Engineering provides a powerful way of thinking and solving problems. We often think of engineering as being applied to technical design problems. Yet this way of approaching problem solving and this set of skills can be used to help improve issues of resilience, sustainability, and equity in communities. This talk provides examples of using systems engineering and operations research methods in the context of communities. These examples include modeling the effects of repeated disasters on communities and assessing accessibility of urban facilities and amenities. The talk closes by discussing opportunities for graduate studies in Industrial & Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.