Dr. Jaap Vos
jvos@fau.eduDirector and Associate Professor
Dr. Jaap Vos is an Associate Professor and Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida Atlantic University. His research interests include: the interaction between built, natural and social environment, equity and representation, sustainable cities and regions, and climate adaptation. He has served as the lead investigator on projects such as tracking and prediction of types and location of development trends in downtown Fort Lauderdale; inventory of economic, environmental and equity resources in southeast Florida; redevelopment alternatives for Overtown in Miami; and the impacts of transportation infrastructure on environmental resources. He has attracted and managed ongoing private gifts for student scholarships, Planning Abroad and a Solar Roof for the Higher Education Complex in which the School has its offices.
Dr. Eric Dumbaugh
eric.dumbaugh@fau.eduAssociate Professor
Dr. Eric Dumbaugh is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech, and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering and City Planning, also from Georgia Tech. His research areas include street and community design, urban mobility, transportation systems planning, and the effects of transportation investments on sustainability and livability. Dr. Dumbaugh’s published works include “Safe Urban Form: Revisiting the Relationship between Community Design and Traffic Safety,” which received the 2009 award for Best Paper from the Journal of the American Planning Association, and “The Design of Safe Urban Roadsides,” which received the Transportation Research Board’s 2006 Award for Outstanding Paper in Geometric Design.
Dr. Ann-Margaret Esnard
aesnard@fau.eduProfessor
Director, Visual Planning Technology Lab (VPTLAB)
Ann-Margaret Esnard joined FAU's School of Urban and Regional Planning in August 2005 as the Director of the Visual Planning Technology Lab (VPT Lab). Esnard's expertise encompasses disaster planning, hazard and vulnerability assessment, GIS/spatial analysis, and land use planning. She has been involved in a number of related research initiatives, including two NSF funded projects on topics of disaster-induced population displacement, and long-term recovery, and has written on a number of topics that include: population displacement from catastrophic hurricanes, the role of the South Florida Haitian diaspora in assisting earthquake survivors, GIS-based vulnerability assessments of coastal and flood hazards, quality of life and holistic disaster recovery, public participation GIS and GIS education.
Esnard has served on a number of local, state and national committee including: the Steering Committee for Evaluation of the National Flood Insurance Program, the Disasters Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences; the National Research Council's committee on Private-Public Sector Collaboration to Enhance Community Disaster Resilience, and 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.
Dr. Yanmei Li
yli22@fau.eduAssistant Professor
Dr. Yanmei Li joined FAU’s School of Urban and Regional Planning in July 2008 as an Assistant Professor. She holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the Ohio State University and a Master’s degree in Regional Economics from Beijing Normal University in China. Dr. Li has worked as an Assistant Professor for two years at Western Kentucky University and has taught various courses in Statistics, Geography and Urban Planning. She has actively participated in the plan-making process of local communities, and served on multiple advisory committees on planning in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She has led and involved in projects in adaptive reuse of historic buildings and Habitat for Humanity eco-village conceptual plan.
Dr. Li’s research interests focus on advanced quantitative methods of spatial statistics and econometrics, housing and community development, and real estate and urban economics and finance. She is very interested in policies related to affordable housing, sustainable community development, housing programs for people with special needs, historic preservation, and housing rehabilitation. She is also interested in the relationship between housing market, racial minorities and immigrants. She has conducted extensive research in residential mortgage default and foreclosure and its impact on neighborhood quality and stability. Her research on foreclosure and neighborhood stability has received significant attention from local media, policy makers, and research organizations.
Dr. Diana Mitsova
dmitsova@fau.eduAssistant Professor
Diana Mitsova holds a Ph.D. in Regional Development Planning from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Public Affairs from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis. She joined the School of Urban and Regional Planning in August 2008 as an Assistant Professor. She has professional experience in geographic information systems applications, GPS data collection and image processing. She had worked on environmental and public health-related projects funded by the World Bank and the European Commission in her native Bulgaria.
Dr. Mitsova has a background in research design, statistical and spatial analysis, as well as geographic information systems. Her research focuses on historical and projected patterns of land cover change, open space conservation, water resource management, and environmental planning and modeling using geographic information systems, interactive computer simulation and spatial-statistical methods. Her expertise in spatial data analysis includes cellular automata, spatial regression modeling, Monte Carlo methods, geostatistics and integrated statistical/GIS models. Recently, she used a cellular automata – Markov chain model to project future patterns of urbanization in the Greater Cincinnati area and incorporated the principles of “green infrastructure” in the modeling framework. She is also interested in locational patterns of urban activities, transportation and air quality, and environmental justice. She intends to examine the environmental policies in the post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe.
Dr. Asli Ceylan Oner
aoner@fau.eduAssistant Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator
Dr. Asli Ceylan Oner joined the School of Urban and Regional Planning at FAU in August 2008 as an assistant professor. She received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Environmental Design and Planning in 2008. She holds master degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Cities, Space and Society; and from Ball State University in Architecture and MBA. She has Bachelors in Architecture from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey.
Dr. Oner’s main research interests include globalization, locational strategies of transnational advanced producer service firms, planning and governance of global cities, and metropolitan growth and decentralization. She is also interested in comparative urbanization and European cities. Dr. Oner is a member of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC), centered in the Geography Department at Loughborough University in England. In GaWC, she participated in various projects related to transnational firms and global urban networks. She also took part in different projects in the Metropolitan Institute of Virginia Tech related to metropolitan decentralization of US cities. Dr. Oner has taught introductory courses in urbanization and development and senior level courses in European urbanization.
Dr. Kasama Polakit
kpolakit@fau.eduAssistant Professor
Dr. Kasama Polakit is an assistant professor, joining FAU’s School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) in 2007. Apart from teaching she also acts as a coordinator in collaborative programs between School of Architecture and SURP.
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.
Dr. David Prosperi
prosperi@fau.eduHenry D. Epstein Professor in Urban Planning
Dr. David Prosperi, a professor of the School 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, and computer applications.
Adjunct Faculty
Lisa Colmenares
mcolmena@fau.eduAdjunct Professor
Ms. Lisa Colmenares has more than 15 years of experience as a Transportation and Planning Manager. She held the Director of Transportation Planning position at Calvin Giordano and has assisted in the management in the Planning Department at the Corradino Group. Ms. Colmenares has provided services in planning and traffic planning services from St. Lucie County to the City of Homestead. Ms. Colmenares is responsible for project management, traffic/transportation analysis reports, presentation of the project and intergovernmental coordination. Ms. Colmenares has more than 15 years of experience working in multimodal capital and growth management projects, including more than a dozen Comprehensive Plans from Homestead to Saint Lucie County. Ms. Colmenares has also managed transit projects in South Florida and South America, and a variety of transportation master plans, including parking studies. Ms. Colmenares is involved in the public involvement process which includes public hearing and public workshops with diverse stakeholders involved in the planning process. Ms. Colmenares represented MDX at the Miami-Dade MPO’s 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan Committee and the 2006-2010 Transportation Improvement Program Committee. She also served as liaison between the Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise and MDX on several long range projects. Ms. Colmenares prepared MDX’s 2030 Long Range Plan. She has served as the General Traffic and Transportation Consultant to a variety of municipalities in the South Florida region, understanding the dynamics of working as an extension of staff and having drafted a series of ordinances and resolutions pertaining to land use, urban design, concurrency, capital programs and transportation. She holds a Masters in Urban and Rregional Planning and a Masters in International Business, both from Florida Atlantic University.
Linda Friar, AICP
lfriar@fau.eduAdjunct Professor
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.
Peter J. Henn
Developer-in-Residence
Peter Henn is a real estate developer of hotels, condominium towers and master-planned communities. Mr. Henn is the Florida operating partner of several real estate projects for different New York equity partners and the former President/CEO of a publicly-traded real estate development company. He has over 20 years comprehensive real estate development experience, law practice and government relations in Florida and elsewhere. Mr. Henn received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, and his B.A. an M.A. in Economics from Florida Atlantic University.
Marilyn Mammano, AICP
mmammano@fau.eduAdjunct Professor
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's 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.
Ms Mammano has been teaching at FAU since 1999. She combines for her students the skills required of the practicing planner and the perspective of the decision maker. Under her direction, many planning reports were done for the City one of which resulted in the creation of the Staten island Greenbelt Park. She developed and wrote urban design guidelines for waterfront developments, urban plazas and contextual zoning. She was responsible for writing and administering land use regulations. She provided education and support to community groups and liaisoned with community groups, elected officials, developers and city agencies. Her primary interests include urban design and sustainable, equitable site selection and development.
Ms Mammano is a resident of Fort Lauderdale and a community activist. She serves on City Advisory boards: Vice Chair of the Community Appearance Boar and Chair of the Short Term Residential Use Committee. She is the Vice Chair of the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations and the President of the Harbordale Civic Association. She was the Chairwoman of the Annual Waterway Cleanup Committee from 1999 to 2009.
Sherryl Muriente
smurient@fau.eduAdjunct Professor
Mrs. Sherryl Muriente has worked as both a designer and project manager for various architectural firms. In the past, she has also collaborated with architect's Marco Casagrande and Sami Rintala from Finland, building and designing architectural/art installation work, as well as, participating as an art performer in various urban settings in both Puerto Rico and Taiwan.
Sherryl graduated from FAU's Master of Regional Planning program in 2009, for which she received the Excellence in Planning Fellowship Award. Under the fellowship, she was Dr. Kasama Polakit's Research Assistant. Providing research work under the subjects of urban design, comparative cultural contexts, quality of public urban space, and a comparative study of new and real urbanism strategies. She also published and presented West Palm Beach: From New to Real to Global Urbanism? at Corp 2008 in Austria, Vienna. The paper examined the internal structure of the WPB employment center, conceptualized as a sub-metropolitanemployment center within the South Florida region.
During her last year in school, she also served as President of the Florida Atlantic Planning Society (FAPS) from 2008 to 2009. Prior to the Master's Degree, she also graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from FAU.
Currently, she has embarked in a new venture with the art group Les Jobarts, which focuses on breaking the boundaries between the disciplines of architecture, urban design, environmental art, graphic design, sculpture, and other disciplines of the built environment. The group focuses on public artwork, green alternatives, and raising awareness of people's use of public space as part of a healthy lifestyle. Some designed work includes the winning design of the Delray Affair Logo in 2010, recycled furniture pieces, bike rack sculptures, and invisible senses installation work, amongst others.
Marcie Oppenheimer Nolan
Adjunct Professor
Ms. Nolan practices in the area of government law, concentrating her practice on zoning and land use. Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Nolan worked as the Development Services Director of Davie, Florida. Ms. Nolan has appeared before state, regional and local agencies and has extensive experience in comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings, variances, conditional uses, special exceptions, and site plan approvals. She has also been involved in the approval process for Development of Regional Impact Development Orders, binding letters, and essentially built-out agreements. Ms. Nolan is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and currently teaches “Legal Aspects of Planning” to Masters in Urban and Regional Planning students at Florida Atlantic University.
Frank Schnidman
schnidma@fau.eduAdjunct Professor, Director of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Education (CURE)
Frank Schnidman is an attorney with an LL.M. degree in Environmental Law who has spent more than 30 years dealing with sophisticated land policy and land use regulatory issues as both a practicing attorney and as an academic. In 2005-2006 he served as the consultant founding Executive Director of the new North Miami, Florida Community Redevelopment Agency. He has served as the Staff Director of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Metropolitan and Regional Areas Study, and as Executive Director of the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority. He was the founding Executive Director of the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Transportation Management Association. He has been involved in numerous redevelopment projects in both the United States and overseas. He has also taught both planning law and land development law at a number of universities including the university of Virginia and George Washington University, and served two years as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Florida Atlantic University, Frank practiced law with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig after serving as Director of the University of Miami School of Law, Graduate Program in Real Property Development. He is recognized for his knowledge of international land policy and land development issues, and is a prolific writer and frequent national and international speaker, and is frequently quoted in the media as a leading urban planning and law expert. Frank is admitted of practice law in Florida, California, New York and the District of Columbia.
At Florida Atlantic University, Frank has taught courses in the areas of planning law and community and economic development. In addition, he serves as the Director of the “Redevelopment and Revitalization of Southeast Florida” Project, which is reported on the World Wide Web at www.cuesfau.org/cra and he participates in research and technical assistance projects, in addition to chairing the annual “Hot Topics” seminar series for the FAU Institute of Government.
Frank has been a ULI member for 30 years, and very active locally, nationally and internationally. He has served as editor for a number of books for ULI, written numerous articles for Urban Land magazine, been appointed to many ULI committees and spent 3 years at Chair of the National Policy Council. He was the Vice-Chair of ULI’s first International Committee. He was the second Chair of the Southeast Florida/Caribbean District Council and served in that role for 5 years (1988-1993). He currently is the only non-resident member of the 60-plus member ULI Japan Council. In 1984 he was appointed as a ULI Fellow.
Michael Stamm
mstamm@fau.eduAdjunct Professor
Mr. Stamm is the Planning and Economic Development Administrator for the City of Pembroke Pines and has been with the City’s Planning Division since 2004. His responsibilities include development review, economic development, and maintaining the City’s Geographic Information System (GIS). He is the staff liaison on the City’s Economic Development Board and in 2011 he was appointed to Board of Directors of the Miramar-Pembroke Pines Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Stamm also manages the Planning Division’s internship program, which provides valuable work experience for degree seeking students.
Mr. Stamm served as a research assistant at the School’s Visual Planning Technology Lab where he worked on variety of projects including: Florida International University Mobile Home Inventory, Port of Fort Pierce Master Plan, Florida Department of Transportation State Road 40 Feasibility Study, and redistricting options for Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, and Palm Beach County. He was also an Associate in Research at the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at FAU were he worked on the GIS components of centers projects. These projects include: Florida Department of TransportationNoise Barrier Inventory Geodatabase, Broward County’s Boat Facility Sighting Plan, Greenacres population Study, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Districting, the South Florida Regional Indicators study and the Economics of Beaches for the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
In addition to his municipal work, Mr. Stamm teaches the undergraduate course entitled Introduction to Visual Planning Technology. The course introduces students to GIS as well as a variety of computer programs used in the field of planning. Mr. Stamm is a FAU alumnus with a Bachelors degree in Public Management and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning.
Dawn Teetsel
Adjunct Professor
Dawn Teetsel has over seven years of professional urban planning experience in both the public and private sectors. Her experience includes work with a wide variety of planning issues, including community development and redevelopment, land use law/policy, economic reinvestment, housing affordability, green and sustainable practices, as well as general land use, zoning and comprehensive planning. Ms. Teetsel holds a Bachelor's and Master's in Urban and Regional and Planning from Florida Atlantic University.
Suria Yaffar, Assoc. AIA, LEED® AP
Adjunct Professor
Suria Yaff ar is a fi rm principal and the Director of Design at Zyscovich Architects. Ms. Yaff ar has worked on a variety of planning, urban design and architectural projects for public and private clients throughout the United States. She is experienced in all phases of the planning process including community outreach, consensus building, strategic planning and urban design for downtowns, as well as all phases of land development. Ms. Yaff ar collaborates with Bernard Zyscovich on the fi rm’s most signifi cant commissions. Her portfolio includes the City of West Palm Beach Downtown Master Plan Update and Urban Regulations, as well as post Katrina recovery plans for fi ve neighborhoods in New Orleans. She is currently providing planning services for the Florida communities of Cape Coral and Cocoa Beach. Ms. Yaff ar has a Masters degree in Architecture from Princeton University and was honored in 2008 as Urban Designer of the Year by AIA Miami.
Bernard Zyscovich, FAIA
Adjunct Professor
The founder of Zyscovich Architects, Mr. Zyscovich serves as its Managing Principal. With over 32 years experience, he has led creative teams on a wide range of projects from urban planning of major U.S. cities to the architectural design of hi-rise residential, mixed-use, retail, and commercial buildings. As the visionary on many high-profi le projects, Mr. Zyscovich draws upon his extensive work with multiple stakeholders and broad-based public input. Based on his engaging leadership, he created fi ve distinct recovery plans through signifi cant community interaction for New Orleans neighborhoods which has served as the basis for Federal Funding for post-Katrina redevelopment eff orts. Mr. Zyscovich was also Principal-in Charge for the South Miami Beach Convention Center District Community Redevelopment Plan and subsequent Update, which jumpstarted South Beach’s cultural renaissance. His work also includes Midtown Miami, one of the largest urban infi ll projects in the country, and a citywide visioning and future land use planning eff ort for Jacksonville, FL. A preservationist, Mr. Zyscovich previously served on the Miami Beach Design Review Board, and is past chair of the Miami Design Preservation League, the organization responsible for preserving the largest Art Deco District in the world. His work has been published in numerous national journals including Architectural Digest, Interior Design and Architecture, Urban Land Magazine and Multifamily Housing. His book, Getting Real About Urbanism, was commissioned by the Urban Land Institute and published in October of 2008.
Support Staff
Maria Quintero
mquinte5@fau.eduSenior Secretary
Maria is senior secretary of the School 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.
Linda Foster
lfoster@fau.eduOffice Assistant
Linda is the assistant to the Director of the School as well as to the Assistant Dean for External Affairs. Linda comes from (CUES) the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at FAU, formerly called FAU/FIU Joint Center. She has worked in CUES since 1986. She has many years of experience in Office Assistant Practices, in which she pursued and achieved a certification at Broward Community School in 1978. Linda has also received basic education at Broward Community College.
Linda is having a wonderful time in SURP and is very happy working in the Academic structure of the university.
Daniel Morris
dmorri47@fau.eduExternal Affairs
Daniel Morris manages all of the external affairs for the School, including communications, publications, alumni relations and development. He holds bachelor's degrees in both finance and marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Daniel has previously worked in development and external affairs at FAU and the University of Chicago.
W. Asher Soldwedel
wsoldwedel@fau.eduCoordinator, Visual Planning Technology (VPTLAB)
Asher Soldwedel is an Auburn University graduate (BME), with many years of experience in graphic design, mathematics, information technology, and project management. He joined the FAU Visual Planning Technology (VPT) Lab in 1999 and is the VPT Lab coordinator, financial officer, and IT manager. He is also the computer systems coordinator for the School of Urban and Regional Planning, which involves guest lecture contributions to undergraduate and graduate-level technology and workshop courses. Asher has served as the PI, Co-PI, or collaborator on over 30 research projects related to redistricting, GIS support, graphic design, and website design for non-profit agencies and community based organizations. His latest research projects involve creating redistricting options for the cities of Pembroke Pines and Hollywood and a pilot project for creating a 3D downtown computer model for planning studies.
Aubrey Craun
acraun@fau.eduCollege Webmaster
Aubrey Craun, an FAU graduate with a bachelor's degree in Architecture, is the primary web developer for the College for Design and Social Inquiry. He has over a decade of experience in front-end development. His responsibilities are creating and maintaining all department websites within the College including development of interactive database driven web applications.
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