Robert Cervero, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair

Spring 2008

The Department of City & Regional Planning (DCRP), one of the nation’s top-rated graduate planning programs, is internationally recognized for its first-rate educational offerings and cutting-edge, faculty-led research. The department’s rigorous curriculum spans such areas as transportation, housing, community and economic development, urban design, land-use planning, environmental planning, regional development, comparative and international planning, and spatial modeling. Complementing courses in these areas are real-world, hands-on practicums that cut across fields, including recent international studios on pressing urban issues in China, Thailand, and India.

The face of DCRP continues to change. This academic year, two new faculty members joined the department—Professor Teresa Caldeira and Assistant Professor Jason Corburn. We're also delighted to welcome two new staff members to DCRP: George Marinos, information technology manager for the department, and Amy Chen Liu, the department's new financial assistant. This coming summer, Dr. Malo Hutson, presently a Robert Wood Johnson “Health and Society” scholar, joins DCRP full-time as assistant professor in community development planning, solidifying our intellectual leadership in this ever-important arena. Also, the department is presently in the midst of two faculty searches—one for an assistant professor in transportation planning and policy and the other for a full professor in growth management and land use planning. Thus, starting in Fall 2008, expect to see three new faces at the DCRP lecterns.

DCRP’s distinguished faculty members continue to be recognized for their outstanding scholarly work. Professor Nezar AlSayyad’s recent book on Cinematic Urbamism has won rave reviews for providing “the most lucid and thoughtful introduction to this new intellectual terrain to date.” Assistant Professor Jason Corburn’s celebrated book on Street Science won the 2007 Paul Davidoff Award from the American Collegiate Schools of Planning for advancing social justice in planning. And I’m delighted to to announce that Karen Chapple was recently promoted to Associate Professor, effective July 2007. Our hearty congratulations to Karen for this well-deserved promotion. 

Besides faculty and course offerings, what makes DCRP a truly exceptional place to study city and regional planning are its top-flight students—smart, engaged, and passionate in their commitment to constructive social, economic, and environmental change. In 2007, DCRP students won the fifth annual ULI (Urban Land Institute) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition for the redevelopment of a 16-block corridor in central Los Angeles.

After three years of serving as DCRP’s department chair, I will be stepping down this summer. Taking my place for the next three-year term as chair will be Professor Karen Christensen. Besides bringing outstanding leadership to the department, Karen will be the department’s first woman chair since its inception in 1948—sixty years in the making, though nonetheless another sign of positive change at DCRP!

I have only scratched the surface of who we are and where we’re heading. To learn more, read DCRP Essentials, check out our faculty and student web pages, and follow the links to the many exciting research projects presently underway.