I am sure that many of you thought I had moved to one of the yet to be named planets. Not so--I just entered the exciting but demanding world of academia. For the last two years, I have had the privilege of being a faculty member in Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture, University of Virginia (UVA). I have taught housing and community development, leadership for change, the capstone course for fourth-year planning majors, and a survey course about communities and regions. This summer I am co-teaching our Sustainability Internship seminar and teaching in Switzerland in partnership with two faculty at Virginia Tech (VT) for a program called, Sustainable Europe. We have 21 students in the course from UVA and VT. THEN I will be finished and headed back to Civic Change, Inc. as president full-time.
When I took this position at UVA, I anticipated lots of time to write this blog and think with you about the issues we care about--building resilient cities and regions, enfranchising disenfranchised communities, saving our world for the next generation and beyond. I have had lots of discussions on those very topics over the last two years but they were almost always with a group of bright and committed students. I must tell you that this teaching experience has been an inspiration.
I will be focussing this year on finishing a book on building more globally competitive cities and regions. This work began several years ago and is coming to a fruition this fall. Further, I have expanded my research on the civic engagement of institutions of higher education based on my experience in a School of Architecture. There are so many ideas to discuss and so many things to do.
So...I'm back and the Smart Communities blog is back. Stay tuned and let me hear from you.