Nisha Botchwey joins the Georgia Institute of Technology School of City and Regional Planning as an Associate Professor in January 2012. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University, Master’s and Doctorate degrees in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Virginia. Botchwey was an Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia since 2003 where she taught the first Healthy Communities course in the nation and launched the Built Environment and Public Health Curriculum website. Botchwey’s interdisciplinary research focuses on community led approaches to improve population health through built environment changes. Botchwey’s publications are in a variety of journals including the Journal of Planning Education and Research, IEEE, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Peer Review and she is coauthor on Health Impact Assessments in the USA (forthcoming 2012, Springer) with Catherine Ross and Marla Ornstein.  Botchwey serves on the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Governing Board, the National Academy for Environmental Design Research Committee on Design and Health, and the CDC Advisory Board. She is also recipient of numerous awards and grants from the Annie E Casey Foundation, NIH, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Educational Background

• 2011 - MPH, University of Virginia
• 2003 - PhD (City and Regional Planning), University of Pennsylvania
• 1999 - Master of City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania
• 1997 - BA (Environmental Science and Public Policy), Harvard University

Fields

• Community Development
• Public Health
• Community Engagement
• Qualitative Methods

Distinctions

• Member, Governing Board for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Southeastern Representative, 2009-2012
  
• Member, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Council to the Director, 2008 - present
  

National and International Design Competition Placements

• National Academy of Science, Transportation Research Board, Communicating Sustainability and Livability Concepts with John and Jane Q Public. Submission: The 5-minute walk, http://www.grdworks.com/trb.html. Honorable Mention 2010-2011 Nisha Botchwey with Matthew Trowbridge and William Grimm

 Blog contributions

• "Race to School: A Healthy Neighborhoods Game" for the American Planning Association

Research Ambitions

Professor Botchwey examines the intersection of social and built environment determinants of health and civic engagement in the US and the developing world to develop effective community based interventions that improve health by revitalizing neighborhoods into healthy places. Her ongoing research focuses on developing ecological theories of health and urban planning, designing and testing civic engagement-based interventions that address tobacco use, water quality, and obesity, and advancing planning pedagogical models that incorporate health.

Recent Publications

• C. Ross, M. Orenstein and N. Botchwey. HIA in the U.S.: Practice, Policy and Legal Underpinnings. In Integrating Health Impact Assessment (HIA) into the Policy Process: Lessons and Experiences from around the World. Oxford University Press. 2012.
• Kulbok, P. and N. Botchwey. Promoting Healthy Communities Using Multilevel Participatory Strategies. Chapter 18 in Stanhope and Lancaster (Eds.), Public Health Nursing.  Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier.
• N. Botchweyand M. Trowbridge. 2011. “Training the next generation to promote healthy places,” Chapter 23 in H. Frumkin, A. Dannenberg, and R. Jackson, eds. Making Healthy Places: A Built Environment for Health, Well-being and Sustainability.  Island Press.
• Boehmer E, R. Smith, M Schoppa, A. Mantsi, G. Motabe, E. Rapopabe, N. Botchwey, G. Louis. 2011. "Water and Health in Limpopo (WHIL): Engaging Communities through Water, Health, and Leadership Education in Limpopo, South Africa." Public.
• Schoppa, M., R. Smith, E. Boehmer, E. Rabopape, G. Motabe, A. Mantisi, V. Netshandama, G. Louis, N. Botchwey. 2010. "Bypassing Politics: Education as a Powerful yet Neutral Community Engagement Plan." Virginia Policy Review 4(1): 20-23.
• Kulbok, P., V. Bovbjerg, P. Meszaros, N. Botchwey, I. Hinton, N. Anderson, H. Rhee, D. Bond, D. Noonan, K. Hartman. 2010. Mother-Daughter Communication: A Protective Factor for Nonsmoking Among Rural Adolescents. Journal of Addictions Nursing 21(2-3): 69-78.
• Cunningham, T., N. Botchwey, R. Dillingham, V. Netshandama, J. Boissevain, K. Firehock, G. Learmonth, and G. Louis. 2009. "Understanding Water Perceptions in Limpopo Province: A Photovoice CommunityAssessment." Environmental Pollution and Public Health, IEEE.
• Botchwey, N., S. Hobson, A. Dannenberg, K. Mumford, C. Contant, T. McMillan, R. Jackson, R. Lopez, and C. Winkle. 2009. "A Model Curriculum for a Course on the Built Environment and Public Health: Training for an Interdisciplinary Workforce." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 36(2, Supplement): S63-S71.
• Kulbok, P., H. Rhee, N. Botchwey, I. Hinton, V. Bovbjerg, N. Anderson, N. Ruth. 2008. "Factors Influencing Adolescents' Decision Not to Smoke." Public Health Nursing 25(6): 505-515.
• Bernheim, R., N. Botchwey, R. Dillingham. 2008. "Intentionality and Integration in Undergraduate Global Public Health Education." Peer Review 10(4): 16-19.
• Botchwey, N. 2007. "The Religious Sector"s Presence in Local Community Development." Journal of Planning Education and Research 27(1): 36-48.

Recent Funding

• 2010-2011, Co-Investigator - NIH/Fogarty International Center/National Institute of Nursing Research (R24) Framework Supplement grant - "Modeling Water Use and Health in Rural South Africa: An Innovative Training Tool"
• 2009-2011, Co-Investigator - National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center (R25) - "Water and Health in Limpopo Framework Program Supplement"                              
• 2009-2012, Co-Investogator - May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust - "Water Health Environment and Development (WHEAD) in Limpopo"
• 2009-2012, Co-Investigator - Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation - "Partnering with Rural Youth and Parents to Design and Test a Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drug Use Prevention Program Model"
• 2008-2011, Jefferson Trust - "Water and Health in Limpopo"
• 2008-2010, Kelly Family Endowment Gift - "Water and Health in Limpopo"   

Recent Courses

• CP 6680 | Citizen Participation
  

• CP 8882 | Public Health and the Built Environment
  

Recent Theses and Masters Research Paper Supervised

• Allegra Churchill (2010) Uncertainty is the grievance: Livelihoods in flux on the Kafue Flats. Master’s of Landscape Architecture Thesis.
• Barbara Choo (2010). Systematic Review of the Built Environment and Obesity in African American Adolescents. Master’s of Nursing Option Paper.
• Timothy Cunningham (2009). Water in their words: South Africans using Photovoice to discussion and develop remedies toward improved access to clean water. Masters of Nursing Option Paper.  
• Malindi Lankatilleke (2008). The Architecture of Community Building: Creating a Mixed-use, Multigenerational, Multifamily, and Mixed Income Community in the Barclay-Greenmount Neighborhood of Baltimore, MD.
• John Bell (2008). The effects of the built environment on the prevalence of diabetes in Charlottesville, Virginia by neighborhood. Masters of Public Health Culminating Experience Paper.
• Jennifer Harris (2004) Health Disparities and Community Planning. Master’s Option Paper.