Conference sponsored by college diversity council wins APA award

Dialogo on the Border, a 2013 conference about urban Texas-Mexico border issues sponsored in part by the diversity council at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, has been recognized with an achievement award from the [American Planning Association] (https://www.planning.org) .

Organizers of the Brownsville, Texas conference, including Cecilia Giusti, head of the diversity council and associate professor of urban planning, will be honored April 21, 2015 by the APA’s Divisions Council at the group’s national conference in Seattle.

The council, which represents the interests of APA members grouped by specialized fields or cultural interests, honors projects, plans and individuals that exemplify outstanding efforts of the planning profession.

Dialogo on the Border conference attendees discussed solutions for border issues in sessions led by architecture, construction science, engineering and communications experts.

The event also featured keynote speakers Nabeel Hamdi, emeritus professor of housing and urban development at Oxford Brookes University, Stan Marek, chief executive officer of Marek Brothers Systems, Inc., and James Rojas, founder of the Latino Urban Forum.

Participants also learned how planning theory can be applied to address border issues, took tours of key projects, and more.

“The dialogo was part of an effort to build a diverse and supportive national network of planning, community and policy professionals interested in addressing the many issues affecting communities around the country,” said Giusti.

In another conference-related honor, Edna Ledesma, a doctoral student in Texas A&M’s Urban and Regional Sciences program, [earned] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2014/11/10/phd-student-awards-planning-convention/) two awards at the April 2013 Texas APA conference for recruiting the dialogo’s speakers and panelists and for coordinating the event’s student volunteers.