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’s current research focuses on socioeconomic and spatial analysis of waste management policies. Ning is also interested in sustainable land use planning, and more generally speaking, environmental planning issues in both the United States and in developing countries. Since 2004, she has been involved in a NSF-funded research project, “Modeling Materials Flows for Sustainable Industrial Systems in Urban Centers,” which investigates the product flow of durable goods and the ensuing implications through a case study of electronics in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Ning has presented papers at the 45th and the 46th meetings of Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and the 15th International Input-Output Association (IIOA) Conference. Conference papers include “Designing Waste Recycling Programs to be Community and Material Specific: Insights from Florida”; “Application and Extension of Input-Output Analysis in Economic-Impact Analysis of Dust Storms: A Case Study in Beijing, China”; “Assessing the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Yellow-Dust Storms.” Ning also has three conference papers and two journal papers currently under review.
Before entering Georgia Tech in 2004, Ning worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. in Boston. Her previous work experiences have involved socioeconomic impact analysis of natural disasters, water resource management, evaluation of infrastructure service delivery, and application of GIS in environmental protection. 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 area of research is sustainable urban development and brownfield redevelopment. She is also interested in issues of environmental justice related to both contamination and revitalization.
Ann is currently a part-time student and a full-time research associate with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Health and Environmental Systems Laboratory. Recently, she helped conclude the SMARTRAQ (Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta’s Regional Transportation and Air Quality) study at GTRI. Her current work includes outreach and technical assistance and research related to brownfields and other hazardous sites, spatial analysis using artificial neural networks and GIS, and modeling Atlanta’s desired air quality in 2050.
Ann has presented her work at several conferences and workshops including the 2004 Georgia URISA GIS/IT Conference, the 2005 EPA Hazardous Substance Research Centers Conference, and the 2005 Planning for Property Reuse and Redevelopment Seminar for the Alabama Planning Association. Contributions to major reports include “Modeling the Air Quality Benefits of the Atlanta Regional Commissions Livable Centers Initiative” (to the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, 2004), “The Far-reaching Impacts of Green Facility Planning” (to the Kresge Foundation, 2005), and “A Hybrid GIS-Artificial Neural Network approach to Brownfields Sleuthing” (to the GTRI Fellow’s Council, 2006).
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
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.
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 include the economics of public transportation systems, transportation planning, and the role of incentives in local economic development. She currently works as a researcher at Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development under Dr. Catherine Ross.
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, and has written the Atlanta Cities Guide for Economist.com since its launch in March 2003.
Jessica holds a bachelor of arts with high honors in history from Swarthmore College and has studied at the Université de Grenoble in France. She lives in Atlanta.
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 major research interest is the evaluation of urban design movements. He is studying the transition between the theoretical model and the implementation of the New Urbanism movement.
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. Jaecheol has a master's degree in city planning from MIT (2004), master ’s degree in urban engineering from Seoul National University (1997), and an undergraduate degree in urban engineering from Seoul National University (1995).
Jaecheol lives in Atlanta with his wife, Munju, and daughter, Nayoung.
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).
Yun Sang Lee
Dee Merriam
Mitch Moody
Mitch Moody’s research interests focus on urban and regional economic integration and employment. Mr. Moody’s dissertation research investigates the regional impacts of industrial restructuring and the resultant labor force effects. While studying for the doctorate, Mr. Moody also holds the position of program director for the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy at Clark Atlanta University.
Mr. Moody has presented papers at meetings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the Annual Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the Executive Leadership Institute of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and the Impact Fee Symposium of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Refereed publications include “Price Effects of Nearby Apartments on Single-Family Detached Homes,” with Arthur C. Nelson; “Developing Transportation Alternatives for Welfare Recipients Moving to Work,” with David S. Sawicki; “The Effects of Intermetropolitan Migration on Labor Force Participation in Poor Communities,” with David S. Sawicki; “Déjà-Vu All Over Again: Porter’s Model of Inner City Redevelopment,” with David S. Sawicki; and “Who Wants a Job? Who Gets a Job?” with David S. Sawicki.
Mr. Moody has a master’s degree in public policy from Georgia Tech. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and bachelor degrees in EE and physics from Georgia Tech as well.
Mr. Moody has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, and Clark Atlanta University; among them: PAUS 8311 Planning Theory and Analysis (GSU), PAUS 4401 Planning Theory and Analysis (GSU), PSC 379 Scope and Methods of Political Science (CAU), CP 8943 GeoDemographics (GT), and CP 4022 Foundations of Urban and Regional Development (GT).
Mr. Moody lives in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta and plays the Fender Telecaster electric guitar.
Subramanyam Muthukumar
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.
Eric lives in Decatur with his wife, Dorrie, and daughter, Madelyn.
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.
Marty Sung
Raymond R. White Sr.
Raymond’s research is focused on the use of the overlay zoning district as a determinant in the promotion of specific economic objectives and land use types. In the Ph.D. program, Raymond is undertaking 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 Stone Mountain 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, Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
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: Assistant 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 Browfield 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, Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
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