Bita Minaravesh

Bita Minaravesh, PhD, MPH, GISP is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Spatial Sciences with the Spatial Sciences Institute in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Minaravesh’s research focuses on spatial justice across the Los Angeles region, with interests in transgenerational equity, community displacement, and the right to self-determination. She uses a mixed-spatial methodological approach to examine elements such as parks, income security, third places, and conditions contributing to structural disadvantage, with a focus on the people and places affected by these conditions.

Prior to teaching at the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, Dr. Minaravesh was a National Equity Atlas Postdoctoral Fellow at USC’s Equity Research Institute, where she researched the intersection of environmental and economic equity across California to better understand spatial disparities in neighborhood resources essential for thriving communities.

Her doctoral research in the USC Population, Health and Place program examined children’s environmental and developmental equity across Los Angeles, using critical human rights analysis, spatial statistics, and community-driven discussions to understand circumstances that influence both a child’s trajectory in the short term and a community’s opportunity for growth over generations.

Dr. Minaravesh serves as the faculty advisor for SCMappers.

Her current projects include research on the intergenerational impacts of displacement, urban redesigns as spatial reparations, the distribution of EV infrastructure in relation to young drivers, and socio-economic divides in the use and access of third places.

2022    Ph.D., Population, Health and Place, University of Southern California
2017    Master of Public Health, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
2014    B.A., Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Minaravesh, B. (2025). Identifying concentrations of overlapping environmental & economic insecurity in Los Angeles County. Applied Geography, 178, 103575.

Minaravesh, B. (2023). The Multi-Scalar Relationship Between Children’s Self-Determination and Environmental Justice in the United States. Local Environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2023.2187360

Minaravesh, B., & Aydin, O. (2023). Environmental and demographic factors affecting childhood academic performance in Los Angeles County: A generalized linear elastic net regression model. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 30, 100942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2023.100942

Hackman, D. A., Cserbik, D., Chen, J.-C., Berhane, K., Minaravesh, B., McConnell, R., & Herting, M. M. (2021). Association of Local Variation in Neighborhood Disadvantage in Metropolitan Areas with Youth Neurocognition and Brain Structure. JAMA Pediatrics, e210426–e210426. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0426