Andy Yan

Andy Yan is the director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Andy has worked extensively in the non-profit and private urban planning sectors, with projects in the metropolitan regions of Vancouver, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and New Orleans. He specializes in the fields of urban regeneration, applied demographics, Geographic Information Systems, neighbourhood development, public outreach, and quantitative research.

Andy holds a master of urban planning from the University of California – Los Angeles and a bachelor of arts with first-class honours distinctions in geography and political science from Simon Fraser University. He is a Registered Professional Planner and a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional.

In academic service, Andy is an associate professor of professional practice in urban studies at Simon Fraser University. He is currently a co-applicant and collaborator on three successful grants from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and a 2022 Lambda Alpha International research grant.

In community service, he is a current member of the board of directors for the Planning Institute of British Columbia and the Jack Webster Foundation. He was also most recently a member of City of Burnaby’s Zero Emission Buildings Taskforce. He has served as an expert for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Housing Supply Challenge Program, and as a jurist for the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship and Real Estate Foundation of BC’s Land Awards.

Previously, he was a two-term appointee to the City of Vancouver City Planning Commission and a former member of the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board Advisory Panel. He was also a member of the board of directors for the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House.

Andy’s work has been featured in a number of local, national and international publications, both in print and online, as well as academic venues. Media outlets where Andy has appeared include BNN, BC Business, Business in Vancouver, the national and local editions of the Globe and Mail, the Georgia Straight, the Huffington Post, MacLean’s, Ming Pao, North Shore News, the Province, Sing Tao, Squamish Chief, Surrey Now-Leader, the Tyee, the Vancouver Courier, Vancouver Magazine, the Vancouver Observer, the Vancouver Sun, Walrus Magazine, and Yahoo News.

Internationally, he has been interviewed and cited by the Australian Financial Review, Bloomberg, the Economist, the Financial Times (U.K.), the Harvard International Review, Maclean’s, Monocle Radio, Mother Jones, the New Yorker, the New York Times, South China Morning Post, Reuters, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star, Vice magazine, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

He has also served as an expert witness on housing to the British Columbia Supreme Court and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

Andy has received both the Planning Institute of British Columbia’s award for Leadership in Advocacy and Innovation and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Advocate for Architecture award. He was also the recipient of the 2018 Simon Fraser University President's Media Newsmaker of the Year Award and 2022 SFU Social Media Newsmaker of the Year. He has been listed as one of the 500 most influential business leaders in British Columbia by Business in Vancouver.

Some of his recent work includes:

• Barer, J., Silberberg, L., and Yan, A. (2024). Retail Health and Vitality and the Prospects of 15-minute Neighbourhoods in the City of Vancouver. Lambda Alpha International.
• Chapple, K., Brown, J., Smit, A. and Yan, A. (2023). Up to the Task: How Universities Can Support Cities. in The State of Canada’s Cities Report: At the Crossroad Maximizing Possibilities. Canadian Urban Institute, p.24-28.
• Yan, A. (2023). The Civic Arts in the City of Optimists. Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver. 
• Census Making and City Building: Data Perspectives on the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots and the Development of Vancouver. In H. Tsang (Ed.), White Riot: 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver. Vancouver: Arsenal Press. p.149-165. Winner, City of Vancouver Book Prize and Dr. Edgar Wickberg Book Prize for the Best Book on Chinese Canadian History (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC); Finalist, Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Prize.
• “Making room for whom?”, Vancouver Sun, Feb 4, 2022.

You can follow Andy on X or BlueSky at @ayan604 and through the City Program at @SFUcity.