Cal Poly Professor Wins Award for Advancing Women in Academia

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly Professor and City and Regional Planning Department Head Hemalata Dandekar recently won the Margarita McCoy Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).

The award is presented to academic professionals who have made an outstanding contribution toward the advancement of women in planning at institutions of higher education through service, teaching, and/or research.

According to McCoy Committee Chair Professor Ann Forsyth of Cornell University, members of the committee were impressed by Dandekar's list of fellowships and recognitions for her work from a very diverse array of sources such as Fulbright and UNHabitat.

“She has made impressive contributions to studies of rural and regional development, including gender dimensions, Forsyth said. “Letters highlighted how she had been active in advancing the work of female faculty and students at a number of institutions.”

Dandekar became Cal Poly’s City and Regional Planning Department head in fall 2009. Before coming to Cal Poly, she taught Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, MIT and Arizona State University. She has held several senior administrative positions, including associate vice president of Research and director of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, as well as director of the School of Planning at Arizona State University.

Dandekar is known for her work on rural-urban connections and globalization, on issues of gender and housing, and on vernacular architecture. Her edited book “Planner’s Use of Information” (APA Press: 2003) is used in many planning programs in North America.

She was a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow from 1993 to 1994, working on “runaway” urbanization in India. She was a Bunting Institute Fellow at Harvard, conducting research on rural women and development. Most recently she worked on family farms and farm buildings in Michigan

“We are so pleased by this announcement,” said R. Thomas Jones, dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. “This is well deserved recognition for Hema’s leadership.”

About Cal Poly’s City and Regional Planning Department
The City and Regional Planning Department http://www.planning.calpoly.edu offers both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in planning. The accredited, professional undergraduate program builds skills in physical design, visual communications and environmental analysis. The two-year MCRP is ranked among the best in the nation.

The Planning Design and Construction Institute (PDIC) at Cal Poly – http://www.caed.calpoly.edu/pdci – focuses on applied research devoted to advancing the application of knowledge and practice that improves the quality and safety of the built environment.

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