As the Land Use and Health Program Manager, Deja advances equitable, health-promoting land use policies. She partners with environmental and community stakeholders to advocate for equitable development and supports grant management to grow the program’s impact. Deja brings a strong urban planning and health lens to her work, ensuring environmental health is embedded in policy and redevelopment decisions. Deja holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in Human Biology and Anthropology from the University of Southern California. Before joining PSR-LA full-time, she completed a competitive fellowship supporting the organization’s TIERRA project, focusing on brownfield redevelopment and remediation research during her graduate studies. One of her favorite things about this role is that she gets to be part of creating fun and meaningful ways to engage communities in the design and development of their neighborhoods. 

She was originally introduced to PSR-LA through a previous professor who organized with various organizations to shut down the Allenco oil drilling site in South LA. While working in the health field, she became more interested in the built environment and its impacts on community health and attended a few PSR community engagement events to become more familiar with the work. She was inspired to pursue a master’s degree in urban planning and was awarded a fellowship to work with PSR-LA for a year on the TIERRA project, with a focus on brownfield redevelopment and remediation research. This led to the development of a final capstone project she is very proud of, titled “Barriers to Implementing Alternative Remediation Strategies in Los Angeles’ Brownfields.”

In her free time, Deja likes to spend time with friends and family and enjoy the outdoors. She loves hiking and going to the beach when it’s warm out.