Student Profiles

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Masters of Urban and Regional Planning

Coming soon!

PhD Students

Eugenio Arriaga

Eugenio is a student in the Urban Studies Ph.D. Program starting in 2010. He is interested in transportation, planning and community development. Eugenio holds a B.A. in Law. He also obtained a Master’s Degree in Politics and Public Management at ITESO University in México and completed a Master’s Degree in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University. Most of his professional experience as a local official, in the city of Guadalajara (México), was related to fields such as sustainable transportation, public space design, social development, planning, and cultural affairs. He also worked for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. His research interests are related to comprehensive city planning, sustainable transportation, and urban poverty. He enjoys watching independent films, reading novels, listening to music, and being with his family.

Tiffany Austin

Tiffany started her first year as a student in the Urban Studies and Planning Ph.D. Program in 2011. Her focus areas are water policy and planning. After moving to Portland over five years ago from Maryland, she started working as a science educator at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and went on to complete the PSU Graduate Certificate in Sustainability and a Masters in Science Teaching degree from PSU’s Center for Science Education, focusing her research on water resources education. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park and has worked in the fields of science and environmental education for over a decade.

Tiffany’s passion is to help solve some of the pressing water resource and justice issues we face as a global society. She is interested in United Nations Water (UN-W) for its current focus on the International Decade for Action "Water for Life" program that researches and highlights best practices in urban water management and participatory and education practices across the globe. In her own research, Tiffany aims to examine water resource issues and their relationship to urban communities that are at risk for environmental and social injustice from current trends in water policies that affect access and pricing. As a result she hopes to collaborate with others to learn how sustainable water policy, education programs and participatory planning opportunities can effect change to solve these issues both locally and internationally. Tiffany loves to be near water and makes frequent trips to the beautiful rivers and waterfalls of Oregon as well as the coast. Impromptu road trips, running, aerial dance, gardening and time to spend with friends are a sample of the many things she loves most.

Myung-Ji Bang

Myung-Ji's (M.J.) interests lie in balanced economic development in revitalizing blighted-neighborhoods, downtown areas, disaster recovery areas, and tourism and cultural planning areas. Her primary interest is in demographic shifts in changing neighborhoods, specifically in terms of economic revitalization and public policy initiatives, and their relation to socio-economic and political influences. Most recently, she conducted research on the role and abilities of community-based organizations in post-disaster changing neighborhoods in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

M.J. has a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Recently, she worked as a Social Science Researcher at the Institute of Urban Studies at UTA. Her work experience in various city planning projects includes downtown revitalization planning, feasibility and impact analyses, researching economic indicators, parks master planning, land use planning, federal grant writing, and research and report writing for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. M.J. worked as part of a team to develop a parks master plan that won the Best Student Project award from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning in 2009, and the project helped the client city earn matching state funds from Texas Parks and Wildlife. In her free time, she enjoys walking through everyday street life and exploring its different aspects.

Chris Blanchard

Chris Blanchard is an urban scholar, writer, and commentator based in Boise, ID. He is currently studying in the Ph.D. program in Urban Studies at Portland State University. Previously he earned a B.S. in Social Science (Economics and History) with Distinguished Honors, and an M.A. in Applied Historical Research, both at Boise State University. His government experience includes staff positions with the Washington State House of Representatives and Senate, and the Boise City Council, among others. Current research interests include economic development strategies for small and medium size cities, and growth and urban politics in the Intermountain West. He is also at work on a biography of Morrison-Knudsen co-founder, Harry Morrison. Chris lives with his wife, pit bulls, and way too many cats on the “Bench” in Boise, Idaho.

Joe Broach

Joe is a doctoral student in the School of Urban Studies & Planning. Joe moved to Portland in 2006 after completing a B.A. in Liberal Studies and M.A. in Economics at the University of Montana. Lifelong interests in transportation and how people make decisions led him to the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at PSU. During his time here, Joe has worked on a number of research projects related to transportation modeling including: trimet operator absenteeism with Dr. Jim Strathman (http://www.otrec.us/project/93), bicycle route choice with Dr. John Gliebe (http://otrec.us/project/249), and the family activity study with Dr. Jennifer Dill (http://otrec.us/project/446).

Tara Goddard

Tara Goddard is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Studies program beginning in 2011, specializing in transportation, particularly travel behavior and bicycling/walking issues. After growing up in rural Northern California, she headed to Santa Barbara, where she graduated from UCSB with honors in both Mechanical Engineering and beach-going. Dreams of designing roller coasters were replaced by more practical and socially-beneficial interests in sustainable transportation and land use planning. To this end, Tara earned her Masters in Civil Engineering at UC Davis, specializing in transportation planning and policy and developing a keen interest in travel behavior and gender, particularly with non-motorized modes. After a short stint as an Associate Transportation Planner for the City of Sacramento, Tara most recently served as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Davis, CA. When she's not working, Tara can be found hiking, bicycling or playing frisbee with her dogs Baxter and Smoky. In what remains of her spare time, she enjoys kayaking, reading, metalsmithing, and catching up on sleep.

Erin Goodling

Erin is a student in the Urban Studies PhD program at PSU, with concentrations in community development and civic ecology. She hopes to continue to find ways to make environmental issues more accessible, pertinent, and pressing for the general public through education and creative means of communication. She is especially concerned with making ecosystem services more equitably available without compromising the health of ecosystems themselves, through public awareness and education. She currently leads outdoor education trips for high school students all over the Pacific Northwest, including backpacking, surfing, rock climbing, and mountaineering trips that focus on ecological education, outdoor skills, and leadership development. Erin has a BA in Spanish with a minor in political science form the University of Portland (2003); a Master's Degree in teaching from Lewis & Clark College (2005); and Oregon and California teaching credentials in language arts and teaching English language learners from Lewis & Clark and Stanford. She has taught middle school language arts in Ewa Beach, HI, and has worked for the San Francisco Unified School District at Larkin Street Youth Services, teaching interdisciplinary, experiential education classes for homeless teenagers. She recently co-wrote an interdisciplinary curriculum guide, Sustainable Communities, for middle and high school teachers with San Francisco education organization World Savvy. She loves to hang out at bookstores, on the beach, and in the woods; cook; and do printmaking and other art projects.

Jamaal Green

Jamaal is a Ph.D. candidate in the school of Urban and Regional Planning starting in 2011. He has a masters degree in planning from UNC-Chapel Hill with a specialization in economic development. His interests lie in climate change mitigation and adaptation policy from a holistic regional planning perspective encompassing not only land-use, but also economic development, design, and transportation.

Terry Hammond

Terry Hammond entered the doctoral program in Urban Studies in 1999 focusing on health policy. He started as a research assistant with Dr. Margaret Neal at the Institute on Aging, the department where he lived for many years and sometimes slept under his desk in a cubicle by the window, until he passed his colloquium in 2007. He obtained a Master of Public Health degree in 2002, and subsequently worked full time at OHSU, first as the personal research associate for the former dean of the School of Medicine, Christine K. Cassel. Later, he worked 6 years as a research analyst and editor at the Oregon Fatality Assessment program. Since January 2011, blessed unemployment for 6 months allowed him to finish his dissertation and pass his oral defense on June 3 (Feasible Models of Universal Health Insurance in Oregon According to Stakeholder Views). He is now a quality improvement specialist at Acumentra Health. As for hobbies, he tried to play chess for awhile on weekends, but dropped it, along with nearly all social activities, long ago, but anticipates real life will resume soon. Once the signatures are fixed on his papers for the grad office, he intends to be hooded with a PhD in health policy in the Spring 2012 commencement.

Zac Hathaway

Zac Hathaway is a second year Masters of Urban Studies student. He has a background in sociology and social psychology. He is interested in individual and community energy use, specifically, energy usage in households, transportation and food systems. As the world faces limited and dwindling conventional energy sources, Zac's aim is to better understand how people actually use energy in order to design more effective programs and policies to decrease energy used via lifestyle changes. During his time at PSU, Zac has gained experience in designing and conducting both qualitative and quantitative survey research. During the past year, he has been working collaboratively with Dr. Lutzenhiser’s team and the PSU Survey Research Lab to design and implement a variety of household energy use surveys. In his spare time, Zac enjoys spending time outdoors taking advantage of all of the amazing things Portland has to offer. He is an avid bicyclist and public transportation rider, and he also enjoys camping, hiking, building, woodworking, cooking, listening to and making music, and playing with his chickens and Lab.

Nicole Iroz-Elardo

Nicole Iroz-Elardo is a PhD Candidate in Urban Studies. She joined the program after working for several years as a statistician in environmental health. Her field areas are in urban planning/negotiation theory and urban health. She was drawn to these specializations because she wants to understand how planning curriculum and public planning processes can better support social justice ideals and outcomes. Her dissertation investigates the potential of Health Impact Assessments (HIA) to provide communities an additional avenue to participate in and influence the planning process. She is also working on a research project with Dr. Bassett to understand and document the urban chicken movement and city ordinances. When she's not working on her dissertation, she's likely in the garden with her 3-year old son.

Mark Kenseth

Mark is a student in the PhD Urban Studies program beginning in 2011. He is concerned about urban and rural issues relating to social and environmental justice. More specifically, he is interested in policy and community development relating to sustainability in housing, resource management and transportation access. Mark grew up in the greater Chicago area where he earned a BA in Architecture. Having spent several years working in the field of architecture he then traveled and worked abroad and became more interested in issues and policies regarding sustainability. After returning to Chicago, Mark completed a MA in Geography and Environmental Studies in 2011, and is currently reading Lefebvre's Production of Space, having read several scholarly articles which reference it. A newbie to Weekendland, Mark is looking forward to meeting new people, watching the Timbers, and getting lost while traversing the city by bicycle. And he can't wait to go hiking and camping in the Cascadia region.

Michael Koscielniak

Michael (RJ) Koscielniak relishes his industrial heritage and believes in the reinvention of the Rustbelt. His research and practice concentrate on innovative planning and community development strategies for shrinking cities of the industrial Midwest. RJ argues for a reappraisal of pro-growth land use and development discourses, advocating instead for a more participatory revitalization guided by principles of density, equity and reutilization. He focuses on the potential for both creative and policy approaches to intervene in deteriorated or underserved neighborhoods, affording special attention to the multifaceted benefits of localized craft and cottage industries. Additionally, he is concerned with the effects of social enterprise and informal institutions on the trajectories of community development.

Prior to Portland State University, RJ was a Practitioner-in-Residence at the Rebuild Foundation in St. Louis, MO., specializing in public programming and building deconstruction. In May of 2011, RJ Koscielniak was awarded the Master in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, where he focused on social enterprise and alternative urban development strategies. At the end of 2008, he received his BA in Peace Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia, concentrating on critical theory and urban pedagogy.

Anthony Lavenda

Anthony is starting the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at Portland State University, with concentrations in planning and energy in 2011. Anthony completed a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 2010, specializing in air pollution and sustainable built environments. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2009) with a minor in environmental science also from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Anthony has been involved with many research projects ranging from biofuel combustion analysis to air quality monitoring and control systems in buildings. He has experience as an energy engineer where he specialized in computer simulations of energy efficiency upgrades for many building types. His research interests include regional urban planning, sustainable development, climate change, and community energy systems. Anthony loves spending time with his girlfriend and their dog and cats while cooking vegan food and enjoying all the beautiful things the Northwest has to offer.

Liang Ma

Liang is a third-year student in Urban Studies Ph.D. Program at Portland State University. His research is primarily about interactions between built environment and travel behavior, especially on promoting active and healthy travel behavior by urban design and planning solutions. He previously received his masters degree in Human Geography from Peking University in China, and has been working in EDAW as an economist for two years. On his free time, he like to swim, cook, and spend time with friends and family.

Marissa Matsler

Marissa Matsler is a marine biologist and budding urban ecologist interested in how urban communities interact with water, and the ecological, political and social drivers and consequences of these interactions. This research passion was forged by the dichotomy of her experiences in both wet coastal worlds and brilliantly dry deserts. After completing her bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at Oregon State University (OSU), Marissa studied green architecture in Arizona, receiving a certificate in Sustainable Design from the Ecosa Institute. A move to the east coast to sail tall ships, opened her eyes to management implications of ecological research as the fields of biology and architecture scaled up in her mind to ecology and urban planning. She integrated the human element into her studies while completing her Masters of Environmental Management degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES). At PSU, Marissa will be a part of the Ecosystem Services for Urbanizing Regions Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (ESUR- IGERT) program, examining decentralized stormwater infrastructure’s efficacy as an ecosystem service provider. Other topics she hopes to explore while in grad school include eco-city development in China, EcoSan throughout the world, outdoor education, LEED-Neighborhood Development, land/sea connections, knitting, Belgian beer, and travel.

Dillon Mahmoudi

Dillon Mahmoudi started his Ph.D. focusing in Economic Development and Technology in 2009. He received his Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science in 2006 from Georgia Institute of Technology with specializations in Human Computer Interaction and Software Engineering. Currently, he is working with Professor Ethan Seltzer on a project blending technology, collaboration, planning and economic development. Additionally, he has served for two years as a representative on the Urban Studies Executive Committee. His past work includes positions with Microsoft and National Instruments working in software development, ecommerce, and web marketing. Dillon’s current research interests are aimed at using technology to improve our cities. These broad interests have resulted in research and/or coursework focusing on: open collaboration and innovation technologies, high-low tech, the human and economic geography of cities, urban international development and non-traditional workforce development strategies. When not thinking about cities, you can find Dillon tinkering with software, brewing beer, playing soccer, debating with friends over a local pint, hiking in a National Park, biking the streets of Portland, or flying the Cascadian flag.

David Martineau

David is a third-year student in the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at Portland State University, with concentrations in planning and sustainable development. David completed a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Eastern Washington University in 2000, specializing in environmental planning and sustainable development. He has a B.A. in Sociology (1997) with an emphasis in Asian Studies and research methods also from Eastern Washington University. He is an AICP-certified planner with seven years’ experience in the public sector in Washington and Oregon. His research interests include comparative urban planning in the U.S. and China, sustainable development, climate change, and alternatives to growth. For fun, he enjoys traveling, cooking, scenic hikes, organic gardening, rock and roll music, cats, and spending time with his wife of 24 years, Sue; and his daughter Adrienne, the other college student in the family. David was born and raised in Connecticut.

Contact:

martinea@pdx.edu

Moriah McGrath

Moriah entered the Ph.D. program in Urban Studies in 2006 and is pursuing field areas in Community Development and Urban Health (a self- designed field). Her research interests include sexuality, substance use, and infectious disease in the urban context. At PSU, Moriah has worked as a research or teaching assistant with: the University Studies general education program, the School of Community Health, the Center for Academic Excellence, and the Population Research Center. Prior to moving to Portland in 2006, she did public health research in New York. Moriah holds a B.A. in Feminist and Gender Studies concentrating in Gender and Science from Haverford College, as well an M.S. in Urban Planning and an MPH in Sociomedical Sciences concentrating in Urbanism and Community Health from Columbia University. Manhattan and Madagascar are her two favorite islands.

Aaron McQ

Aaron's primary interest in obtaining his PSU doctoral degree is to further promote sustainably designed neighbourhoods—those supportive of and accessible to pedestrians and cyclists of all ages—to encourage urban cohesiveness where such activities become safe and commonplace. He has a Masters Degree in Design Management from the University of Arts London at the London College of Communications. Considered a contemporary MBA, the program emphasized design thinking and multi-disciplinary collaboration toward providing sustainable solutions to complex design challenges within many different fields. In having lived and spent considerable time in Europe, as well as having traveled extensively throughout the world, Aaron appreciates the varied cultural approaches taken to encouraging sustainable transportation options, particularly those respectful of the needs of our increasing elderly demographic. When he’s not traveling or writing on these topics, he’s most likely riding his bike, running or having a wander—hoping to get lost in a new locale.

Stewart Van Cleve

Stewart Van Cleve graduated with a B.S. in Urban Studies from the University of Minnesota, where he also worked as a curatorial assistant at the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies—an international queer archive at the University of Minnesota. He just completed his first book, tentatively titled Land of 10,000 Loves: A Queer Minnesota History, with the University of Minnesota Press. His work focuses on using oral histories and archival material to make regional queer histories accessible to the broader public, and he intends to write his second book about queer history in Oregon while living here. When not rummaging in the archives, he likes to volunteer with local queer organizations and explore Portland's gay nightlife scene with new friends.

Kenya Williams

Kenya is a first-year student in the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at Portland State University. He is a Georgia native and has lived and worked in Portland for almost ten years. His research interests include urban planning, acoustic ecology, soundscape management and urban design. Kenya received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2008 from Portland State University. He specialized in Environmental Planning, while also earning an Urban Design Graduate Certificate. He was a Francis McCommon Scholar at the Savannah College of Art and Design where he received his undergraduate degree in filmmaking with a minor in sound design.

Kenya’s career goal is to pioneer in researching and teaching the role sound plays in urban and environmental planning. Specifically, he is interested in researching and developing methods to categorize the positive and negative attributes of soundscapes as a step toward minimizing sonic footprints in urban and natural areas. Kenya is on the Board of Directors for the One Square Inch Foundation. This organization’s mission is protecting natural quiet in our national parks through education, awareness and utilizing simple methods of soundscape management. When time permits, Kenya enjoys filmmaking, composing music, blending spices and one-tank road trips.

Jay Yancey

Jay began his studies as a student in the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at Portland State University in Fall, 2011. Jay intends to concentrate on urban planning, with an emphasis on planning programs to create neighborhood communities for disenfranchised populations. He is also interested in concentrating on program and policy analysis, focusing on underlying political, social, and psychological factors and preconceptions that influence urban planning and theory. Jay received his J.D. in 1997 from the University of Kansas and practiced law for eight years. Jay always wanted to be Dorothy Parker and thought the competition level for that would be low in the legal profession. Unfortunately, he did not realize that the appreciation level would be commensurate. He has a B.A. in Psychology (1992), with an emphasis on the political use and social impact of categorizing mental states. Jay enjoys cooking, swimming, biking, and listening to opera and was born and raised in Ashland, Oregon.

MURP Students

Coming soon!

MUS Students

Molly Bressers

Molly Bressers started her Masters of Urban Studies in the Fall 2009 with a focus in Sustainable Development. Her research thesis is about the barriers and opportunities for sustainable operations within large organizations such as PSU. She is qualitatively analyzing surveys of stakeholders in the PSU community to understand what barriers and opportunities exist for enabling best practices that support campus goals for carbon neutrality, EcoDistrict development, and resource conservation within the organization. Her estimated graduation is Fall 2011. In her free time she likes to cook, do Pilates, ride bikes, swim, camp, be crafty, and laugh.

Tiffany Conklin

Tiffany started her Masters of Urban Studies focusing on public space in 2009. She moved to Portland in 2005 after receiving her B.A. in Anthropology and Urban Studies from the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on emergent forms of street art, specifically, defining these new forms of urban inscription and exploring how they encourage us to re-imagine the urban landscape. Her thesis will be informed by secondary research in urban theory, geography, sociology, philosophy, art and anthropology. Tiffany is gathering data on how these urban interventions engage with audiences in public spaces via field research in cities in the United States and Europe. In her other life as a Research Assistant at PSU's Survey Research Lab, she helps create and implement surveys for PSU faculty, government agencies, and community organizations. In her spare time, she loves hiking and camping, urban gardening and chicken keeping, making art, bicycling, eating good veggie food, drinking local beer, and collecting vinyl records.

Katrina Johnston

Katrina started her masters degree in Urban Studies in 2010 with a custom focus in public space. Before moving to Portland for her degree, she was finishing a BA in Anthropology and working on a research project after graduation at Arizona State University titled Urban Organization: Neighborhoods, Open Space and Urban Life specializing in open space in ancient and contemporary cities around the world. Her major interests are human behavior in the urban landscape, urban design, comparative urbanism, and improved quality of life through a better built environment. Current thesis work includes conducting a spatial ethnography on the Urban Center Plaza in the hopes of better understanding behavior in space and how the space was formed. Aside from Anthropology she also has an academic background in Art History and Fine Arts, and has taken in part in an archaeological dig in Cyprus as well as an ethnography in Scandinavia. In her spare time she likes to paint, read, and dream of living in Copenhagen (though Portland is the next best thing).

Alex Novie

Alex is interested in the following two questions: 1) How can communities develop and facilitate more symbiotic relationships with their land base? 2) How are requisite scientific concepts and technical knowledge disseminated to community stakeholders and policymakers? Food systems and local food networks are his principle areas of study at PSU. Other academic fascinations include transnational environmental issues, community education, bioregionalism and linguistics.

Alex has a BA in International Relations with a Spanish minor from the University of Redlands, California. His professional experience includes energy policy implementation, community education, and sustainable building consulting. Volunteer efforts with local transit and arts organizations have been particularly rewarding and inspirational. Alex loves to travel and experience different cultures, especially in Latin America. He is an avid musician.

Jen Turner

Jen is in the Master of Urban Studies program as of fall 2010, where she is developing a specialization in community development and urban food systems/culture. Her interest in these topics stems from a number of experiences: her time spent teaching high school in Brooklyn, NY and observing her students' interactions and relationships with food and how they intertwine with their experience with the world; years of restaurant work contemplating the immensely social nature of food; and courses in foodways as an undergraduate at American University in Washington DC. She am an Oregon native, returning in 2009 after many years on the east coast cultivating an appreciation for fast talking, extensive and somewhat daunting public transportation networks, and floppy slices of pizza. When she's not in student mode, she can be found cooking way too much food for two people, discovering another favorite food cart, watching bad movies, appreciating Portland's walkability, and playing with her parents' golden retriever. She also work as the Community Coordinator for New Seasons Market's Arbor Lodge location in North Portland, and is involved with the emerging Artisan Economy Initiative at PSU; her hope is that her work with the New Seasons community will eventually intersect with the objectives of the AEI, as well as her thesis research - more to come!

Community Development Students