2017 has been a big year of change for the faculty and staff of our School.

Professor Dan Immergluck moved to the  Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University this summer. He has been an invaluable part of the School faculty for many years, Dan was one of our students’ favorite faculty members, and this past year won the College of Design Teaching Effectiveness Award. He will be missed.

Assistant Professor Alex Karner is joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Austin. In the past two years, Alex has become an important part of our teaching and research programs and a valued colleague, as indicated by his receipt of the College of Design Outstanding Faculty Award this past April.  

Jessie Brandon, our Communications & Outreach Coordinator, is headed to Philadelphia to start graduate school at Drexel University. She has been working with the School since 2014, managing social media, event planning, graphic design, recruitment efforts, and our web presence. She will maintain an affiliation with the Georgia Tech College of Design, serving as their Graphic Designer while she completes her degree.

Bruce Stiftel will complete ten years as administrator of the planning unit at Tech next summer, having served as Director of the City and Regional Planning Program and then Founding Chairperson of the School of City and Regional Planning.  Dean Steven French has initiated a search for a new School Chair who is expected to begin work in the summer of 2018.  Bruce will be moving to a teaching and research position in the School.

Nestor Garza will begin work in August as Visiting Assistant Professor. He will teach Advanced Planning Methods and Quantitative and Computer Methods, as well as other courses during the 2017-2018 academic year. Dr. Garza was on the faculty of the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia until 2016 and has taught at the University of Washington this past year. His economics Ph.D. was earned at Cambridge University in the UK, with earlier degrees from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His research has centered on land value taxation and displacement in Latin-American cities.   

Gates Dunaway will teach Government and Housing Markets this coming fall term as Part-time Lecturer.  Ms. Dunaway is Managing Principal of the Gates Dunaway Group, a consultancy that assists nonprofits with affordable housing work. She is a 1996 graduate of Tech’s MCP program, and previously was Vice President of Progressive Redevelopment, Inc., and Principal with Tapestry Development Group, Inc., both non-profit providers of affordable housing in the Atlanta region. 

Rick Porter will teach Real Estate Finance and Development this coming spring term.  Mr. Porter the owner of Richport Properties and Professor of Practice in Tech’s School of Building Construction where he has taught real estate courses since 2006. Richport is a residential developer aimed at first-time home buyers and conservation properties. Mr. Porter is a third-generation real estate developer.

Gary Cornell, FAICP, will lead an MCRP studio project in Brookhaven, Georgia, this fall term as Part-Time Lecturer.  Mr. Cornell served as planning director of Gwinnett County, DeKalb County, and Chamblee City, as well as working as a consultant with EDAW and with Jacobs Engineering, and teaching at Florida State University.   He earned a BS degree in architecture from Georgia Tech and a master’s degree in city planning from Harvard. 

Amit Kumar, a research scientist at the Georgia Tech Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, will be teaching the undergraduate introduction to transportation class. Amit received his Ph.D. in Transportation and Infrastructure Systems from Purdue University in 2014 and holds a master’s degree in Transportation Systems Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology in India. Before joining Georgia Tech he worked as the research associate in Discovery Park at Purdue University.

We wish the best to those leaving, and excitedly welcome our new SCaRP additions!