Doctoral students/candidates and alumni
About 20 students (including those who have advanced to candidacy) pursue doctoral studies in city and regional planning at Georgia Tech. The program's alumni are all employed as faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.
Doctoral students
Ning Ai
Ning Ai majors in Environmental Planning, and minors in Industrial Ecology. Her current research focuses on socioeconomic and spatial analysis of waste management policies. Since entering Georgia Tech in 2004, she has been working on a NSF-funded project “Modeling Material Flows for Sustainable Industrial Systems for Urban Regions” (P.I.: Dr. Nancey Green Leigh), which investigates the product flow of durable goods and the ensuing implications through case studies in Atlanta and Seattle metropolitan regions.
Ning has published in journals of Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, Economic Systems Research, and the International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology. She has also presented at the annual meetings of Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (2004-2007), the International Input-Output Association (IIOA) Conference (2005), the International Society for Industrial Ecology Conference (2007), and the International Forum on Urban Development and Planning (2008). She was an invited speaker at the EPA Region 4 States’ Solid Waste & Recycling Meeting in Atlanta (2006), the 5th Annual Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) Conference in Charleston (2007). Her publications cover socioeconomic impact analysis of dust storms, material flow modeling, and solid waste management policy design.
Ning has worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. in Boston, and Georgia State Department of Natural Resources in Atlanta. Ning obtained a master’s degree in City Planning from the International Development and Regional Planning Group at MIT (2003), a B.A. in environmental economics from Renmin (People’s) University of China (2001), and a B.S. in environmental engineering from Tsinghua University (2001).
Ann Carpenter
Ann Carpenter's areas of research are sustainable urban development and urban morphology.
Ann is currently a part-time student and a full-time research associate with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory. Recently, she helped conclude the SMARTRAQ (Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta's Regional Transportation and Air Quality) study at GTRI. Her current work includes community resilience, spatial analysis using artificial neural networks and GIS, and modeling Atlanta's desired air quality in 2050.
Ann has a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and an active member of the East Atlanta Community Association.
Taelim Choi
Taelim’s research interest is how to make the local economy more environmentally sustainable. His research area includes local economic development, environmental policy, and regional science. Currently his work focuses on voluntary environmental management systems of firms and a performance-based environmental program.
He is involved in a NSF-funded project, the Sustainable Industrial System for Urban Regions (SISFUR). His work evaluates the economic impact of recycling activities. He reformulates the existing regional input-output framework. He strives to integrate Input-Output Models with Environmental Accounts that reflect physical and monetary flows in regional economic and ecological systems. He is a co-author of a paper with Dr. Leigh and Dr. Jackson, “Recycling and Re-Manufacturing in Input-Output Models” presented at the47th Annual Southern Regional Science Association Meeting.
He has a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Engineering from Yonsei University and a bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering from Konkuk University. He worked for Seoul Development Institute. His work was extensively on building a regional economic forecast model. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Yeonggyeong.
Jessica Doyle
Jessica Doyle began Ph.D. studies at Georgia Tech's City and Regional Planning Program in the fall of 2005. Her research interests focus primarily on the links between transportation infrastructure and economic development, particularly with respect to labor mobility and globalization. She currently works as a researcher at Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development under Dr. Catherine Ross. Jessica presented at the 2007 annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and the 2008 joint conference of ACSP and the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). In May 2007 she was privileged to attend the Ph.D. Jamboree hosted by the University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning.
Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, Jessica worked as an online editor for five years for Economist.com, the online edition of The Economist magazine. She was editor of Global Executive, Economist.com's section on trends in business innovation and management education, from its launch in April 2001 until August 2005. She also worked as a correspondent for The Economist, covering the Southeast United States. Jessica holds a bachelor of arts with high honors in history from Swarthmore College and has studied at the Université de Grenoble in France.
Jay Forrest
Jay Forrest's research focuses on Sustainable Economic Development. His current work examines the diffusion of sustainable practice and processes in manufacturing extension programs. Jay has been a full-time employee of Georgia Tech since 1995 and is currently an information associate III in the Georgia Tech library. Jay provides reference, research, and IT support during the library's third shift (midnight to 9 a.m.).
Jay has a master's degree in city and regional planning from Georgia Tech (2003) and a master's degree in geography from the Georgia State University (1998). His undergraduate degree, an A.B. with a dual majors in women's studies and comparative area studies, is from Duke University (1995).
Jay lives in Marietta with his wife, RaeAnne.
Kathryn Frank
Kathryn's main research interest is in how to achieve effective ecosystem management, particularly through the use of collaborative decision-making processes. Kathryn's dissertation is examining the contribution of collaboration to restoration policies and their implementation for the Florida Everglades region. Kathryn is also interested in broader processes of civic engagement in planning, especially those that involve children and youth. Kathryn's primary dissertation advisor is Dr. Michael Elliott.
Kathryn's article "The potential of youth participation in planning" is forthcoming in the May 2006 issue of the Journal of Planning Literature. Kathryn has presented papers on collaborative planning and ecosystem management at the annual conferences of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.
Kathryn received her master's in community and regional planning at the University of Oregon. Kathryn has maintained her ties there through teaching graduate courses in systems theory and ecosystem management, and through consulting work with a university service-learning program, the Community Service Center. Prior to entering the field of planning, Kathryn was an environmental engineer at a chemical manufacturing plant in North Carolina.
Kathryn lives in Eugene, Ore., with her husband and daughter.
Tae-Hyoung Gim
Tae-Hyoung "Tommy" Gim specializes in conflict resolution and facilitation via stakeholder's involvement. His interests include participatory planning, real estate development, and quantitative/qualitative research methods such as GIS, statistics and ethnographical techniques.
Tommy is author of about 25 articles and reports analyzing risk from chemical products, land use suitability, sites for national capital relocation, and other topics. The most recent publication, "What is the Worse Sprawl? Relationship between Physical Patterns of Sprawl and the Level of Air Pollution in the Atlanta Metropolitan Region," has been accepted for presentation at the 2006 Hawaii International Conference for Social Sciences.
Before coming to Georgia Tech, Tommy worked at South Korea's national research institutes, including the Korea Environment Institute and the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements. He has also had a career in newspaper journalism.
Tommy has a master of city planning degree from Seoul National University and a B.A. degree in geography from Korea University.
Elizabeth Keysar
Elizabeth Keysar has an interest in integrated environmental planning and management, particularly the constraints to integrated approaches that result from current organizational structures and norms in public land management agencies. This research interest emerged after she spent six years as a research fellow with the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI). While at AEPI, Elizabeth researched topics relating to the integration of master planning, environmental impact assessment, and environmental management systems at United States Army installations. She was also fortunate to serve in a supporting role for the Installation Sustainability Program at several major Army installations. Currently, Elizabeth continues her support of Army sustainability efforts as a senior technical staff member at Concurrent Technologies Corp. Her most recent research involves identifying regional sustainability indicators relevant to regions containing military installations.
Elizabeth has published papers based on her Army research in the following journals: Environmental Impact Assessment Review, the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, and the Federal Facilities Environmental Journal. She has presented at Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference (2005), the Joint Services Environmental Management Conference (2005), the Installation Management Institute (2005) and the Federal Planning Division of the American Planning Association Annual Workshop (2004).
Elizabeth completed a bachelor’s degree in biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1989. Elizabeth spent seven years working as an environmental technician and specialist in private environmental consulting firms conducting hazardous waste site cleanup, health and safety monitoring and environmental site assessments before returning to complete her masters in public policy at Georgia Tech in 1998. Elizabeth enjoys applied research, especially topics that connect policy goals with implementation realities. She plans to complete a dissertation that will identify constraints to integrated planning and management across several public agencies of similar size.
Elizabeth currently resides in Peachtree City, Ga., with her husband, three children, two cats and one golf cart.
Jaecheol Kim
Jaecheol Kim’s research interests in urban design field include: connection between theory and practice, decision making processes, diffusion of ideas, and market adaptation of ideal models. Currently, he is studying on the transition of new urbanism model in neighborhood development practice in the Atlanta area.
Jaecheol has a master's degree in city planning (specialization: City Design and Development) from MIT (2004), a master’s degree in urban engineering from Seoul National University (1997), and an undergraduate degree in urban engineering from Seoul National University (1995).
Jaecheol worked for a Korean construction company, Daewoo Construction Co., as an architectural engineer and housing developer from 1997 to 2000, and worked for municipal governments, Seoul and Incheon, as a planner from 2000 to 2001, and 2005, respectively.
Gyungwon Kim
Gyungwon Kim’s current research focuses on growth management and housing policies. She also works as a research assistant at the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.
Before entering Georgia Tech in 2008, Gyungwon worked for five years as an urban planner and housing developer of Newtown Planning Team for the Korea National Housing Corporation, a public enterprise playing a lead role in housing welfare policies of South Korea. Gyongwon contributed in the process of creating innovative urban spaces, combining environmental concerns, mixed-use community development, transit-oriented development, pre-constructed infrastructure (including Information Technology), and water circulation in the development of Paju Newtown in South Korea.
Gyungwon has a master's degree in city and regional planning from Seoul National University (2006) and a bachelor's degree with high honors in urban engineering from University of Seoul (2001).
Dalbyul Lee
Dalbyul Lee's research encompasses environmental planning, low-income housing, and GIS. She is particularly interested in exposure of low-income people to natural hazards. She is working as a research assistant at the Center for Geographic Information System and is examining the social and economic consequences of natural hazards.
Dalbyul presented a paper at meetings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. In the paper, "Population Growth, Disaster, and Social Equity: Environmental Impact Analysis in Floodplain Areas," she conducted two case studies to compare the growth of low-income people within the floodplains in Austin and Houston, Texas.
She has a master's degree in GIS from the Pusan National University (2000) and a master's degree in community and regional planning from the University of Texas at Austin (2005). Her undergraduate degree in urban engineering is from the Pusan National University (1997).
Sang Won Lee
Won Lee's primary research focuses on sustainable urban and regional development. His research goal is to find a compatible equilibrium between efficiency and equity issues and concerns, based on the macro-level urban development area and micro-level community development area. He is also interested in urban water supply and quality issues, and the conflict between environmental development and equity issues such as water gentrification.
Won has a master's degree in public affairs from Cornell University (2006) and a dual bachelor's degree in Swedish and English languages from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in his native country South Korea. Won worked in the corporate business and financial sector from 2000 to 2006 before beginning his doctoral studies.
Won currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, You Jeong.
Yun Sang Lee
Yun Sang Lee's current research focuses on the impacts of recent housing and mortgage market changes on residential racial segregation. His broader interests include factors affecting housing affordability.
He was a research assistant for Prof. Immergluck working on "Home Buying in New Orleans before and after Katrina: Patterns by space, race, and income" (http://www.ukcpr.org/DiscussionPapers.aspx) as well as other projects. He is currently working as a teaching assistant for classes on Quantitative and Computer Methods and Advanced Planning Methods. He presented his work, "Housing Price Dynamics in Suburban Neighborhoods with Rapid Ethnic Change," at the ACSP 48th Annual Conference.
Prior to entering Georgia Tech, Yun worked at Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements. He has a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech, a master's in urban engineering from Hanyang University, and a bachelor's in city planning from Hanyang University.
Ge Song
Ge Song’s research focus is transportation planning. Her current work examines mobility and accessibility issues in mega-regions, the relationship between spatial pattern of built environment and travel behavior, and metropolitan spatial planning.
Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, she worked as an urban planner for more than one year for Atkins Consultants Company in Beijing. Her previous practical experiences involved urban design, land use planning, urban regeneration, regional development and strategic spatial planning.
Ge obtained a master degree in Spatial Planning from University College London (2007), and a bachelor’s degree in Urban and Rural Planning from Beijing University (2005).
Eric Sundquist
Eric Sundquist ’s research focuses on ways to make transportation more sustainable. He is particularly interested in ways to measure the success of a transportation system that depart for the current practice of maximizing mobility. While studying in the Ph.D. program, he is working as a research scientist at the College of Architecture’s Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, where he is performing both academic research and applied research for a variety of clients.
Eric has presented papers at meetings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the American Planning Association, and the Healthy Places Research Group, as well as at Georgia Tech’s annual Governments & Growth workshop. Conference papers include “You Get What You Measure: From Mobility- to Accessibility-Based Transportation Standards”; “Elites and the Grassroots: The Politics of Growth Machine and Sustainable Development in Chattanooga and Seattle”; and “Planning for a Sustainable Future: Lessons from Abroad.”
Before going to work for CQGRD, Eric had a two-decade career in newspaper journalism, most recently serving as nation editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Eric has a master’s degree in public policy from Georgia Tech (2004) and a master’s degree in humanities from the University of Richmond (1988). His undergraduate degree, a B.A. with a major in English, is from Miami University (1981). In 1988 he walked from Richmond, Va., to Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Sangwoo “Marty” Sung
Sangwoo “Marty” Sung’s major research interests are related to Geographic Information Systems and Database Application for Environmental Modeling. Since his doctoral degree pursuit in Georgia tech, he has been actively involved in Mid-America earthquake risk assessment project carried by Mid-America Earthquake Center in UIUC and funded by National Science Foundation. His contribution was mainly attributed in improving an advanced level of physical building structure inventory databases including HAZUS (ArcGIS-based hazard assessment application) inventory.
Recently, his new research interest has been expanded to explore how GIS can be used to simulate future land use and land cover (LULC) pattern in Southeastern region in the US under various climate change conditions. In order to discuss human adaptation strategies in planning and policy, he is delving into the foci in (1) multiple spatial analysis techniques of identifying past, current LULC change patterns using remote sensing imageries, and (2) implementing enhanced geodatabase designs integrating various machine learning techniques to simulate future change models in LULC and natural environment.
Before he comes to the U.S., he received his B.S. (1998) and first M.S. degree (2000) in Urban Engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. He received another Master degree in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2004). Before he went to Rutgers, he had worked as a land suitability analyst for a while in a national leading Korean GIS company called “Korean geoSpatial Information Corporation.” During his academic life, he has been teaching (or assisting instructor) a couple of courses related to GIS, CAD applications, and advanced planning methods. He is currently working in the Center for Geographic Information Systems at Georgia Tech as a Graduate Research Assistant and Professor Steven P. French, PhD. FAICP is his academic advisor since his entrance to Georgia Tech.
Aside from academic career, he loves photography, coffee, piano music, spring time, and the most of all, his family.
Jason Vargo
As the recipient of the first assistantship in climate change and planning awarded by the department in 2008, Jason is working on projects with a focus on climate adaptation strategies in urban environments and how land use decisions effect local climate, primarily temperature. He works with and is advised by Dr. Brian Stone. Other work contributes to examining the influence of the built environment on employee quality of life. In addition to master’s coursework in city and regional planning at Georgia Tech, Jason has completed a curriculum in global environmental public health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. He lives, studies, gardens, reads, and tries new things in Atlanta and around the southeast with his wife, Lauren. Please feel free to contact him with questions about the program or his work.
Caitlin Waddick
Caitlin Waddick's research seeks to re-integrate planning and public health by understanding how principles of environmental health, such as reducing pollutant exposures, can be integrated with planning. Planning has historically regulated pollution through measurements of pollutant emissions. Caitlin's research demonstrates a new approach for environmental planning, regulation, and assessment by assessing pollution according to how pollutants actually reach people, such as by using first-hand reports of human exposure. Her other research interests include planning for climate change and food planning and sustainability.
Caitlin has given presentations on human exposure assessment, healthy housing, healthy communities, food planning, and academic writing at the conferences of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the Association of European Schools of Planning, the International Society of Forecasters, and the National Council for Independent Living. She has also presented to planning students, Georgia Tech alumni, and groups of mothers wanting to understand and reduce their families' everyday toxic exposures. She is designing a guide for planners to implement environmentally healthy communities that can accommodate individuals who are susceptible to chemical exposures, such as children and pregnant women, individuals with asthma or multiple chemical sensitivity, and people who are sick or elderly, as well as the general public.
As recipient of an EPA STAR Fellowship, Caitlin performed an epidemiological study of environmental factors that contribute to illness, which was published in the Archives of Environmental Health. She has also received scholarships and grants from Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility (Nor Cal chapter), the National Association of Garden Clubs, the Garden Club of Georgia, and the American Planning Association (Private Practice Division). She has served as a representative on the Executive Boards of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Atlanta Wellesley Club, and as President of the Student Planning Association (Georgia Tech).
Caitlin lives with her husband, Asim Zia, and their three children, Ursula, Anika, and Rustum, in sunny, scenic Boulder, Colo., and Islamabad, Pakistan.
Raymond R. White Sr.
Raymond’s research is focused on the application of overlay zoning district as a determinant in the promotion of specific economic objectives and land use types. In the Ph.D. program, Raymond has completed course work that supports this research and will facilitate the development of appropriate analytical techniques.
Raymond is a past director of planning for DeKalb County, Ga. He also has practiced planning as the economic development manager for the same county, working in these capacities 13 years and eight years respectively. In addition, Raymond has worked for Fulton County, Ga.; Oglethorpe Power Corp.; the City of Plainfield, N.J.; and a number of city-planning consulting firms.
Raymond has a master’s degree in city planning from Georgia Tech (1977) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in community development/city planning from Rutgers University (1975). He also has received a designation through the American Institute of Certified Planners (1990) and a certificate of Public Management from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government (1988).
Raymond lives in Lawrenceville with his wife, Karmen, and step-daughter, Nia.
Doctoral alumni
Dr. Shi Hak Noh, 1989
Dissertation: Efficiency and Equity Implications of Private Automobile Use in an Urban Area. A Case Study of Metro-Atlanta.
Current position: Professor, Department of Geography, Kyung Hee University, South Korea.
Dr. Thomas Sanchez, 1996
Dissertation: Equity Implications and Impacts of Personal Transportation Benefits on Urban Form.
Current position:Associate professor, Chair of City and Metropolitan Planning, College of Architecture + Planning, University of Utah.
Dr. Rhonda Culp-Phillips, 1996
Dissertation: A Remote Sensing Analysis of Residential Land Use, Forest Canopy Distribution, and Surface Heat Island Formation in the Atlanta Metropolitan Region.
Current position: Associate professor and director, Center for Building Better Communities, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida.
Dr. Mohammad Farooq, 1999
Dissertation: Social and Spatial implications of community-based residential environments on crime in urban settings: Comparative analysis of the distribution of crime between cooperative and rental apartments in their surrounding urban settings of one mile radius in Atlanta, Georgia.
Current position: Professor, architecture department, Southern Polytechnic State University.
Dr. Brian Stone, 2001
Dissertation: A Remote Sensing Analysis of Residential Land Use, Forest Canopy Distribution, and Surface Heat Island Formation in the Atlanta Metropolitan Region.
Current position: Associate professor, City and Regional Planning Program, College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Sarah Coffin, 2002
Dissertation: The Brownfields Reality Check: A Study of Land Value and the Effects of Brownfield Redevelopment on the Location of Section 8 Housing.
Current position: Assistant professor, Department of Public Policy Studies, College of Public Service, St. Louis University.
Dr. Casey J. Dawkins, 2003
Dissertation: Tiebout choice and Residential Segregation by Race.
Curent position:Assistant professor, Director of the Virginia Center for Housing Research, Virginia Tech.
Dr. Sugie Lee, 2005
Dissertation: Intra-metropolitan Spatial-Temporal Differentions: Analyzing the impacts of decentralization and gentrification on inner ring suburbs.
Current position: Assistant professor, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Dr. Lynn Patterson, 2007
Dissertation: Local Economic Development Agency Support for Construction & Demolition Recycling
Current position: Assistant professor, Department of Geography & Anthropology,
Kennesaw State University
Dr. Subrahmanyn Muthukumar, 2008
Dissertation: The Application of Advanced Inventory Techniques in Urban Inventory Data Development to Earthquake Risk Modeling and Mitigation in Mid-America
Current position: Research Scientist, Center for Geographic Information Systems; Adjunct faculty, City and Regional Planning Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Mitch Moody, 2008
Dissertation:Georgia's Structurally Unemployed Workers: Do State Job Training Programs Help?