Center director named interim head of Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
Galen Newman, *former director of the Texas A&M Center for Housing and Urban Development and an award-winning educator and researcher, is the new interim head of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning.
Newman, the department’s associate head since 2017, succeeds Shannon Van Zandt, who was recently promoted to executive associate dean of the College of Architecture.
“He is an academic leader in landscape architecture and urban planning,” said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture. “He is accomplished in teaching, research and outreach and has mentored many of our students and junior faculty.”
Newman joined the Aggie faculty as an assistant professor of landscape architecture and urban planning in 2011, and was promoted to associate professor in 2017. Newman has also served as both the Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees program’s coordinator.
The holder of the Nicole and Kevin Youngblood Professorship in Residential Land Development, Newman teaches courses and studios on sustainable communities, Geodesign, urban design and the history of landscape architecture.
His research interests include urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, community flood resilience and community/urban scaled design. Newman has received project funding from many different organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
He has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, seven book chapters and two books – Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change, and Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise: Global Innovative Solutions (forthcoming).
Newman is a faculty fellow or affiliate of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Center for Health Systems & Design, Center for Heritage Conservation, Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities, Center for Texas Beaches and Shores, Center for Geospatial Sciences, and Texas Sea Grant’s **Community Resilience Collaborative.
Newman earned a Ph.D. in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University in 2010, and three degrees at Auburn University: a Master of Community Planning degree and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree in 2006, and a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree in 2003.
For more information, contact rnira@arch.tamu.edu or doswald@tamu.edu.
* At the time of publication, Newman was acting director
** This link is no longer active and has been removed.
