Amanda Phillips de Lucas, Ph.D. is the Director for the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance – Jacob France Institute. Dr. Phillips de Lucas comes to BNIA-JFI from Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. There she did a postdoctoral fellowship studying perceptions and governance of urban greening projects in cities across the United States. During her time at Cary Institute, Amanda built relationships with organizations, agencies, and individuals working to advance environmental justice in Baltimore.

In 2018, she received her Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech. She also has degrees from Virginia Tech (MS), NYU Gallatin (MA), and Bennington College (BA). Her dissertation examined how activists and community groups in Baltimore used data to protest urban interstate construction in the late 1960s and 1970s. This research was published as a chapter in Justice and the Interstates: The Racist Truth about Urban Highways (Island Press, 2023), co-edited by Dr. Phillips de Lucas. This work inspired a passion for understanding how communities use data to advocate for their needs and develop tools to advance community-defined goals.