Archives: Faculties

Ryan Sharston

Ryan Sharston

School of Architecture, Rinker School of Construction Management, Florida Institute for the Built Environment Resilience (FIBER)
Assistant Professor
352-294-3375
AH 246
r.sharston@ufl.edu

University of Michigan
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Publications

Google Scholar

Areas of Focus

Sustainability (Building Energy, Building Materials, Built Environment Resilience, Renewable Energy, Smart Buildings/Cities, Sustainable Architecture and Design, Sustainable Construction, Sustainable Technology)
I am interested in improving the energy as well as the occupant- related health performance of the built environment through advancements in building envelopes

Biography

Dr. Ryan Sharston is an architect and a civil and environmental engineer. For nearly two decades, he has taught, researched and practiced sustainable design and construction and environmental technologies in various academic and industrial settings.

His research focuses on computational building modeling, building performance evaluation, indoor environmental quality and occupants’ health and well-being. He has taught architectural design studios and building and environmental technologies at the University of Michigan and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

In his professional practice, he has served as lead engineer and construction manager for numerous projects, with a particular focus on technologically advanced and integrated designs and constructions.

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Yan Wang

Yan Wang

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER)
Associate Professor
(352) 294-3376
Antevy Hall
yanw@ufl.edu

Areas of Focus:  Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Smart Buildings/Cities) building sustainability through resilient built environment research and better infrastructure planning for emerging technologies to reduce GHG emission.

Bio: Dr. Yan Wang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning in College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida. She is a founding faculty member for the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER) and the founder and director of the Urban Agility and Resilience Lab. Her research focuses on developing and applying computational tools to quantity and manage urban resilience in response to disruptions, including hazards and emerging technologies. Over the past decade, Dr. Wang’s has made contributions to answer (i) how resilience can be measured, explained, and enhanced within built communities and (ii) how to achieve information agility and integrity in digital environments. Her pioneering work explores the intersection of urban resilience and urban analytics, particularly the roles of spatial planning and crisis informatics. Recognized as the top-ranked female scholars in urban analytics globally, Dr. Wang has authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers (Google Scholar) and has secured more than $3 million in research funding, including eight prestigious federal awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Prior to UF, Dr. Wang earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. She also holds a master’s degree in asset valuation (BJTU) and a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering and management (BJTU) from the school of economics and management. She is the recipient of NSF CAREER Award (2025), UF Excellence Awards for Assistant Professors (2022), UF Global Research Fellow (2018), Weather Ready Research Fellowships (Natural Hazard Center, 2021), Mitigation Matters Award (Natural Hazard Center, 2020), ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering Accolade Best Paper Award (2021), UF Research Promotion Initiative Award (2021), UF Great Teaching Certificate (2021), DCP Excellence in Research Award (2021) and Virginia Tech IGEP BioBuild Fellowship (2015-2018).

Her teaching efforts primarily contribute to tailored pedagogies and contextualized curricula for urban analytics within planning programs, particularly for the Urban Analytics Program within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She has served on the editorial board of the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering since 2020 and is the Guest Editor for the Journal of Planning Education and Research’s special issue on AI and Urban Planning (2024-2027).

Research Topics

Urban Resilience; Urban Analytics; Spatial and Infrastructure Planning; Crisis Informatics; Human Dynamics; Responsible AI; Smart and Connected Communities.

Affiliations

Founding Faculty, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER)

Founder, Urban Agility and Resilience Laboratory

Affiliate Faculty, UF Informatics Institute

Affiliate Faculty, UF Transportation Institute

Affiliate Faculty, Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World

Awards

National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2025)

University of Florida Excellence Awards for Assistant Professors (2022)

ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering Honorable Mention Award (2021)

University of Florida Research Promotion Initiative Award (2021)

Excellence in Research Award, College of Design, Construction and Planning (2021)

Great Teaching Certificate, UF Center for Teaching Excellence (2021)

Weather Ready Research Fellowships, Natural Hazard Center (NSF & NOAA) (2021)

Mitigation Matters Award, Natural Hazard Center (2020)

Global Research Fellow, by University of Florida (November 8, 2018)

Virginia Tech IGEP BioBuild Fellowship, by Virginia Tech (August 2015 – May 2018)

Publications

Google Scholar

ResearchGate

Selected Grants

2025-2030: CAREER: Generative Deep Learning for Post-Disaster Spatial Regeneration Planning
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2440023)
Programs: Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment & Human-Envi & Geographical Scis

2024-2025 PI: RAPID: Assessing Urgent Time Use Dynamics Among Time-Poor Populations in Preparation for Hurricane Helene and Milton
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2505675)
Program: CMMI-HDBE-Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment

2024-2025 PI: Investigating Neighborhood Mobility Resilience and Aging Vulnerability under Environmental Shocks
Sponsor: National Institute on Aging, Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at the University of Florida
Program: Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) Pilot Study

2023-2026 Co-PI: Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Information Integrity: A User-centric Intervention
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2323794)
Program: CNS-Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace

2023-2026 PI: Spatial Explanation and Planning for Resilience of Community-Based Small Businesses to Environmental Shocks
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2316450)
Program: CMMI-HDBE-Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment

2022-2023 Faculty: GulfSouth Studio
Sponsor: The National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine

2021-2022 PI: SCC-PG: SmartCurb: Building Smart Urban Curb Environments
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2124858)
Program: Smart and Connected Communities – Planning Grants

2020-2021 PI: RAPID: Dynamic Interactions between Human and Information in Complex Online Environments Responding to SARS-COV-2.
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #2028012)
Program: CMMI-Humans, Disasters and Built Environment

2020-2021 Co-PI: SCC-PG: Coordinated Safety Management Across Smart Communities
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #1951816)
Program: Smart and Connected Communities – Planning Grants

2018-2019 PI (Sub award): RAPID: Discovering Crises within Crises – Real-Time Detection, Tracking and Visualization of Emergent Crises in Hurricanes.
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (Award #1760645)
Program: CISE-Information & Intelligent Systems

2021-2022 PI: Weather Ready Research Fellowship: Assessing the Impact of Geo-Targeted Warning Messages on Residents Evacuation Decisions Before a Hurricane
Sponsor: Natural Hazards Center (flow from NSF and NOAA)

2021-2021 Key Personnel: Upper Suwannee River Resilience Columbia County and The Town of White Springs
Sponsor: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity

2021 PI: Assessing Disaster Impact in Real Time (ADIR): A Data-Driven System Integrating Human, Hazards, and the Built Environment
Sponsor: UF Office of the Provost-Research Promotion Initiative Award

2020-2021 PI: Examining Digital Vulnerability to Flooding Among Subsidized Housing Residents in Florida.
Sponsor: Natural Hazards Center-Mitigation Matters Research Program.

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Yi Luo

Yi Luo

Department of Landscape Architecture
Assistant Professor
AH 432
yi.luo@ufl.edu

• Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, 2014
• Master of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Utah State University, 2007
• Bachelor of Architecture & Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, 2002

Download C.V.

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Renewable Energy, Smart Buildings/Cities, Sustainable Architecture and Design, Sustainable Construction)
My research has been focusing on landscape performance evaluation, which quantifies the post-performance of sustainable landscape projects (range from individual residential property to urban plaza, and city and regional scale), and shows the value of sustainable design practices.

Bio:
Yi Luo, PhD, PLA is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida. Prior to joining the University of Florida, Yi taught at Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University. Yi received her Bachelor of Architecture from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, Master of Landscape Architecture from Utah State University, and PhD in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University.  Her areas of interest are landscape performance evaluation, sustainability assessment, performance evaluation metrics and methods, therapeutic landscapes, and stormwater management and low impact development. Yi’s research has been funded by various agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Landscape Architecture Foundation, and Jessie Ball DuPont.

Before pursuing her PhD at Texas A&M University, Yi practiced landscape architecture and architecture in multidisciplinary firms in the United States and China with efforts to promote green building and sustainable development. She is a licensed landscape architect (Utah).

Yi advises Ph.D. and Master students and teaches a wide range of studio and lecture courses:

  • Site Design and Planning (Studio)
  • Landscape Construction (Studio)
  • Capstone Project (Studio)
  • Research Methods
  • Advanced Landscape Architecture (Studio)
  • Collaboration Studio (Studio)
  • History of Landscape Architecture
  • Graduate and Undergraduate Seminars

 

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Andrea Galinski

Andrea Galinski

Department of Landscape Architecture
Assistant Professor
352-294-1494
AH 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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Genesis Okken

Genesis Okken

Department of Interior Design
Instructional Assistant Professor
AH 346
gokken@dcp.ufl.edu

Master of Interior Design, University of Florida
Bachelor of Interior Design, University of Florida

Genesis Okken, NCIDQ received both her Bachelor of Design and Master of Interior Design at the University of Florida. While completing her graduate work, she served as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Interior Design as well as gained design experience at Sarah Cain Design.  She then went on to practice design at Walt Disney Imagineering and the Kessler Collection in Orlando, FL before returning to UF as a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design.    

Her research interests include exploring how design practitioners develop appropriate color designs across different market sectors and how color planning strategies evolve throughout an individuals’ career. Specifically, she has explored color planning and design within corporate office, healthcare, hospitality, residential and pop-up retail using qualitative methods. She also investigates how professional practice can inform better ways to incorporate critical color knowledge and understanding into design pedagogy.   

Genesis enjoys mentoring students through independent studies in color theory and undergraduate research projects as well as through her role as the faculty advisor for the UF ASID/IIDA student chapter.  She also has taught a wide spectrum of courses within the program including Design Innovation, Interior Design Communication Systems, Computer Applications for 3D Design, Professional Practice of Interior Design, Design Field Experience, Architectural Interiors II, and Advanced Architectural Interiors II. For students in the summer program, she teaches Design Innovation and History of Interior Design I.  

 

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Eileen Pesantes-Taveres

Eileen Pesantes-Taveres

M.E Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Instructional Assistant Professor
352-273-1177
RINKER 313
eileen.pesantes@ufl.edu

B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
M.S. in Engineering with concentration on Structural Engineering Mechanics and Materials, University of California at Berkeley
M.S. in Civil Engineering with concentration on Construction Engineering and Management, Stanford University
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with concentration on Construction Engineering and Management, University of Florida

Eileen Pesantes-Tavares, PhD, graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 1994. She earned a M.E. in Structural Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995. After working as a structural engineer, she decided to pursue a construction degree and went back to school. She earned a MS in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University in 1998. While teaching at her Alma Mater, she decided to pursue a PhD in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Florida. She graduated in 2011.

Pesantes worked as a research engineer with the US Army Corp of Engineers at their Engineer Research and Development Center before graduate school. After completing two Master’s degrees, she worked in two different construction companies in the San Francisco Bay Area in projects that ranged from a small office remodeling up to a complete new campus for a major Hi-tech Company. When she moved back to Puerto Rico, she was offered a teaching position at her Alma Mater. Teaching was something that Pesantes always contemplated as a career path. After six years of teaching, she went back to graduate school. After finishing her PhD, she taught as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at UF, as a lecturer and academic advisor at the School of Engineering at UNF and, currently as a lecturer at the Rinker School of Construction Management at UF.

The courses Pesantes teaches are varied. Construction Materials and Temporary Structures focus on the design and materials side of construction. International Sustainable Design focuses in key concepts related to sustainable development worldwide. Introduction to Construction presents first year students the different types of work they can do in construction through weekly guest lectures that include professionals from the construction industry.

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Daniel Downing

Daniel Downing

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Assistant Scholar, GeoPlan Center
AH 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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Reginald Pierre-Jean

Reginald Pierre-Jean

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
GeoPlan Center
AH 131
reginald@ufl.edu

M.A., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2011
B.A., Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2008

Areas of specialization: GIS development Programming and customization Web development

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Laura Dedenbach, Ph.D., AICP

Laura Dedenbach, Ph.D., AICP

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Instructional Assistant Professor // Interim Department Chair // Interim Associate Director, SLA+P
(352) 294-1493
AH 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: Planning Policy and Practice, Urban Resilience and Empowerment, & Planning Education

My mission is to bring my passion for planning, informed by education and almost 30 years of professional experience, to educate the next generation of planning professionals. As an American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) member, I bring a practice-based emphasis to my teaching, service, and research. My area of specialization in urban resilience and empowerment is framed by the central question of how planners work collaboratively with communities to foster both individual and collective flourishing. I have committed myself to innovations in higher education and as an advocate for planning education, while significantly expanding opportunities for professional development and support for students.

Biography

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 teaching and research interests include land use and comprehensive planning, issues of land use compatibility, crime prevention and the built environment, urban resilience, neighborhood planning, empowerment, effects of gentrification on neighborhood culture and stability, and planning education.

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

  • URP6131, Land Use Planning Law
  • URP6603, Development Review
  • URP6203, Planning Research Design
  • URP 4000, Preview to Urban and Regional Planning
  • URP 4740/6745, Housing and Urban Development
  • URP 4882/6880, Defensible Space and CPTED in Urban Design
  • URP 4774, Neighborhood Planning

Dr. Dedenbach is the co-Director of UF Quest 1. She teaches a Quest 1 course: URP1002, “This Must Be the Place”: Place-based Narratives and Community Identity.

Prior to joining the URP Faculty in 2019,  Dr. Dedenbach was a planning director and planning consultant, specializing in comprehensive planning, policy and development planning, and small town and rural planning. She is a recognized expert 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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Peter Sprowls

Peter Sprowls

School of Architecture, CityLab-Orlando
Instructional Assistant Professor
352-294-1457
AH 232
peter26@ufl.edu

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Sustainable Architecture and Design)
My work and teaching focuses on the use and nature of public space in the contemporary city. This impacts/intersects with sustainability by identifying and designing the organization of urban spaces – their use and their resiliency is critical to social structures, community equity and engagement, as well as energy use (i.e. transportation, passive systems, distances between points of activity).

Bio:
Peter Sprowls is a lecturer at the University of Florida School of Architecture and CityLab-Orlando as well as a founding principal of House Champagne – an architectural design and research firm focusing on public space in urban and sub-urban contexts. He was educated at the University of Florida and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and
is pursuing his professional licensure as an architect.

Sprowls teaches design, history and theory. Through this and his professional work, he explores the contemporary boundary between the natural and the built worlds; the anterior and posterior spaces of modern human life. This exploration can describe new forms of public space in developer-driven markets and how our vast, built landscape can be measured again by nature. Leading to this interest in modern public space is a history of research, investigating potential forms of public space that could evolve with the growth of autonomous vehicle technology and future forms of transportation. Sprowls has worked with MIT Media Lab in the City Sciences group on the CityCar, studying the behavior of autonomous vehicles in urban spaces and has used this research to propose a series of potential public spaces mixing modes of transportation with technology of the near future.

He has worked within the profession on institutional, multi-family housing and commercial spaces at NADAAA, Preston Scott Cohen, and Merge Architects in Boston, MA. His practice, House Champagne, is completing a series of residential projects focused on natural phenomena, specifically the volumetric quality of light in humid environments.

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