Archives: Faculties

Edward Minchin

Edward Minchin

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Professor
352-273-1153
RINKER 320
minch@ufl.edu

Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Pennsylvania State University;
Master of Engineering, Civil Engineering, University of Florida
Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, University of Florida

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Dr. Edward Minchin is currently Professor at the M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Construction Management at the University of Florida.  In a 34-year career, Dr. Minchin has worked as part of eight major areas of the construction process.  He has been a laborer, construction contractor, designer, inspector, construction owner, researcher, consultant, and adjudicator.

After earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida, Dr. Minchin worked as a construction estimator for Couch Construction Company in Tampa, and later for the Florida Department of Transportation, where he rose to the position of Chief Area Construction.  After 14 years in industry, he obtained a PhD in Civil Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, and a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts from Harvard University.

Dr. Minchin has over 140 publications, including two books, and seven book chapters.  He served as External Examiner, and committee member for a doctoral thesis in the Department of Civil Engineering; Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain, as well as Northeastern University.  He currently simultaneously holds three professorships:  the UF Term, UF Research Foundation, and Holland Professorships.  He has served as was a Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University in 2015-16, and was selected as a Keynote Speaker at four international Construction Conferences in the last 10 years, in Panama, China, Canada, and Thailand.

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James G. Sullivan

James G. Sullivan

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Director of Undergraduate Program
// Assistant Professor
352-273-1154
RINKER 307
sullj@ufl.edu

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Florida, 2007
Master of Building Construction, 2001
Master of the Arts in Mass Communications, 1990
Bachelor of Science in Advertising, 1988

Areas of Focus:
Sustainability (Building Energy, Built Environment Resilience, Smart Buildings/Cities, Sustainable Construction)
Focus on LEED and GBCI accreditation training and building certification. Emphasis on whole building design and cost alternatives.

Bio:
Dr. James Sullivan is the Charles R. Perry Sr. Lecturer and Program Director at the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction at the University of Florida.  Dr. Sullivan’s research interests includes sustainable high-performance design and construction of the built environment, labor productivity, schedule adherence best practices, Lean processes and professional development. Dr. Sullivan has received the several teaching and service honors including the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) National Excellence Teaching Award (2011), ASC Regional Excellence Teaching Award, the College of Design, Construction and Planning Teacher of the Year Award, and the College of Design, Construction and Planning Outstanding Service Award. He also serves as the ASC Region 2 Director and on several advisory boards relating to worker training and education. Dr. Sullivan has also facilitated the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) Build Your Future Florida web portal that provides access to careers in construction.

Dr. Sullivan received a Bachelors of Science Degree, a Master of Arts in Mass Communication, a Masters in Building Construction, and a Doctor of Philosophy all from the University of Florida.  His professional experience includes being an Operations Director for CPPI with a focus on Healthcare projects, a Project Manager for Clark Construction, and an Owner’s Representative for Hines Real Estate Development.

Dr. Sullivan’s teaching focus is focused on field and management career readiness.  He has taught a variety of courses with most current focus on field communication and techniques as well as pre-professional project management courses.  He also provides leadership with regard to student groups and competition teams.  He has worked with teams with focuses on sustainability, concrete, risk, and commercial projects.

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Robert J. Ries

Robert J. Ries

M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management
Professor
352-273-1155
RINKER 332
rries@ufl.edu

Ph. D. in Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University, 1999
MS in Architecture Carnegie Mellon University, 1995
B. Arch, Pratt Institute, 1982

Areas of Focus: 
Sustainability (Building Energy, Building Materials, Built Environment Resilience, Renewable Energy, Smart Buildings/Cities Sustainable Architecture and Design, Sustainable Construction, Sustainable Technology)
The spatial dimensions of work range from assessing indoor environmental quality in spaces to modeling water resources regionally to modeling the potential for ground-level ozone formation nationally. The dimensions of interest range from the health and performance of people, life cycle pollution generation and resources, and life cycle financial performance, sometimes all at once, based on a foundation of ethics. Research indicates that of the range of environmental impacts we generally consider in sustainability and resilience, biodiversity has been impacted to the greatest extent, and in my opinion, biodiversity impact is an under-appreciated environmental impact of the built environment.

Special Fields Green Building, Sustainable Development, Life Cycle Assessment in the Construction Process Employers University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, Brooklyn Design and Fabrication AC3D Architectural Firm Publications More than 80 publications in the area of life cycle assessment and optimization, green building construction, and environmental impact assessment of buildings.

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Zhong-Ren Peng

Zhong-Ren Peng

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Professor/Director International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design (iAdapt)
352-294-1491
AH 462
zpeng@dcp.ufl.edu
https://dcp.ufl.edu/iadapt/

Areas of Focus: Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Smart Buildings/Cities, Sustainable Technology) Conducting research in sustainable transportation systems such as public transportation systems, shared mobility and environment impacts of transportation networks; conducting research in adaptation planning for climate change like sea level rise and extreme weather. Education Ph.D., Urban Studies, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, 1994 M.S., Economics, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, 1994 M.S., Geography, Graduate School of University of Science and Technology of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 1986 B.S., Geography, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China, 1983 Areas of Expertise

  • Geospatial Information Systems and Analysis
  • Information Technology for Planning
  • International Planning
  • Landscape Planning Using GIS
  • Transportation

Teaching URP 6276: Internet Geographic Information Systems URP 6821: Transportation and Land Use Modeling URP 6905: Planning for Climate Change URP 6905: Urban Planning and Design Issues in China Research Interests Transportation and land use planning, modeling and policy Planning for climate change Information technology for planning International/China planning

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Ilir Bejleri

Ilir Bejleri

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Research Associate Professor
(352) 294-1489
AH 454
ilir@ufl.edu

Ph.D.,Architecture and Design, Polytechnic University, Tirana, Albania, 1994
B.A., Architecture, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania, 1987

Areas of Experitise
  • Geospatial Information Systems and Analysis
  • Urban Design
Research Interests
  • Urban Design
  • 3D Visual Urban Simulation
  • Planning & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

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Abhinav Alakshendra

Abhinav Alakshendra

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Professor and Director, Center for International Design and Planning
(352) 294-1488
AH 448
alakshendra@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Economics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, 2012
M.A., Economics, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India, 2005

Areas of Focus: Sustainability  Bio: Dr. Alakshendra’s research interests are mainly focused around the areas of urbanization, international development, and applied microeconomics in Southeast Asia. He is a trained Development Economist who uses cutting edge empirical research methods to understand complex socioeconomic problems. He is a recipient of many prestigious research grants including UKAID, Land and Housing Institute, Korea, and Florida Department of Transportation.

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Kristin Larsen

Kristin Larsen

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Professor
352-294-1482
AH 464
Klarsen@ufl.edu

Ph.D., Cornell University 2001
Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, 1990
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, University of Florida 1986

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Areas of Focus:

Planning History and Housing Policy

A key area of Dr. Larsen’s research focuses on members of the Regional Planning Association of America, prominent designers, urbanists, human ecologists, economists, and developers active from the 1920s through the 1950s whose work in regionalism, town building, design, and housing policy established the foundations of today’s sustainability and resilience initiatives. In addition, her research focuses on community engagement to enhance resilience in the face of neighborhood change within marginalized communities. She has published widely on housing policy, neighborhood planning, community engagement, social justice, historic preservation, and planning history.

Bio:

Kristin Larsen, FAICP, Ph.D. (Cornell), MAURP (Florida), BSBA (Florida) is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, a Fellow in the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the former Chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) and Director of the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning (SLA&P) at the University of Florida. Among the projects she focused on when she worked as a land use and housing planner for the City of Orlando during the 1990s was a neighborhood revitalization project within the historic African American community of Parramore. This professional planning experience inspired her to earn her doctoral degree focused on city and regional planning, planning history, cultural geography, and historic preservation. At UF she has developed new courses in housing policy, historic preservation, and interdisciplinary studies in planning and landscape architecture.

In addition to her responsibilities as a professor, Dr. Larsen served in various leadership positions in the college for over 10 years, including directing the urban and regional planning graduate online degree program, chairing the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and directing the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning. Notably, she led and coordinated the development of the first fully online graduate degree in urban and regional planning in the U.S., shepherded the department through two accreditation reviews, both securing the maximum 7-year accreditation period with the most recent review including the online delivery of the URP graduate degree, currently the only fully online accredited graduate planning degree in the U.S.

Dr. Larsen’s research on Clarence S. Stein and his colleagues in the Regional Planning Association of America alone has resulted in sixteen publications and numerous presentations at national and international conferences. This research focus includes an examination of the legacy of the Regional Planning Association of America on the 100th anniversary of their founding and her biography of noted community architect Clarence S. Stein. Her peer reviewed research has also appeared in Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning History, Housing Studies, Planning Perspectives, and Urban Studies. She has secured over $1 million in internal and external grants awarded as either Principal or Co-Principal Investigator, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Urban Scholars Fellowship and a State of Florida Division of Historical Resources Grant. Her examination of the intellectual history of the Regional Planning Association of America continues with her upcoming biography of architect, landscape architect, planner, and housing advocate Henry Wright.

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Kathryn Frank

Kathryn Frank

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Associate Professor
352-294-1495
AH 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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Ruth L. Steiner

Ruth L. Steiner

Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Professor and Director, Center for Health and the Built Environment
(352) 294-1492
AH 458
rsteiner@dcp.ufl.edu
https://dcp.ufl.edu/urp/centers-opportunities/center-for-health-and-the-built-environment/

Ph.D., City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, California, 1996
M.C.P., Community Planning, University of California, Berkeley, California, 1988
M.B.A., Business Administration, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1982
A.B., History, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, 1979

Areas of Focus: Sustainability (Built Environment Resilience, Renewable Energy, Smart Buildings/Cities) Her research focuses on the coordination of transportation and land use, with a particular focus on planning for sustainable modes of transportation, and its impact on communities, the environment, and public health. Her current research is on the impact of school siting, school transportation and land development patterns on children’s travel, transportation and aging, the changing pattern of travel among millennials, impacts of new transportation technologies on transportation systems, parking supply and demand management, equity in planning, and the incorporation of risk into long-range transportation planning Bio: Ruth L. Steiner, Ph.D. is a professor and director of the Center for Health and the Built Environment in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and an affiliate faculty in the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) and the Transportation Institute (UFTI) at the University of Florida.   Her research focuses on the coordination of transportation and land use, with a particular focus on planning for all modes of transportation and its impact on communities, the environment, and public health.  Her current research is on the impact of school siting, school transportation and land development patterns on children’s travel, transportation and aging, the changing pattern of travel among millennials, impacts of new transportation technologies on transportation systems, equity in planning, and the incorporation of risk into long-range transportation planning.  She is co-author of Energy Efficiency and Human Activity: Global Trends and Prospects (Cambridge University Press, 1992) and author of over one hundred book chapters, journal articles, reviews and research reports.  She has served on the Pedestrian Committee, Transportation and Land Development Committee and Transportation History Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Scientific Committee of the World Congress on Transportation Research Society (WCTRS). She teaches courses in Transportation Policy and Planning (URP6716), Transportation and Land Use Coordination (URP6711), Planning Research Design (URP6203), Health and the Built Environment (URP6526), Urban Planning Project (URP6341) and Ecological Issues in Sustainable Design (DCP6205). After earning her AB in History from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, Ruth worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst for First Wisconsin Bank (now a part of US Bank).  During this time she earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.  She later earned a Masters of City Planning (MCP) from the University of California, Berkeley.  She then worked for two years as a policy analyst for the Vermont Public Service Board (now the Vermont Public Utility Commission).  She returned to the University of California, Berkeley, where she completed her Ph. D. in City and Regional Planning.

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