Student, Faculty & Alumni Profiles

UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellow Sandra Bernal Cordova, who joined CAPLA in 2018 as a lecturer, uses her built environment research, community service and cross-campus collaborations to inform the classes she teaches and co-teaches, which include Water Efficiency in Building, Equitable Cities and the Sustainable Built Environments Capstone.

This summer, graduate student Zsalina Allen participated in a sustainable transportation study abroad program in Denmark and Sweden. She documented her travels in a fascinating and entertaining blog. We followed up to learn more about her experience in Scandinavia, as well her UArizona MS Urban Planning experience.

Assistant Professor of Architecture Michael Scott Silver joined CAPLA this fall. His research and practice focus on the relationship between existing cultures of labor and the effects new automation technologies will have on the built environment.

Visiting Professor of Architecture June Williamson has joined CAPLA for the Fall 2022 semester from The City College of New York. Her research focuses on northern American suburban form and its discontents, documenting how underperforming suburban property types and development patterns are being redeveloped, reinhabited or regreened.

Assistant Professor Daniel Kuhlmann joined CAPLA this fall. He has an MA and PhD in Urban Planning from Cornell University and a BA in International Relations from Carleton College. In his research, he focuses on land-use issues, real estate development and the businesses of residential landlords.

In this interview, UArizona School of Architecture Director Ryan E. Smith shares his initial vision for the school, discusses the importance of interdisciplinarity, shares his passions for research on affordable housing and the importance of research in an architectural education, discusses the value of connecting with firms, provides advice to students and more.

Seth Asare Okyere joined the college this semester as visiting assistant professor of urban planning as part of CAPLA's inaugural emerging faculty fellow program. Learn more about Seth, including his current research on socio-spatial and environmental aspects of everyday southern urban experiences in relation to social equity and community resilience planning.

After a full and rewarding architecture career that spans marketing, facilities, project management and corporate relations, CAPLA Director of Alumni Relations and Community Engagement Kay Olsen Brown has retired. Before she rode off into the sunset, Brown shared stories about her career, her experience at CAPLA and more.

Forest Replogle, a transportation planner with the Mid-Region Council of Governments Metropolitan Planning Organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico, graduated from the UArizona MS Planning degree after serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, an experience that helped him think about "how the built environment affects health, wealth and ecology."

When Arthur C. Nelson retired from the University of Arizona in May 2022, he considered his legacy—not just at the University of Arizona, but across his distinguished, 38-year career in higher education following 12 years in the planning profession.

BS in Sustainable Built Environments student Shamara Smith came to UArizona from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this video profile, she discusses how she became interested in sustainability, her passions for leaving the world better than she found it, why community engagement is important and the value of networking in building a new career.

MS Urban Planning student Christina Scarpitti made her way to Tucson in the midst of the pandemic. Although her time here came with a few trials, she looks back and reflects on the positive experience CAPLA and the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning have provided her as she enters the job field.