Sue Peerson is a senior continuing lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning with over 30 years of planning experience. Her teaching and research bring together planning, law, urban design, and landscape architecture to a portfolio of public and private sector work. Peerson's experience in a large city agency and running her own consulting practice, demonstrates how to integrate physical plans within the political, social, and environmental context.

A recipient of UC San Diego’s Paul D. and Barbara J. Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award, she teaches urban design practicum, graphics & visual communication, site analysis, placemaking & the public realm, and advanced urban design. The key attributes of her teaching are engagement and practicality. Her courses include students working with an actual client, responding to the community values and real-world constraints at a project site. Her teaching promotes an inclusive, learning environment that welcomes students of all majors.

Peerson's teaching pedagogy was featured in a video produced by UC San Diego to showcase use of technology and how she uses interactive software to enhance learning in the classroom/studio.

She teaches a UC San Diego summer global seminar course International Urban Design Practicum in Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024, 2022) and previously in Weimar, Germany (2018).

She is a UC San Diego Changemaker Faculty Fellow and recipient of a Changemaker Faculty Fellows Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Grant for 2023-25. Her work supports CEL pedagogy and community engagement with a focus on placemaking and the public realm. Her research reconsiders the role of San Diego alleys for community and environmental change. Redesigning public spaces, even those spaces as small and interstitial as alleys, offers the potential to improve the quality of people’s lives. Alleys have thus far been largely untapped as usable shared public spaces. Yet, they have the potential to produce a lively, secondary public realm which can stimulate city life, create diverse and inclusive outdoor spaces, and contribute both social and ecological benefits. Working with community partners, everyone see how the transformation of alleyways can lead to direct public health benefits for all ages. Alleyways can be greener, friendlier, and more connected to the human fabric of our city.

In public service, appointed by two City of San Diego mayors, she served eight years on the City of San Diego Planning Commission (2012-2020). She draws upon my professional experience as a city planner, appointed official, and landscape architect to address our greatest urban challenges.

Peerson has achieved the planning profession’s highest honor by being named to the prestigious American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) College of Fellows (FAICP) FAICP College of Fellows for my achievements in urban planning, teaching and mentoring. She is a passionate educator committed to teach and mentor the next generation of planners, developers, and designers.