FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2009
Contact: Tracee de Hahn
Cal Poly College Architecture and Environmental Design
805-756-7114; tdehahn@calpoly.edu
Hemalata Dandekar Appointed Head of
Cal Poly City and Regional Planning
A nationally ranked department at Cal Poly has a new leader. Hemalata Dandekar has been named department head for City and Regional Planning at Cal Poly, bringing a strong interdisciplinary and international background to the position.
Dandekar was chosen by R. Thomas Jones, dean of Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. “She has the administrative experience, record of scholarship and familiarity with the environmental design professions,” said Jones. “She will make an immediate contribution to the university community.”
Dandekar is currently professor of planning at Arizona State University. She served as director of the School of Planning at ASU from 2002-2007.
Before ASU, Dandekar was professor of planning at the University of Michigan in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and held senior administrative posts at the university. She holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from UCLA, a master’s in architecture from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s in architecture from the University of Bombay.
She is also a registered architect in California. An author of six books and numerous book chapters, Dandekar has done recent work on planning along the U.S. Mexico border and on rural community development and family farms and farm buildings.
Dandekar will take over from William Siembieda, the city and regional planning department head for the last eleven years, on September 1.
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