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jvos@fau.edu
Chair and Associate Professor
Dr. Jaap Vos, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, joined the FAU Faculty in 1995. He holds a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Dr. Vos’ main interests include environmental planning, environmental justice, and sustainable development. He has published articles about community participation, environmental justice and equity in planning. Currently, he is focusing his research on the relationship between Everglades restoration and urban development in southeast Florida. |
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James Carras
carras@bellsouth.net
Visiting Professor
James Carras has been teaching Urban Revitalization and Economic Development courses at FAU's Department of Urban and Regional Planning since 2000. Mr. Carras has conducted numerous professional workshops and training sessions for organizations such as the Federal Reserve Bank system, the Federal Home Loan Bank system, the National League of Cities and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. He previously served as an Adjunct Instructor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics, M.I.T.s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Tufts University.
He holds a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, completed graduate work at Tufts University's Department of Urban and Environmental Policy, and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Suffolk University in Boston. Mr. Carras’ main interests include community and economic development and development finance.. He has published articles and written books on the Community Reinvestment Act and federal funding programs such as the New Markets Tax Credits. Currently, he is focusing his professional efforts on the creation of capital institutions for economic development in distressed communities both in Florida and other states such as Georgia and Massachusetts. |
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aesnard@fau.edu
Associate Professor
Director, Visual Planning Technology Lab (VPTLAB)
Ann-Margaret Esnard joined FAU’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning in August 2005 as an Associate Professor and Director of the Visual Planning Technology Lab (VPT Lab). Esnard’s expertise encompasses GIS/spatial analysis, coastal vulnerability assessment, land use planning, and disaster planning. She has designed GIS course curriculum and has taught GIS to students and professionals with diverse academic backgrounds since the early nineties. She has been involved in a number of related research initiatives and is the Principal Investigator for a 3 year National Science Foundation grant (with FAU colleagues, Joyce Levine and Alka Sapat) to study hurricane-related population displacement, housing and land development policy issues in eight coastal states (North Carolina to Texas). She is the co-author of the Hypothetical City Workbook and has written on topics that include geospatial technologies, GIS education, public participation GIS, spatial analysis of New York metropolitan urban expansion, vulnerability assessments of coastal and flood hazards, quality of life and holistic disaster recovery and environmental justice.
Esnard has served on a number of local, state and national committee including: the Steering Committee for Evaluation of the National Flood Insurance Program [directed by the American Institutes for Research on behalf of FEMA]; the Disasters Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences; the review committee for the Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Award for Scholarship in Planning and Natural Hazards; and is currently a member of the State of Florida Post-Disaster Redevelopment Planning initiative.
Esnard holds degrees in Agricultural Engineering (B.Sc., University of the West Indies-Trinidad), Agronomy and Soils (M.S., University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez) and Regional Planning (Ph.D., UMASS-Amherst). She also completed a two year post-doc at UNC-Chapel Hill. |
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Dr. Joyce Levine
jlevin21@fau.edu
Assistant Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator
Dr. Joyce Levine received her Ph.D. in Urban Studies/Urban Planning from the University of New Orleans and her Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was AIP (now APA) Student of the Year. She came to the academy with extensive professional planning experience, having worked both as a public planner and as a consultant over a career spanning two decades, and was a co-recipient of a 1999 National Planning Award from APA. Dr. Levine has expertise in many areas of planning, including regionalism, citizen participation, planning law, land-use and environmental planning, and emergency management and hazard mitigation.
At present, Dr. Levine's research is focused on vulnerability and disasters: Earlier this year, she completed a study of networking among organizations in all three sectors in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from hurricanes in South Florida's Treasure Coast counties. With colleagues Ann-Margaret Esnard, James Carras (both from DURP), and Alka Sapat (Public Administration), she is pursuing research to develop a new index to measure vulnerability to displacement, and to estimate the potential magnitude of displaced resident populations in the eight most hurricane-prone states. She is also engaged in studying social and structural vulnerability in an area immediately inland of the state-designated Coastal High-Hazard Area in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. Research efforts now in the planning stage focus on the implications of global warming for urbanization and community resilience in South Florida. Recently she was asked to review the proceedings of the March 2006 Disasters Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, this year Dr. Levine has completed two expert testimony requests -- one for Legal Aid Services of Broward County regarding the unavailability of mobile-home lots and other types of affordable housing in Broward County, the other for the U.S. Department of Justice regarding regulatory discrimination against a religious land use. |
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pmaghela@fau.edu
Assistant Professor
A graduate of Texas A&M University, Praveen Maghelal joined the faculty of Urban and Regional Planning in Fall 2007. He received his PhD in Urban and Regional Sciences from Texas A&M University, Masters in Infrastructure Planning from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and has Bachelors in Architecture and Diploma in Civil Engineering from India.
His research interest includes sustainable community planning through sustainable transportation. He has been involved in several research projects that investigated the built-environment for its impact on safe and sustainable transportation. His dissertation quantified the built-environment and investigates the role of its constructs on walking to transit station and was funded by the Active Living Research Dissertation Grant through The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Currently, Dr. Maghelal is working on developing indices to measure the suitability and walkability of built-environment that affects walking and biking in communities. He is also working with member at Texas A&M on developing an index that measure the critical risk in communities due to presence of sex offenders. Dr. Maghelal’s specialization includes transportation planning, spatial planning, urban form assessment, and land-use planning. |
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kpolakit@fau.edu
Assistant Professor
Dr. Kasama Polakit is a visiting assistant professor, joining FAU’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP) in 2007. Apart from teaching she also acts as a coordinator in collaborative programs between School of Architecture and DURP.
Dr. Polakit holds a Ph.D. in Urban Design and a master degree in Planning and Design (Urban Design) from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is a registered architect in Thailand where she graduated Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) from Chulalongkorn University. Her research interests include these followings:
• Phenomenology of place, place identity, human perception and the built environment,
• Sustainable urban form with particular attention paid to tropical and sub-tropical areas, Community planning and design, Spatial syntax analysis, the role of the built environments in the production and reproduction of social and cultural capital,
• Architecture and Urban Design Theory, focusing on Post-modern Urbanism and the contemporary interpretations of the vernacular, and
• Cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary design and education of the built environment. |
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prosperi@fau.edu
Professor
Dr. David Prosperi, a professor of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, has been with FAU since 1989. He holds a Ph.D. in Economic Geography from Indiana University and a master's degree from Temple University in Geography. His main interests include growth management, economic development, computer applications. |
Adjunct Faculty
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Scott Burton
sburton@fau.edu
As an instructor at FAU, Mr. Burton has been teaching GIS courses in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning for nearly 10 years. He also helped develop the Visual Planning Technology Certification program as well as create a Professional Development Training Series in GIS for local government agencies throughout South Florida.
As a practitioner, he is currently the GIS Administrator for the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) where he is developing and managing the agency’s Enterprise GIS. He was formerly the director of the Center of Visual Planning Technology in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at Florida Atlantic University where he assisted public and private agencies in developing Enterprise GIS solutions for over 12 years. He also worked for the Broward School Board as the Senior Demographer.
As an instructor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Mr. Burton has been teaching GIS courses in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning for nearly 10 years. He also helped develop the Visual Planning Technology Certification program as well as create a Professional Development Training Series in GIS for local government agencies throughout South Florida.
Scott earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, specializing in Environmental Planning and GIS and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science specializing in government structures and urban geography from FAU. |
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Linda Friar
lfriar@sfrestore.org
Linda Friar brings to the FAU Faculty special areas of interest and experience that include environmental policy, strategic planning, smart growth, environmental justice, growth management, everglades restoration, and integrated land, water and transportation planning.
Ms. Friar is an FAU alumnus with both a Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Public Administration. She earned her B.A. is in Political Science /Communications and was a graduate fellow through the FAU/FIU Joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems where she earned a Masters with a specialty in Environmental Growth Management. She is a nationally certified planner through the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) a trained facilitator and active member of the state and local chapters of the American Planning Association.
Ms.Friar works full time for the United States Department of the Interior, assigned to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force as External Affairs Officer and Project Manager for Strategic Planning. Ms. Friar has traveled Florida as a speaker and advocate for balancing the needs of economic, environmental and social systems through natural resource protection, integrated planning, improved community design, and intergovernmental coordination. |
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Marilyn Mammano
mmammano@mindspring.com
Marilyn Mammano is a former member of the New York City Planning Commission. She came to South Florida in 1998 having completed a 25 year career as a professional planner with the City of New York Department of City Planning where she served as the Director of Zoning and Urban Design and the Director of Planning for the Borough of Staten Island. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and holds both a Bachelors Degree in Architecture and a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute.
Marilyn has been teaching planning studio courses at FAU since 1999. These courses focus on planning process and design. She combines for her students the skills required of the practicing planner and the perspective of the decision maker.
She is a resident of Fort Lauderdale and a community activist. She is a member of the Community Appearance Board for the City of Fort Lauderdale. She has been the Chairwoman of the Annual Waterway Cleanup Committee since 1999. She was an officer of the Metro New York Chapter of the APA and is now an active member of the Broward Chapter of FAPA. |
Administrative Staff
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Maria Quintero
mquinte5@fau.edu
Senior Secretary
Maria is senior secretary of the Department and helps you with a smile. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Santo Tomas de Aquino University in Bogota, Colombia. She has worked for several companies in Colombia and was the coordinator for the Department of Psychology at Hogar San Jose where she helped 5-16 year old girls that had experienced domestic abuse. Feel free to walk by her office if you need any help. |
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W. Asher Soldwedel
wsoldwedel@fau.edu
Coordinator, Visual Planning Technology (VPTLAB)
Asher Soldwedel, Coordinator of the Department of Urban & Regional Planning's Center for Visual Planning Technology (VPT). An Auburn University graduate (BME), Mr. Soldwedel has many years experience in both graphic design and project management in non-profit organizations. After teaching for 3 years, Mr. Soldwedel moved into the corporate world where he focused on project management, organizational issues, and information technology. In 1998 he returned to non-profit agenicies creating design materials and presentations for the City of Dania Beach and the FAU Catanese Center. He joined the Department’s Center for Visual Planning Technology in 2000 and in 2001 became VPT Coordinator. While coordinating research at the Center, Mr.Soldwedel also serves as an IT administrator and designs interactive web sites (www.boynton-beach.org, www.ddafll.com, www.vptlab.fau.edu, www.performanceproject.org) for non-profit organizations. Furthermore, he runs the very successful VPT Professional Development program. |
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Aubrey Craun
acraun@fau.edu
CAUPA Webmaster
Aubrey Craun, an FAU graduate with a bachelor's degree in Architecture, is the webmaster for the College of Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs. His responsibilities are creating and maintaining all departments within the college. He has many years of experience in web design. He has also created other websites within the university including layout design for FAU Broward Campuses, Flash videos, and other miscellaneous jobs. He is happy to help wherever he can.
Outside of FAU, he has done websites for The Kids Ecology Corp. in Fort Lauderdale, Anthony Abbate Architect, PA in Fort Lauderdale, Good Shepherd UMC in West Palm Beach, and is currently working on The Goodman Company website in West Palm Beach. |
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