Four School + APA Planning Symposium
From Left: Ken Reardon (UMass Boston), Paige Peltzer (Harvard GSD), Erin Schaeffer (City of Salem), Mariana Arcaya (MIT), Juan Leyton (DSNI) and Penn Loh (Tufts UEP) with host Eran Ben-Joseph (MIT)
The annual convening of Massachusetts planning schools and the Massachusetts chapter of the American Planning Association happened last week at the MIT Media Lab. The event was centered around a panel that featured UEP’s Penn Loh and DSNI executive director/UEP MPP alum Juan Leyton. Other panelists included Paige Peltzer, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Erin Schaeffer, a planner with the city of Salem, and Mariana Arcaya from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Ken Reardon, who spoke recently on Tufts campus about his work in post-Katrina New Orleans, gave an illuminating introduction about the importance of strong partnerships between planning academics and local communities. Reardon is the director of UMass Boston’s new Urban Planning and Community Development program.
The panel focused on success stories of university-community partnerships, such as the relationship between Tufts UEP and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. Afterward the talk, students, professors and practitioners had a chance to meet and greet over food and drinks. Until next year!