" In the wake of Katrina the entire gulf coast is embroiled in a struggle over what constitutes "appropriate" rebuilding and redevelopment efforts. This practicum will engage students in a set of work groups designed to assist local community based institutions and people in shaping the policy and practices that will guide the redevelopment and rebuilding efforts in the city of New Orleans."

Citizen participation is everywhere. Invoking it has become de rigueur when discussing cities and regions in the developing world. From the World Bank to the World Social Forum, the virtues of participation are extolled: from its capacity to “deepen democracy” to its ability to improve governance, there is no shortage to the benefits it can bring. While it is clear that participation cannot possibly “do” all that is claimed, it is also clear that citizen participation cannot be dismissed, and that there must be something to it. Figuring out what that something is – whether it is identifying the types of participation or the contexts in which it happens that bring about desirable outcomes is the goal of the class.

Small-group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.941 and 11.955 are taught P/D/F.

Community Empower is a national community development infrastructure created as an enterprise-class business process management network to integrate the various business-to-business players for the affordable housing industry. Using advanced workflow and business process management, extended web services and enterprise automation interfaces between hundreds of entities, CE creates a dynamic environment for a consumer to reach the dream of home ownership. The network extends the reach of the bank beyond their traditional business boundaries into the neighborhoods where local, trusted counselors replace traditional loan officers from outside the community.

This practicum focuses on applying the principles of sustainability to improve the quality of life and activity along the Foshan downtown riverfront. The City has recently engaged in several planning efforts that, with the help of consultants and experts, will help to identify strategies to revitalize the City's center and establish a new downtown. This practicum will compliment these efforts by focusing on planning and design options in and around the Pearl River, a now underutilized waterway that runs through the City's new downtown.

Explores how public policy and private markets affect housing, economic development, and the local economy; provides an overview of techniques and specified programs policies and strategies that are (and have been) directed at neighborhood development; gives students an opportunity to reflect on their personal sense of the housing and community development process; emphasizes the institutional context within which public and private actions are undertaken.

This course examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Guest speakers present cases, involving current projects, which illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice.

In the wake of Katrina the entire gulf coast is embroiled in a struggle over what constitutes "appropriate" rebuilding and redevelopment efforts. This practicum will engage students in a set of work groups designed to assist local community based institutions and people in shaping the policy and practices that will guide the redevelopment and rebuilding efforts in the city of New Orleans.

I come to the field of educational administration from a rather unorthodox background. The search which led me to education began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. I left there frustrated with what passed as “development”. I heard the term “sustainability” thrown around and saw nothing sustainable about what was being done. I saw not only short-term improvement in people’s lives, but also an incredible waste of resources and a feeding frenzy of development officers getting fat on NGO and western government funding. Sadly, in the years following my service in Sierra Leone, I also saw the peaceful Sierra Leoneans turn into symbols of humanity’s darkest side (referring to the gruesome civil war in Sierra Leone). It was depressing, really.

Fate took me next to working with immigrants in New Mexico with a literacy project. I found the results of education much more rewarding and tangible. My belief in the potential of education was confirmed once again as I next worked with English teachers in northeastern Siberia in the Sakha Republic from 1993-1996. I decided education was always the common denominator in any “sustainable development” approach, so I returned to the U.S. and the University of New Mexico for graduate degrees in education. It was my doctoral research on an educational project aimed at sustainable community development via “moral leadership” and “personal and social transformation” that is the topic of this article. In my opinion, this is a example of a community development project that deserves the blue ribbon label of “sustainable”.

My purpose here is to simply introduce educational leaders, as briefly as possible, to this model. I will conclude by suggesting how further exploration of “moral leadership” might help educational administrators and professors improve their practice.

Explores the potential of information technology and the internet to transform public education, city design, and community development in inner-city neighborhoods. Associated with the West Philadelphia Landscape Project, an ongoing action-research program integrating research, teaching, and community service since 1987.