AFFILIATIONS
EDUCATION
Georgia Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in City Planning, 2009
University of Oregon, Masters in Community and Regional Planning, 2000
Georgia Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, 1994
TEACHING
URP 6061: Planning Administration and Ethics
URP 6421: Environmental Land Use Planning and Management
URP 6931: Topical Seminar: Community Engagement
DCP 6931: Special Topics: Doctoral Core 3
RESEARCH
My research integrates the fields of planning and community development to assist rural and urban communities to become more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. Specific areas of expertise include small town and rural planning, neighborhood planning for social equity, community engagement and collaboration, coastal planning and climate change adaptation, and regional planning and ecosystem/watershed management. At UF I have been the principal investigator for $1 million in interdisciplinary research grants in partnership with Florida communities to develop and pilot test innovative planning approaches to address 21st century issues.
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).