College of Architecture names new executive associate dean

Beginning in fall 2016, Dawn Jourdan, an experienced academic administrator, land use attorney and urban planning educator, will help lead the Texas A&M College of Architecture as the college’s executive associate dean.

“I am looking forward to working with her to strengthen and enhance student success, faculty excellence and the implement college’s teaching, research and service mission,” said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the college.

Jourdan, a member of the Texas A&M urban planning faculty from 2004-08, comes to College Station from the University of Oklahoma, where she served as director of the university’s city and regional planning division and as an associate professor of urban planning since 2012.

She will rejoin the Texas A&M faculty in the [Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu) , where she previously taught from 2004 to 2007.

Jourdan earned a Master of Urban Planning Degree and a Juris Doctor, a professional graduate law degree, at the University of Kansas in 2000, she joined Holland & Knight LLP, an international law firm, as an associate in its Chicago office.

Her academic career, which began in 2002, included positions at Florida State, Rutgers University, Texas A&M and the University of Florida. In Florida, she filled a joint appointment in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the Levin College of Law and directed the university’s [Center for Building Better Communities] (https://dcp.ufl.edu/urp/centers-opportunities/center-for-building-better-communities/) , which conducts research and advocates for innovation in collaborative planning and citizen participation in public projects.

A widely published author, Jourdan co-wrote “ [Planning for Wicked Problems: A Planner’s Guide to Land Use Law] (https://www.amazon.com/Planning-Wicked-Problems-Planners-Guide/dp/1138012955) ,” which shows students how the law can be a useful tool when planners devise solutions to intractable planning problems.

Her research regarding the legal aspects of land use, affordable housing, historic preservation and aesthetics regulation at the federal, state, and local level, have been published in numerous academic journals and law reviews, including the Journal of Real Estate Research, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, and the Journal of Law and Public Policy.

She has taught graduate and undergraduate planning courses, such as land use controls, land development, ordinance drafting, planning history and theory, and many more.

Jourdan replaces Lou Tassinary, who served as executive associate dean since fall 2009. After a one-year leave, Tassinary will teach and perform research as a professor in the [Department of Visualization] (http://viz.arch.tamu.edu) .