Yingling Fan

Professor Yingling Fan is a faculty member in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, serving as Associate Dean for Faculty. She leads faculty recruitment strategies and represents the School in university-wide initiatives. Her research focuses on urban land use, transportation planning, and the intersection of planning with health equity, emphasizing public transit, emotional well-being, and community-engaged equity research. Fan holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS from Southeast University.

She has directed over 40 research projects totaling $20 million in funding and authored over 100 publications. Her editorial roles include Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Transport and Land Use and Managing Editor of Urban Studies. As an entrepreneur, she co-founded Daynamica, Inc., developing smartphone-based systems for behavioral and well-being data collection, securing a US patent (#9763055B2) in 2017.

Fan leads the Global Transit Innovation (GTI) program, fostering international collaboration in transportation planning, and chairs the Global Planning Education Committee at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. Her work has been featured in Time Magazine, National Geographic, and The Atlantic, highlighting contributions to transportation equity and urban well-being.