Author Biographies
Maria Alexandrescu
Maria Alexandrescu is currently a Master of Landscape Architecture student in graduation year at Technische Universiteit Delft. Their research takes the process of framing as starting point for the understanding of built and unbuilt landscapes.
Lauren Bulka
Lauren Bulka, MURP, is a graduate from Virginia Tech’s Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program. Much of her recent work focuses community and economic development, place-making, and innovation in economically distressed regions across the United States.
Maxwell Hartt
Maxwell Hartt is a third-year PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning. His research focuses on shrinking cities, demographic evolution, and the planning response.
Kurt Kraler
Kurt Kraler is currently completing his M.Arch. degree at the University of Waterloo, focusing on the political and economic production of themed spaces and their social implications. He recently presented his thesis work at the 2015 Intersections/Cross-Sections Graduate Conference in Toronto, and has exhibited at the Design at Riverside Gallery (Cambridge, Ontario), Xpace Cultural Centre and PULP (Toronto), Lunds Universitet (Sweden), and the University of Waterloo Rome Studio (Italy).
Dr. Cynthia A. Lintz
Dr. Cynthia Lintz, AICP, is a recent graduate from Virginia Tech’s Planning, Governance and Globalization program. Her dissertation on place-making in the Balkans won Virginia Tech’s Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2015.
Gibrán Lule-Hurtado
Gibrán Lule-Hurtado is a graduate student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include disaster resilience and historic preservation in Latin America and the United States.
Sara McTarnaghan
Sara McTarnaghan is currently finishing a dual-degree Masters program in Community and Regional Planning and Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Adam Ogusky
Adam Ogusky is a first year PhD student in Community and Regional Planning at The University of Texas at Austin. He works to transcend mediocrity and create meaning in an absurd world.
Aditi Ohri
Aditi Ohri is an MA candidate in the department of Art History at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research focuses on race, decolonization and Indigenous-settler relations in Canada.
Vivek Shastry
Vivek is a native of Bangalore, India. He draws from his interdisciplinary background in engineering and planning to study topics in building energy, energy policy, and low carbon growth. He is a J. N. Tata Scholar and the current recipient of Joy & Morin Scott/Sally & John Byram Graduate Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Patricia A. Wilson
Dr. Wilson is Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches participatory planning, dialogue and deliberation, and international sustainable social development. Her current projects include peace education and sustainability in Mexico, and neighborhood resilience planning in Austin.
Elizabeth Walsh
Elizabeth Walsh is a Doctoral candidate in the Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of Texas at Austin whose research focuses on environmental justice and regenerative design and development. She is a co-founder of the Festival Beach Food Forest in Austin.
Acknowledgements
Financial Sponsor
Mike Hogg Endowment for Urban Governance
Advisors
Dr. Michael Oden
Dr. Sandra Rosenbloom
Thank you to our financial sponsor, the Mike Hogg Endowment for Urban Governance. Without the generous funding provided, Planning Forum would not exist. Thank you to Dr. Michael Oden and Dr. Sandra Rosenbloom, who helped guide the revival of Planning Forum from day one, assisted in the development of our direction and standards, and supported our ambitions. Thank you to Dr. Jake Wegmann and Dr. Patricia Wilson for championing Planning Forum early on. Thank you to all of our faculty reviewers who provided stellar feedback for all our submissions. Thank you everyone who submitted, for Planning Forum is nothing without the talent on the pages.
