| MORE ABOUT URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING (MURP)
Planning is the professional discipline that seeks to influence how neighborhoods, cities, and regions develop. Planners bring together knowledge and expertise from sociology, engineering, law, architecture, social work, biology, landscape architecture, urban design, and other disciplines to shape cities and regions. Planners use their skills to assist communities in responding to changing social, economic, environmental, and cultural conditions.
What do planners do?
Planners work for government agencies, nonprofit groups, and private consulting firms. Urban and regional planners work to improve communities by preserving and enhancing quality-of-life, protecting the natural-built environment, promoting equity and equality, improving services to all the communities that make up cities and regions, and promoting efficient and sustainable growth and development.
Meet some of our alumni
- Nancy Homans, planner, Saint Paul Planning and Economic Development Department
- Mariia V. Zimmerman, senior adviser for livable communities, Office of Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland, OR)
- Katya Ricketts, director, Payne Avenue Mainstreet
- Don Johnson, developer, The Lander Group
- Claudia Cappio, planner, Emeryville, CA
- Sam Listi, assistant city manager, Temple, TX
- Shirley Schultz Aird, planner, Auburn, WA
- John Vranicar, real estate attorney
Why should you become a planner?
If you are interested in improving neighborhoods, cities, and regions, and you want to learn from all the communities that make up cities, you may want to consider a career in urban and regional planning. As a planner, you can work for positive change by using your skills to help build cities, tackle urban sprawl, upgrade housing, protect the environment, design regional institutions, and promote economic development.
How can you decide if planning is for you?
- Are you interested in encouraging social, economic, environmental, and physical change in your community?
- Do you like to communicate with others about ideas, programs, and plans?
- Are you challenged by complex problems and excited about devising solutions to those problems?
- Do you think about the future — about what could be — rather than what is?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, consider the urban and regional planning program at the Humphrey Institute — you will find it an exciting and rewarding choice! |
