Planning Local Economic Development

Dr. Edward J. Blakely is Executive Director of Recovery Management for the City of New Orleans. Formerly, he was Dean of the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University, and Lusk Professor of Planning and Development for the School of Urban Planning and Development at the University of Southern California (1994-1999). He has also served as Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley (1986-1994). Dr. Blakely has held academic positions in teaching, research, academic administration, and policy development for more than twenty-five years. He is a leading scholar in the fields of planning, infrastructure, transportation and local economic development. At three multi-campus universities, he has forged new relationships among the university, public and private sectors in the region while holding senior administrative responsibilities. He has also held senior positions at Pacific Telephone company (1960-65) and as a U.S. foreign service officer (1969-71). Dr Blakely served as a policy advisor to the mayor of Oakland and advisor to the Los Angeles Public School District. In addition, he serves on a number of task forces and commissions at the local, state, national and international levels. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association, the Nature Conservancy, and the Board of Directors of Environmental Science Associates and SE Corporation (private firms). He held an elected position on the University of California Academic Senate Committees. Dr. Blakely was a Senior Fulbright Fellow (1985-86), and received the 1990 San Francisco Foundation Award for improving community life in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, he was President of the Pacific Rim Council on Urban Development (1993) and remains on the Board of Directors. He was appointed by President Clinton as Vice Chair of the Presidio Trust to serve a two-year term (1997-1999). From 1977-84, Dr. Blakely was Assistant Vice President of Systemwide Administration for the University of California. In this capacity, he managed the University's faculty and academic personnel and policy system for more than 14,000 University of California academic employees. He has been an advisor to local and regional governments in Korea, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Vietnam. Dr. Blakely is the author of four books and more than 100 scholarly articles. His publications include Fortress America with Mary Gail Snyder (Brookings Press, 1997); Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities (Temple University Press, 1992), Planning Local Economic Development Theory and Practice (Sage, 1989), and Rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society (Praeger, 1979). His articles include "Room for Whom: Change in the Central Valley" (1990), "Theoretical Approaches for a Global Community" (1989), and "Shaping the American Dream: Landuse Choices for America's Future" (1993). His work is widely cited and he was co-recipient of the Paul Davidoff Award (1993) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994). Dr. Blakely has extensive experience in Europe and Africa as well as his background in Asia.