Community Planning faculty and students receive regional awards

10/31/2023

Whitney Lee with award — From left to right, Todd McDonald, AL-APA awards committee chair and planning director for Dothan, Alabama, Whitney Lee and Becki Retzlaff, MCP professor.

Faculty and students in the Master of Community Planning program recently received American Planning Association Alabama Chapter awards at the 2023 Mississippi & Alabama Fall Chapter Conference. Sweta Byahut was recognized with the Kenneth J. Groves, Jr. Distinguished Leadership Award for a Professional Planner. In memory of Kenneth J. Groves, Jr., former Director of Planning and Development of the City of Montgomery, this award honors an individual for their significant/sustained contributions to the planning profession through distinguished practice, teaching or writing.

Sweta Byahut Byahut, an associate professor, has worked for more than a decade in areas of planning consultancy and applied research in India. She has experience with planning legislation, development regulation, comprehensive and regional planning, post-earthquake reconstruction, and inner-city revitalization. Her work is frequently featured in newspapers and has been cited in the Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India by the National Planning Commission, Government of India.

MCP students Tracy Chandler, Whitney Lee and Tianshi Xu won the Distinguished Leadership Award for a Planning Student Team. This award recognizes an exceptional student team for an outstanding project or for significant attainment in the study of planning or contributions to the planning profession. Award criteria included innovativeness, effectiveness, quality of materials and comprehensiveness.

Throughout the years, Auburn MCP students have received numerous American Planning Association awards, serving as a testament to the high quality of Auburn’s program.

For more information about Auburn’s Master of Community Planning program, visit their website.

Tags: Political Science

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