SPA In The News

December 2023

Congratulations to our Fall 2023 graduates!

MPA degree: Meredith Abel, Marvict Benkert, Maxx Brown, Lauren Canady, Christopher Freeman, Shivani Goswami, Brandon Henry, Kelly Horn, Sarah Jaycocks, Omeshia Joseph, Phillip McEuen, Luis Molina Martinez, Christina Natoli, Donn Scott Jr., Clinton Shockley, Elizabeth St. Pierre, Lauren Taylor, and Tyler Williams.

MURP degree: Darby Bryant, Braydon Evans, Bryce Fehringer, Minjung Kim, Varshini Renikunta, Mark Richards, Aditi Sugeerappa Hoti, and Joseph Watynski.

October 2023

MPA student Tyler Williams was accepted into the prestigious American Public Works Association's (APWA) 2023-2024 Emerging Leaders Academy. He is the only person from the state of Florida to be accepted into this year's cohort! This is a year-long national program that provides intensive leadership and management training within the context of public works, and also encourages professional growth through a strong network of peers.

August 2023

MPA student Tess Ocean was selected for a Pathways Internship at the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center working with their CFO organization in Accounting & Budget. This program provides students with the opportunity to explore NASA careers while still in school, allowing them to gain meaningful developmental work experience and dynamic career development.

May 2023

Congratulations to our Spring 2023 graduates!

MPA degree: Christopher Bishop, Eric Cruz, Nicole Delfino, Samantha Fiore, Mari Nicole Rosales, Henry Trent, and Dakota Winn.

MURP degree: Connor Baird, Patrick Dutter, Charly Gutierrez, Teresa Neal, Logan Patterson, and Tana Spencer.

April 2023

MURP students Abdul Samad Agha, Beneetta Mary Jose, Varshini Renikunta, and Aditi Sugeerappa Hoti were selected as one of three finalist teams in the national American Planning Association (APA) Student Design Competition. They had the opportunity to present at the 2023 National Planning Conference in Philadelphia and were awarded third place!

Their vision calls for creating a well-balanced, healthy, energetic, and dynamic environment to restore the Logan Triangle community that formerly attracted people to Philadelphia. We are so proud and fortunate to have these extraordinary international students representing our MURP program and School!

January 2023

MURP student Braydon Evans received the 2022 Student Project Award from the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter for his project titled "Carver City-Lincoln Gardens."

December 2022

Congratulations to our Fall 2022 graduates!

MPA degree in honorarium: Morgan Van Horn

MPA degree: Tiffany Brady, Andrew Brown, Kasaira Burgos, Sherri Courtney, Wendi Hannigan, Kayon Henderson, Tiana Hill, Dominique King, Danielle Lang, Fetia Massillon, Shannon Mills, Angelo Rallo III, Julie Stevenson, Jonathan Till, Eric Tsai, and David Yunk.

MURP degree: Alex Burns, Fatima Elkott, Akeem Kerr, Jennie Sammur, and Nathan Smiley.

November 2022

GCPM student Jeff Cathey received the 2022 Honor-a-Bull Award, which is awarded by the USF Office of Veteran Success. This award honors student veterans who have demonstrated strong academic performance and have contributed to the larger USF community. Jeff served in the U.S. Navy for 29 years and deployed worldwide in support of the national defense posture. Upon his retirement, he joined Bank of America as Head of Military and Veteran Affairs, leading the company's global strategy in support of active duty service men and women and their families as they transition into the civilian workforce. We thank Jeff for serving our country and protecting our freedoms!

September 2022

Congratulations to MURP students Bryce Fehringer, Logan Patterson, Kelsey Current, Connor Baird, Braydon Evans, and Fatima Elkott for being selected as the six scholarship recipients to attend the 2022 APA Florida Annual Conference. These scholarships are generously offered to graduate students by the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter, which makes it possible for them to attend the annual conference.

August 2022

Congratulations to our Summer 2022 graduates!

MURP degree: Kayla Witkowski.

June 2022

MPA student Eric Cruz was awarded the 2022 Aspiring Professional Manager Scholarship, which was initiated in 2018 and is given to help individual students with a strong commitment to pursuing a career in local government management offset educational expenses.

May 2022

Congratulations to our Spring 2022 graduates!

MPA degree: Alyssa Baumgartner, Joelle Digioia, Joshua Ebner, Skoervitch Emile, Jorge Gutierrez Neri, Sharon Hamisak, Michael Hanson, Daniel Jones, Gertrude McDaniel, Bryan Skorczewski, and Christina Stevens.

MURP degree: Jhe Neal Hall, Hayat Mazili, and Quoc Thinh Nguyen.

April 2022

As the popularity of the Pinellas Trail and electric bikes grow dramatically, Forward Pinellas is hearing complaints about speeding and discourteous behavior, and they looked into the issue. MURP student Alex Burns, an intern at Forward Pinellas, explains that speeding is mainly perception.

January 2022

MURP student Fatima Elkott was one of two recipients of the 2021 Andre Anderson Minority Scholarship, which is awarded by the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter. This scholarship is meant to celebrate planning and foster increased interest in planning by providing financial support for planning students who are members of underserved ethnic groups.

December 2021

Congratulations to our Fall 2021 graduates!

MPA degree: Glen Aleo, Ashley Bernal, Katherine Bleakly, Connor Donovan, Cayla Duckworth, Rusty Ennis, Christopher Findley, Aubrey Fuller, Gabriella Gonzalez, Octavia Jarnegan, Edward Lewis, Denver Lowe, Rebecca Moistner, Takia Moss, Humayra Qadir, Shelley Rossetter, and Daniel Schoel.

MURP degree: Alvaro Gabaldon, Miguel Nieves, Megan Nixon, Dylan Prins, and Vanessa Ramirez.

November 2021

MPA student Kayon Henderson was named the City of Tampa's Manager of Housing and Community Development. Her promotion follows a series of accomplishments and dedicated service, which over the years has helped thousands of struggling families and vulnerable individuals secure a safe place to live. Sharply monitoring the distribution of more than 80 million dollars in federal and state grant funding, Kayon has helped carve the path to meet Mayor Jane Castor's ambitious housing affordability goals and in her new role, will only strengthen and catapult this effort. We're incredibly proud of Kayon's accomplishments within the Tampa Bay community!

MURP student Hayat Mazili received the 2021 Student Project Award from the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter for her research and ArcGIS StoryMaps project on Tampa Heights titled "Tampa's First Suburb."

MURP student Connor Baird was one of three recipients of the 2021 Transportation Scholarship Award, which is awarded by the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) to assist in the education of and help attract the best and brightest to careers in transportation. Educating students for careers in transportation engineering, planning, and other disciplines is vital to enhancing the quality of life for our city, region, state, and nation.

October 2021

MPA student Mari Nicole Rosales was nominated and selected to serve on the University of South Florida Graduate Council for the 2021-2022 academic year. As a Graduate Student Representative, she will serve on the Policy and Fellowship Committee, which reviews policies and makes recommendations for revisions as needed. The committee also assists in reviewing the fellowships administered by the USF Office of Graduate Studies and makes recommendations for awarding these. We're very proud of Mari Nicole and we know that she will represent our School well in this important role!

August 2021

Fresh from earning accreditation with the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB), our MURP program welcomed its largest incoming cohort with 17 new students! The class of 2023 are working on many exciting initiatives including helping plan Tampa's coastal areas as part of a community engaged project, pondering the potential for electric vehicles as part of campus mobility solutions, and working at area planning organizations including Tindale Oliver, the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission, the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Forward Pinellas, and the Tampa Downtown Partnership!

Congratulations to our Summer 2021 graduates!

MURP degree: Gerald Galloway, Taylor Hague, and Alexander Steady.

June 2021

MPA student Gabriella Gonzalez was awarded the 2021 B. Harold Farmer Scholarship, which was established in 1992 in honor of B. Harold Farmer, a Florida City and County Management Association (FCCMA) past president, who served as a mentor for many Florida city and county managers. This scholarship honors Mr. Farmer's commitment to professional local government management and the use of innovation to deliver services to Florida residents.

May 2021

Congratulations to our Spring 2021 graduates!

MPA degree: Scott Burrows, Xavier Colon, Kendrick Donnelly, Brad Gilkes, Kaitlyn Stelzer, and Gwendella Washington.

MURP degree: Austin Britt, Christopher Giles, Daniele Green, Lauren O'Neill, and Austin Sipiora.

December 2020

Congratulations to our Fall 2020 graduates!

MPA degree: Jerell Blenman, Leona Crumbley, Charles Martinez Cartagena, Sean McGowan, Amanda Torrence, and Larry Washington.

MURP degree: Vasilya Allakhverdieva and Tanya Merkle.

August 2020

Congratulations to our Summer 2020 graduates!

MURP degree: Alexis Boback, Dominique Boyer, Amanda Harig, Andrew Harris, and Mercy Muga.

June 2020

MPA student Brandon Henry was awarded the 2020 B. Harold Farmer Scholarship, which was established in 1992 in honor of B. Harold Farmer, a Florida City and County Management Association (FCCMA) past president, who served as a mentor for many Florida city and county managers. This scholarship honors Mr. Farmer's commitment to professional local government management and the use of innovation to deliver services to Florida residents.

May 2020

Congratulations to our Spring 2020 graduates!

MPA degree: Richard Alvarez, Matthew Chernesky, Eric Denney, Samantha Genske-Condon, Ervin Harris, Boniswa Joseph, Kelly Kautz, Michael Manning, Connor Masella, Nailia Ogunnaike, Bernadette Petika, Ieeshia Reed, Jacob Richardson, Jessica Samaniego, Julia Shelly, and Eric Sineath.

MURP degree: Samuel Becker, Kayla Burrows, Wyatt Burttschell, Alayna Delgado, Hemashree Dunakhe, Diego Guerra, Connor MacDonald, Sean Martin, and Fangzi Zhang.

December 2019

Congratulations to our Fall 2019 graduates!

MPA degree: Aimee Carpenter, Rodnecia Hemmingway, Danielle McCarthy, Michael McLaughlin, Solomon Mukasa, Chelsea Mulligan, Kursad Ozdemir, Ozlem Ozdemir, Karina Pogosiantc, Taylor Sanchez, Taja Sumpter, and Pam Sundown.

MURP degree: Corey Gray, Alyssa Livingstone, Trinity Miller, and Hanbo Zhou.

November 2019

MURP student Alayna Delgado was one of seven recipients of the 2019 Georgia Brosch Memorial Transportation Scholarship, which is awarded by the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) to assist in the education of and help attract the best and brightest to careers in transportation. Educating students for careers in transportation is vital to enhancing the quality of life for our state and the nation. You can view her interview here (fast forward to 1:42).

September 2019

Congratulations to MURP students Samuel Becker, Trinity Miller, Amanda Harig, Kayla Burrows, and Andrew Harris for being selected as the five scholarship recipients to attend the 2019 APA Florida Annual Conference. These scholarships are generously offered to graduate students by the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter, which makes it possible for them to attend the annual conference.

USF students received the 2019 Outstanding Student Project Award from the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter. The award jointly recognized students from the MURP program led by Dr. Evangeline Linkous and the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) led by Kristine Williams, as well as students from UF and FSU.

Students from each of these universities collaborated on a research project in support of the Florida Transportation Plan Update. The project findings will be incorporated into the FDOT planning processes, and this represented a unique opportunity for USF students—both because they were able to take part in a challenging, exciting, and impactful project at the cutting-edge of transportation policy-making, but also because they were able to collaborate across universities and learn from one another.

August 2019

Congratulations to our Summer 2019 graduates!

MURP degree: Jesse Ballard, Thomas Biamonte, Tatiana Childress, Jian Gao, Shengkai Gao, Dayna Lazarus, Sabrina Marrero, Alexia Rotberg, and David Saroea.

July 2019

MURP student Samuel Becker was awarded the 2019 Florida Housing Coalition's Doreen Flummer Scholarship. He was invited to attend the Annual Statewide Affordable Housing Conference—which attracted more than 800 affordable housing advocates, lenders, developers, administrators, and policy makers—and his participation in the conference provided him with the opportunity to meet and learn from the leading affordable housing experts in the state of Florida.

June 2019

MURP student Diego Guerra received the 2019 Student Project Award from the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter for his research and ArcGIS StoryMaps project titled "Tampa Streetcar: Past, Present, and Future."

May 2019

MURP students Sean Martin, Christopher Moorman, Nicole Tremblay, and Dayna Lazarus presented their research project titled "Assessment of Planning Risks and Alternative Futures for the Florida Transportation Plan Update" at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Workshop on the Future of Transportation in Florida. Topics included incorporating public health, equity, technology, and funding sources beyond the gas tax into transportation planning. Special thanks to Kristine Williams and Tia Boyd from the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) for organizing this event!

Congratulations to our Spring 2019 graduates!

MPA degree: Reginald Dagsa, Cristina De Jesus, Meghan Engleson, Sane Haidara, Sean Lopez, Tommy Maldonado, Stephen Mallory, Yana Matiyuk, Sasha Oliver, Alexis Searfoss, Gamze Suler, and Okan Suler.

MURP degree: Saad Mirza, Christopher Moorman, and Nicole Tremblay.

April 2019

MURP student Alayna Delgado was awarded the 2019 EnerGIS Scholarship, which was sponsored by the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA). This scholarship recognized outstanding geospatial achievement and featured inspiring and challenging talks about GIS within the energy industry. She attended the EnerGIS conference—which was an energy-focused Geographic Information Systems (GIS) conference that brought together GIS professionals and spatial data managers from diverse market verticals to discuss innovation and technological advancement—and made a brief presentation on her project submission.

January 2019

MURP student Diego Guerra was one of two recipients of the 2018 Andre Anderson Minority Scholarship, which is awarded by the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter. This scholarship is meant to celebrate planning and foster increased interest in planning by providing financial support for planning students who are members of underserved ethnic groups.

December 2018

Congratulations to our Fall 2018 graduates!

MPA degree: Christopher Barnes, Elizabeth Bolles, Jacob Dorff, Zoe Jenkins, Carol Marrero-Placeres, Megan Orlando, Jose Ventura, and Matthew Wotowiec.

MURP degree: Vanko Antonov, Corinn Beem, Jensen Hackett, Ryan McCaffrey, Amna Parson, Hanna Shaffer, Shuyu Wang, and Boyang Xi.

November 2018

MURP student Dayna Lazarus was one of three recipients of the 2018 Georgia Brosch Memorial Transportation Scholarship, which is awarded by the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) to assist in the education of and help attract the best and brightest to careers in transportation. Educating students for careers in transportation is vital to enhancing the quality of life for our state and the nation. You can view her interview here (fast forward to 2:16).

MURP student Nicole Tremblay was named the 2018 National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) Student of the Year, which is awarded by the USF Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR). This award is given to an outstanding student who will become a future public transportation professional with a goal to build strong public transportation systems via workforce development programs to prepare for tomorrow's multimodal challenges and opportunities. You can view her interview here.

August 2018

Congratulations to our Summer 2018 graduates!

MPA degree: Amber Ratz.

MURP degree: Brandon Berry, Waldo Carbo, Yikun Luo, Andrea Papandrew, and Emily Phelan.

May 2018

MURP student Christopher Moorman received the 2018 Student Project Award from the Sun Coast Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Florida Chapter for his research and ArcGIS StoryMaps project titled "West Tampa Community Redevelopment Area."

Congratulations to our Spring 2018 graduates!

MPA degree: Choung Mi Akehurst, Jordan Biegler, John Dauphinais, Erica Nelson, Evelin Ocampo, Caroline Polanco, Lourdes Rodriguez, Johnathan Sims, Francis Smith, Janae Thomas, Robert Toadvine, and Edgardo Valentin.

MURP degree: Eric Adams, Sean Baraoidan, Hatairat Chancherdphol, Yuzhou Chen, Kevie Defranc, Soomin Kim, Kiran Kumar Navaneethakumar, Matthew Pleasant, Jennifer Sheppard, and Sheila Tirey.