Kanwal Aftab is a lecturer in the Urban Design program at the John. H Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Her professional work focuses on the design and phasing of equitable public infrastructure in new urban growth centres, presently as an urban designer with the city of Brampton. Her academic research looks at the pedagogical influence of systems thinking and systems art on environmental design professions in the second half of the 20th century.

With degrees in both architecture and landscape architecture, Kanwal has practiced design in the public and private sector in the United States, Canada, and Pakistan. She is a member of TUFLab, an urban form research laboratory at the University of Toronto, and a member of the editorial board of Ground Magazine, a quarterly publication of the OALA.