Deland Chan is a Lecturer in Urban Studies at Stanford University and serves as the faculty advisor for Urban Studies majors in the Urban Sustainability concentration. She teaches Sustainable Cities, a project-based service learning class where students collaborate with Bay Area government agencies and non-profit organizations on sustainability projects. In addition, she teaches the International Urbanization, which offers a comparative approach to sustainable development in the world's most rapidly urbanizing countries.

Deland also teaches at the Stanford d.school, exploring the intersection of design thinking, placemaking, and community building in urban environments. Most recently, she co-taught Civic Dreams, Human Spaces, Design for Everyday Social Good, Designing for Communities at Play, and Creative Tools for Urban Spaces. 

Deland has professional planning experience leading transportation planning and land use projects at a community development corporation in San Francisco. She earned her undergraduate degree in Urban Studies and a co-terminal Masters degree in Sociology from Stanford University, and completed her graduate studies in City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.