CCC. While she had previously worked with students, working in an academic department and overseeing a degree program means she now works with them in a different capacity.
A master’s in city planning provides students with the skills and specialized knowledge needed to fill traditional and emerging planning roles. At DUSP, a combination of social sciences, technology, and policy come together to enable students to support the development of cities in addition to making them more equitable. Within DUSP there are four different program groups (city design and development; housing, community, and economic development; international development; and environmental policy and planning) in addition to labs. Tovar refers to her position as “the front line for students” throughout their time in the two-year professional degree program. Currently, this means supporting about 135 students in their first or second year of the degree. She also works closely with faculty as the bridge between them and their students. This important connection has various aspects such as working with academic advisors to ensure students are excelling academically, and connecting students to proper resources and faculty members on campus as needed. Additionally, Tovar serves on the MCP Committee, which is responsible for overseeing and guiding various aspects of the MCP program, including academic policies, program requirements, admissions, and student progress.
Soundbytes
Q: What project that you worked on are you the proudest of?
A: During the historic Boston mayoral election of 2021, when I was working at the Media Lab, CCC created a civic initiative called Real Talk for Change Boston. I co-led the project management for the initiative, which had the goal of using technology to elevate storytelling from often-underheard voices. We worked with community leaders across Boston on social issues that residents face every day, which was especially important as we were just coming out of the pandemic. It was really cool to work with the professors and researchers in CCC as well as the community leaders. The conversations were powerful, and the goal was to get some of these voices in front of the actual mayoral candidates. Real Talk Fellows used human-led AI tools developed at CCC to review over 3,000 minutes of conversation for themes. This analysis was published and made available to the public and shared at a forum where highlights of these conversations were played for the candidates. The experience of working so closely with the community leaders in Boston shaped my personal interest in getting more involved in my own local community. It was really cool and inspiring to see an idea go from a spark in someone’s head to something real and impactful, and to be part of the collaboration, hard work, and heart that went into making it happen was a great experience.
Q: What do you like the most about the MIT community?
A: I came back to MIT because I missed the sense of everybody working toward a shared goal. Even though I’ve worked in different offices, each one has this sort of lens of caring for the world, making the world better, and making the community better as a whole. The positions I’ve held since returning to MIT really reflect my personal interest of tackling social challenges and using technology to elevate underheard voices. I really appreciate the community’s curiosity and openness.
Q: What advice would you give to a new staff member at MIT?
A: Don't be afraid to engage, ask questions, and find the things that you are interested in working on. There is an opportunity for employees to discover what their personal interests are and make it their job. Social justice is important to me, so I look for roles that align with that value. While my current role doesn’t focus on it directly, it’s been great to work alongside students and faculty who are doing impactful work to improve communities both locally and globally. I recently ran into someone that I met when we were both new at MIT. At the time, we were both in administrative, junior roles and the other person had an interest in communications. Today, they are a director of communications. Bringing your personal experiences and interests to your job can go a long way.
[Image]
Lorena Tovar joined the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning in April 2024, but she has been an employee of the Institute for almost 15 years.