Archives: Faculties

Laura Dedenbach

Laura Dedenbach

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Instructional Assistant Professor // Graduate Coordinator,
(352) 294-1493
ARCH 466
laurajd@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, 2016
•Concentration: Urban and Regional Planning
•Graduate Minor: Anthropology
Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, 1999
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of Florida, 1996

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Areas of Focus:
Sustainability
Social equity, or people, is one of the pillars of sustainability. My research focuses on dimensions of social equity, community resilience, and empowerment at the neighborhood level, particularly related to place-based narratives and the interface with public policy and neighborhood planning.

Bio:
Dr. Dedenbach received her master’s in urban and regional planning and doctorate in urban and regional planning, with a graduate minor in anthropology, from UF. Her research interests include crime prevention and the built environment, urban resilience, neighborhood planning, empowerment, effects of gentrification on neighborhood culture and stability, land use and comprehensive planning, and issues of land use compatibility. Dr. Dedenbach is currently engaged in research and service-learning projects in Gainesville and Atlanta. 

Dr. Dedenbach teaches classes in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, including:

  • URP 4000, Preview to Urban and Regional Planning
  • URP 4740, Housing and Urban Development
  • URP 4882, Defensible Space and CPTED in Urban Design
  • URP 4905, Neighborhood Planning

She also teaches a Quest 1 course: IDS 2935, “This Must Be the Place”: Place-based Narratives and Community Identity.

Prior to joining the URP Faculty in 2019 as a Lecturer and Undergraduate and Graduate Coordinator, Dr. Dedenbach was a practicing planner with over 23 years of experience, specializing in comprehensive planning, policy and development planning, and small town and rural planning, as well as being a recognized expert witness on planning and zoning issues by local governments, the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings, and Circuit, Appeals, and Federal courts. She has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) since 2001. 

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Daniel Downing

Daniel Downing

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Assistant Scholar, GeoPlan Center
ARCH 131
Dadowning@ufl.edu

M.A., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2016
B.S., Liberal Studies, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 2000

Areas of specialization: GIS Programming Data and GIS web service development

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Ian Flood

Ian Flood

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Professor
352-273-1159
RINKER 316
flood@ufl.edu

Dr. Ian Flood received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, UK, on computing techniques applied to the simulation of construction processes. He has held academic positions at the University of Singapore, the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland, and he is currently Professor in the Rinker School of Construction Management at the University of Florida.

He has published extensively on the subjects of intelligent computing applied to civil and construction engineering and management, he has received five best paper awards, and is one of the most frequently cited authors within the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.  Dr. Flood has also received awards for teaching, international education, and was the 2015 recipient of the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award.

His research is concerned with the development of new methods of modeling AEC systems using artificial intelligence methods.  He is currently chair of the Editorial Board for ASCE’s Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, and Specialty Editor for Elsevier’s Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics. Dr. Flood was previously Chair of the Executive Committee of TCCIT (the Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology) for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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Kathryn Frank

Kathryn Frank

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Professor
352-294-1495
ARCH 460
kifrank@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Georgia Tech
City and Regional Planning, Georgia Tech

Areas of Focus: Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience) The core of my research has concerned environmental issues, however I take an integrated, interdisciplinary approach through the planning discipline, working in urban and rural settings. My sustainability work incorporates environmental, social and cultural, and governance aspects, especially community engagement, to create “sustainability science” towards understanding a more sustainable path forward. I also take an “action research” approach in which I create and test new sustainability methods in order to advance sustainability more quickly. Bio: Dr. Frank specializes in planning for sustainability, resilience, and equity. Specific areas include environmental, coastal, rural, regional, neighborhood, and participatory planning. She is the director of the Florida Center for Innovative Communities where she conducts applied, action-research projects to simultaneously assist communities and pilot test innovative planning approaches. At the University of Florida, she has led $1 million in funded research projects, including grants from the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative, Florida Sea Grant, and the inaugural UF-Gainesville Research Award, with the latter project receiving an Award of Excellence from the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association. Her recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Planning Education and Research and Planning Theory and Practice, and as book chapters for Routledge. Dr. Frank teaches courses in Urban and Regional Planning in the on-campus and online master’s programs. Specific courses include URP 6421 Environmental Land Use Planning and Management, and URP 6931 Community Engagement. She also advises doctoral students and teaches a college-wide course, DCP 6931 Doctoral Core 3 (dissertation preparation and writing for publication). She is a long-standing member of the college’s Sustainability Governing Board, and she has taught a course for the undergraduate major Sustainability and the Built Environment (SBE). Currently, she regularly advises SBE senior capstone projects. Dr. Frank received a doctorate in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech, and a master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. Her undergraduate majors were chemical engineering (Georgia Tech) and mathematics (University of Georgia). She previously worked as a planning consultant in Oregon and an environmental engineer in North Carolina. In the distant past, she was an officer in the U.S. Navy and taught at the Nuclear Power School in Orlando (the school’s site is now a traditional neighborhood development, Baldwin Park).

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Bryan Franz

Bryan Franz

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Associate Professor; Ph.D. Program Director
352-273-1161
RINKER 309
bfranz@ufl.edu
https://cpdlab.dcp.ufl.edu/

Dr. Bryan Franz is an Assistant Professor of Construction Management at the University of Florida.  He is a researcher and educator dedicated to improving the project delivery process in the building construction industry.  Specifically, he studies organizational strategies for assembling, managing, and evaluating successful project teams.  These strategies include the use of collaborative delivery methods, such as Design-Build and Integrated Project Delivery, the modeling of project communication networks, and the identification of the relational competencies needed for future project managers.  He has published over 30 journal articles, technical reports and conference proceedings in this field.  Dr. Franz is the currently the instructor for Introduction to Construction Management (BCN 3027C) and Construction Capstone (BCN 4787C).  He earned a B.S. (2005), M.S. (2011) and Ph.D. (2014) in Architectural Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

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Andrea Galinski

Andrea Galinski

Department of Landscape Architecture
Assistant Professor
352-294-1494
ARCH 442
andrea.galinski@ufl.edu

• Master of Landscape Architecture, Louisiana State University, 2010
• Bachelor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, 2002

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Areas of Focus:

Built Environment Resilience + Climate Change Adaptation


Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience)
In relation to the UN’s perspective on “sustainability,” (sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”), I’ve been focused on sustainability in terms of conducting research that assists communities to become more resilient to climate change impacts (flooding, heat, etc.), and to develop strategies that support thriving amidst long-term change.

Bio:

Andrea is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of Florida Department of Landscape Architecture. She is also a research affiliate with the UF Shimberg Center for Housing Studies and Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER).

Andrea’s passion is to advance climate resilient design and planning in teaching and research. She teaches foundational coursework and interdisciplinary design studios with a concentration on issues of climate change, equity, and other critical topics.

Andrea’s research explores the nexus between climate change and affordable housing. Her research has been supported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program (NASEM GRP), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Florida Sea Grant (FSG), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC), and others.

Previously, Andrea worked in Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to develop the state’s 50 year/$50 billion Coastal Master Plan to protect and restore the coast in the context of a changing climate. She also taught at Louisiana State University (LSU) focusing on research-based design of landscape infrastructure along the Louisiana coast.

Andrea has a Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) from Louisiana State University’s Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture. She has transdisciplinary Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Ph.) degree in “Human Ecology” from Penn State University. She currently lives in Gainesville, FL with her husband, two children, a dog, two cats, and a revolving flock of suburban chickens.

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Sarah Gamble

Sarah Gamble

School of Architecture
Assistant Professor
352-294-1457
ARCH 250
sarah.gamble@ufl.edu

M Arch, University of Texas at Austin
B Des, University of Florida

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Sustainable Architecture and Design)

Research:
My work focuses on the sustainability and resilience of communities at multiple scales. Taking shape as individual building design to neighborhood / urban design, past project experience includes affordable housing, disaster relief, historic preservation, public art, educational spaces, and active transportation. This focus aligns with the development of new course work and program offerings in Public Interest Design / Community Design. A current research/writing project with Coleman Coker at UT Austin focuses on designers understanding of environmental issues and its impact on practice / design for communities.

Bio:
Sarah Gamble is a registered architect and educator with a passion for the public realm and community projects. Gamble teaches architectural design for graduate and undergraduate students at the UF School of Architecture, following teaching at the University of Texas at Austin from 2011 to 2018. Gamble’s academic research focuses on context and how design is catalyzed by the surrounding environment and our understanding of it, including physical, cultural, social, and ephemeral facets. This focus feeds her architectural practice, residing in public interest design, a field incorporating elements of urban planning, architectural design, the arts, social work, community engagement, and education.

A native of Florida’s Gulf Coast,​ Gamble’s practice has focused on the southeastern United States within the public and non-profit sectors, including creative placemaking, historic preservation, community engagement, affordable housing, disaster recovery, and institutional design. In 2018, Gamble served as the State Architect for the Texas Historical Commission’s Main Street Program and its 80+ member communities providing design and revitalization consulting services, in addition to developing resources for the public. From 2011 – 2017, Gamble co-founded and co-led GO collaborative (Gamble Osgood Collaborative), a design and planning firm connecting people with place with clients and grantors including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), City of Calgary, and ArtPlace America. GO collaborative led the creation of Exploring Our Town, following an 18-month research and design process. This interactive, online resource serves policymakers and the public  at many steps along the creative placemaking path and presents information for communities planning or implementing their own projects by providing succinct case studies, topic overviews, and applicable lessons learned from both individual projects and from overall project efforts. The resource features 70+ completed or on-going projects from across the country that received funding through the NEA’s Mayors’ Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative (MICD25) and the annual Our Town grant program.​ From 2009 – 2011​, Gamble served as Architect of the Austin Community Design and Development Center, a non-profit community design center focused on affordable housing. She focused on the design of homeless transitional housing and led an infill affordable housing program, the Alley Flat Initiative. From 2007 – 2009, Gamble was a designer at Specht Architects (formerly Specht Harpman Architects) in Austin working on projects at St. Edward’s University. Gamble’s focus was the award winning Doyle Hall, a renovation and addition to a 1950’s mid-century dormitory to the home of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The project received a AIA Austin Design Award and was featured in Metropolis and Architect Magazines. From 2006 – 2007, Gamble co-founded and served as Coordinator of the CITYbuild Consortium of Schools, based at the Tulane University School of Architecture. The organization served 17+ national universities to assist in New Orleans’ rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, Gamble received a ACSA Collaborative Practice award for this work.

As a professional and volunteer, Sarah has been recognized for her advocacy and design work within Austin and beyond. In 2015, Gamble received the Young Alumni Award from the University of Florida School of Architecture and was featured by Austin(its) Magazine as one of 21 Austinites making a difference. In 2013, she was featured in Texas Architect magazine as one of “4 Under 40” architects and named one of Austin’s “10 to Watch” in 2011 by Tribeza Magazine for her positive impact on the city

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Masoud Gheisari

Masoud Gheisari

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Director of Graduate Programs and Research, Associate Professor
352-273-1166
RINKER 304B
masoud@ufl.edu
https://hctclab.dcp.ufl.edu/

Ph.D. in Building Construction, Georgia Tech

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Research Interests: Aerial and ground robots, technology-supported education innovation, VR/AR/MR, human-robot interaction, safety

Biography: Dr. Masoud Gheisari is an Associate Professor in the Rinker School of Construction Management at the University of Florida. He leads the Human-Centered Technology in Construction (HCTC) research lab. His research focuses on the theoretical and experimental investigation of human-robot interaction in construction and technology-supported education innovation. He earned his Ph.D. in Building Construction (2013) from the Georgia Institute of Technology. To date, he has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of virtual/augmented/mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) and safe human-drone interaction in construction. His work has received support worth over $1.7m in grants from external funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Labor, NIOSH’s Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), and ELECTRI International. Dr. Gheisari is the recipient of Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) International Outstanding Researcher Award (2021), ENR Southeast’s Top Young Professional (2020), UF DCP Undergraduate Faculty Teaching Award (2019), BCN Nancy Perry Teaching Award (2019), Russell J. Alessi ELECTRI International Early Career Award (2018), UF DCP Faculty Research Award (2018), ASC Southeast’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), and ASCE ExCEEd Fellowship (2015). He also serves as an Associate Editor for ASCE’s Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering.

Externally Funded Research Projects:

  • Go to Dr. Gheisari’s funding page

Publications:

Future Students: Strongly motivated students are always invited to join HCTC Lab. Please email Dr. Gheisari at masoud@ufl.edu with a current CV and a statement of research interest.

Further information about our ongoing research is available on our research lab website: Human-Centered Technology in Construction (HCTC) Lab

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Martin Gold

Martin Gold

School of Architecture
Associate Professor
352-294-1474
ARCH 260
mgold@ufl.edu

M.Arch., University of Florida, 1994
BDes, University of Florida, 1991

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Professor Gold has over twenty-five years of engagement in architectural design, teaching, and research with a focus on the interrelationships among architecture, ecology, culture, and resource stewardship at urban and residential scales. He currently leads funded research-based design projects and is a founding member of the Florida Resilient Community Initiative (FRCI) at the UF College of Design Construction and Planning. His work and publications explore ecologically responsive design and sustainable living in coastal communities underpinned by the critical need for integrating resiliency, mobility, and aesthetics toward emergent urban forms. His research is both academic and applied through his small award-winning architecture firm – Martin Gold Architects. He is a registered architect in Florida; holds an NCARB certification; and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. https://martingoldarchitects.com.

As a member of the Doctoral Research Faculty, he supervises doctoral and master degree seeking students. He leads undergraduate and graduate design studios in addition to teaching lecture and seminar courses in environmental technology and ecological design. Gold served as the Director of the UF, School of Architecture from 2008 to 2014 and currently serves as the Executive Director of the national consortium of academic programs Architecture + Construction Alliance (A+CA).

Professor Gold received his Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Florida in 1991, worked in Florida as an intern architect and then returned to UF to complete is Master of Architecture degree in 1994. He taught under the supervision of Gary Siebein as a graduate teaching assistant in the environmental technologies. His thesis research studied the spatialization of sound in concert halls and the perception of spatial acoustics by listeners. His results and methodology have been published in articles and journals of the Acoustical Society of America in proceedings of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. He has taught at the University of Texas San Antonio, and conducted workshops on acoustics at Cornell, SCAD, and the American Institute of Architects. He returned to UF as a member of the School of Architecture faculty in 1996.

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Crystal Goodison

Crystal Goodison

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Director + Associate Scholar, GeoPlan Center
352-392-2351
ARCH 131
goody@geoplan.ufl.edu

Crystal Goodison is an Associate Scholar and Associate Director of the GeoPlan Center, a research and teaching center specializing in geospatial systems and technologies. Crystal’s responsibilities include a mix of administrative, research, and teaching duties. On the administrative side, she assists the Center director with staff management, fiscal oversight, and strategic planning. She also manages the online certificate program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Urban and Regional Planners, an off-book certificate which offers asynchronous GIS training in close coordination with the Online Masters in Urban and Regional Planning.

On the research side, Crystal leads geospatial projects which provide mapping data, tools, and technical training to the State, regional, and local governments to assist with sea level rise and coastal resiliency planning efforts. Her work involves understanding the data needs of transportation planners and urban planners and then building mapping tools to facilitate data delivery, analysis, and visualization. She enjoys developing and offering technical training to planning professionals around the state to build local capacity and empowerment.  

Crystal teaches DCP1010 Geodesign Colloquium, where she introduces students to the field of geodesign and its capabilities for building a more sustainable future.  This course is part of the Geodesign Specialization within the Bachelors of Sustainability and the Built Environment and Crystal serves on the Geodesign advisory committee.  Crystal also does content development for multiple classes in the online GIS Certificate.

Crystal has a BA in Geography and MA in Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Florida.

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