{"476971":{"#nid":"476971","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ACSP Martin Meyerson Award goes to Bruce Stiftel","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESchool of City and Regional Planning Chair Bruce Stiftel keeps a busy schedule. On top of vising planning programs around the world with his work in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), he leads a research-driven faculty and top-5 Planetizen program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo it was a source of pride \u2013 and little surprise \u2013 when Stiftel\u2019s colleagues learned he won the Martin Meyerson Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPresented by the ACSP, the academic consortium that promotes planning education, research, service and outreach, this award is the pinnacle in higher education leadership. Stiftel is thus recognized as an urban and regional planning scholar and educator whose contribution in academic administration has influenced higher education nationally and even internationally.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of Bruce for being the first Georgia Tech faculty to receive the Distinguished Educator Award. This is the highest honor of our academy,\u201d said Nancey Green-Leigh, the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Architecture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAlong with chairing planning schools at two universities, Bruce has been President of ACSP, the editor of the academy\u2019s journal, a Board Member of our accrediting body and active in promoting partnerships in global planning education.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELeading doctoral studies in planning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E Planning education is \u201can awfully exciting, rewarding, fun thing to do,\u201d Stiftel said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStiftel started his academic career in typical, idealistic planner fashion: \u201cI wound up going off to college to try to do something to help fix the Earth,\u201d he said. A graduate degree in city planning was the best way he could think of to translate his education into a work life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter a planning master\u2019s degree and air quality work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he returned to doctoral studies on citizen participation under the Clean Water Act funded by the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt turns out Stiftel\u2019s academic journey mirrored a larger trend in planning education: The increasing importance of social sciences in planning programs and research-driven industry resulted in more faculty earning Ph. Ds, said Michael Elliott, a School of City and Regional Planning associate professor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs the first chair of the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech, Stiftel was instrumental in establishing the Ph. D in City and Regional Planning as a standalone degree in 2010. That year Georgia Tech hosted the ACSP\u2019s Ph. D workshop. The annual event is Stiftel\u2019s brainchild and an opportunity for doctoral students to meet, discuss their dissertations and get career guidance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think it has had a significant effect among college students, building networks and helping improve dissertations across the country,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThinking globally about planning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u201cBruce is credited with stabilizing the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)\u2026in a collaborative focused way contributing to the academic policies and standards of our program and the profession,\u201d said Catherine Ross, the Harry West Professor of the School of City and Regional Planning and the Director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHis efforts were largely responsible for the development of international networking relationships with other associations of similar nature from across the globe,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs president of the ACSP, Stiftel developed the Ph. D workshop and helped organize a World Planning Schools Congress, which was hosted at Tongji University (China) in 2001.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis was really the result of a process that began 15 years earlier,\u201d Stiftel said, \u201cbut I stepped in and expanded the network to ten associations and got us to agree to work together on a regular basis.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPlanning is done in specific places and national planning systems can differ quite substantially. But planning education and planning scholarship needs to draw on lessons from other places,\u201d he said. \u201cThis network has helped us do it better.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2003 he was the first headmaster of the ACSP \u201cNew Chairs School,\u201d which is now a staple of the ACSP conference.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost recently he represents the Global Planning Education Association Network at the UN Habitat, helping connect UN Habitat to academic associations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMeeting a higher standard\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E Stiftel achieved a lasting impact on accreditation standards for planning schools during six years on the Planning Accreditation Board. He was part of a major overhaul of the discipline\u2019s accreditation standards in 2012. The new accreditations challenge planning schools to be more forward-thinking and outcome-oriented, explained Elliott.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPlanning education has a lot of challenges in the 21\u003Csup\u003Est\u003C\/sup\u003E century University,\u201d Stiftel said. \u201cWe typically have small class sizes but we do a lot of work out in the community that is often costly. So telling our story and getting universities to recognize our accomplishments and support them at the level we need is a challenge.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat challenge is one Martin Meyerson, the namesake of Stiftel\u2019s award, embodied.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMartin Myerson is someone whose work I read as early as my first semester in planning school,\u201d he said. As president of SUNY Buffalo and the University of Pennsylvania, Meyerson was an impactful figure in higher education as well as in planning theory and practice, Stiftel said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTo be associated with his legacy in a small way is very humbling and very honoring.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Chair of the School of City and Regional Planning is recognized as the most distinguished leader in higher education.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Chair of the School of City and Regional Planning is recognized as the most distinguished leader in higher education."}],"uid":"27803","created_gmt":"2015-12-07 19:01:50","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:12","author":"Ann Hoevel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-12-07T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-12-07T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"476961":{"id":"476961","type":"image","title":"Bruce Stiftel Martin Myerson Award","body":null,"created":"1449597601","gmt_created":"2015-12-08 18:00:01","changed":"1475895230","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:50","alt":"Bruce Stiftel Martin Myerson Award","file":{"fid":"205753","name":"story.bruce_.myerson_award_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/story.bruce_.myerson_award_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/story.bruce_.myerson_award_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":91831,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/story.bruce_.myerson_award_0_0.jpg?itok=hgtO0sa3"}}},"media_ids":["476961"],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"42911","name":"Education"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAnn Hoevel\u003Cbr \/\u003EDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003ECollege of Architecture\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["ann.hoevel@coa.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}