HIHELP — Michigan Higher Education Land Policy Consortium

STAFF/ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHIES

Soji Adelaja
Michigan State University

Soji Adelaja is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in Land Policy and Founding Director of the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University. Dr. Adelaja is the founder of MIHELP, as well as the consortium director. He holds joint faculty appointments in the Departments of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics; Geography; and Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies (CARRS). Dr. Adelaja previously served as the Executive Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dean of Cook College, Executive Director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and Director of Rutgers Cooperative Extension at Rutgers University. He was also the Founding Director of a number of institutes and programs, including the Food Policy Institute, the Food Innovation Center, the Ecopolicy Center and the Agricultural Policy Research Group, all at Rutgers University.

Dr. Adelaja is a renowned team builder and widely recognized for his ability to direct faculty expertise toward pressing issues facing government and industry, and for developing and managing numerous university-public partnerships in the areas of public policy and industry development. He is internationally renowned for his work in land use policy, agricultural policy at the urban fringe, emerging market structures, innovation transfer for economic development, strategic growth and food industry development. His research helped shape many policy initiatives, including New Jersey’s $40 million Agricultural Economic Recovery and Development Initiative (AERDI), 1998 Right to Farm Legislation, the Garden State Preservation Trust, the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, and the Millennium Viability Initiative. Dr. Adelaja is widely published in leading journals and is the author of numerous policy reports in land use and industry development. He has sat on the boards of various companies and on various state commissions, advisory committees and task forces. He also served as Special Policy Advisor to the New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture. He has received numerous excellence awards from higher education, state governments and national organizations. Dr. Adelaja received his B.S. degree from the Pennsylvania State University, dual Master’s degrees in Agricultural Economics and in Economics from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from West Virginia University.

William Rustem
Public Sector Consultants, Inc.

William Rustem is President of Public Sector Consultants, a for-profit public policy research and communications firm. He previously served as Gov. William G. Milliken’s Chief Environmental Advisor and Interim Director of the State Toxic Substances Control Commission. Following his service with the State of Michigan, Mr. Rustem became the first Executive Director of the Center for the Great Lakes in Chicago and then joined the Michigan United Conservation Clubs as Director of Development. Mr. Rustem acquired special expertise in issue campaigns as he coordinated the 1976 “bottle bill” petition drive and campaign, co-chaired the 1980 campaign to shift education funding from the property tax to other sources, and coordinated the 1984 statewide campaign for the constitutional amendment creating a Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.

As the firm’s senior consultant for environmental and recreation projects and research, Mr. Rustem chaired the committee to recommend how to reorganize the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, directed development of the “Buy Recycled” campaign for the state, and coordinated a series of studies advocating additional boating facilities in Michigan. He also conducted an EPA-funded study of environmental risks in Michigan administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. In addition to his work on environmental matters, Mr. Rustem is the principal coordinator of the firm’s work with a major foundation in its national project to assist its grantees in responding to the transfer of domestic program authority from the federal to state governments. Mr. Rustem received
his BS in social science and an MS in resource development from Michigan State University. He is an adjunct faculty member in the department of Community, Agricultural and Recreational Resource Studies at Michigan State University.

Robin Boyle
Wayne State University

Robin Boyle is Professor of Urban Planning and Chair of the Department of Geography and Urban Planning (GUP) at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit, Michigan. A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Professor Boyle moved to the U.S. in 1992 after spending 16 years in the Centre for Planning at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to resuming chairmanship of GUP, he served for 10 years as Associate Dean in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs at WSU. He (very proudly) has his bachelors degree from the Glasgow School of Art and his graduate degree from the University of Reading.

He is active in governmental and professional organizations, at the local and national level. In 2004 he was nominated to the Planning Board for the City of Birmingham, MI, becoming Chair in 2006. He also serves on the board of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. In August 2007 he became Co-Chairman of the Detroit Chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Through 2006 he was the Midwestern Representative on the national Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and then in 2007, was elected to the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association.

His research interests include local economic development, in particular the relationship between culture and local economic development; local planning practice; and urban education policy. Throughout the 1990’s he jointly managed a major applied research project on School-to-Work programs. Supported by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, he supervised a team with colleagues from the WSU College of Education on the implementation of a model school-to-work program in the Highland Park (MI) School District. This initiative involved building three-way partnerships between business, including participation by (then) DaimlerChrysler, the community and the school district. He maintains a special interest in community development in Highland Park where he led a Community Visioning exercise in 2005.
 
During the 1990’s he played a role in the Detroit Empowerment Zone. He first represented Wayne State University on the team that wrote the successful application to the federal government and then, more recently, he led two research teams evaluating the progress and impact of the Zone on business and community development in the city. With colleagues from WSU, Boyle also participated in a review of local economic planning processes, funded by the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Ongoing research includes a policy assessment of how communities are responding to an “aging society,” the local music industry as a component of economic development, and the issue of vacant land in central cities. This final interest led to securing funding from the Land Policy Institute at MSU and to collaboration with the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and in particular their successful Redevelopment Ready Communities initiative.

Richard Jelier
Grand Valley State University

Richard Jelier is Associate Professor in the School of Public and Nonprofit Administration at Grand Valley State University who joined the faculty in the fall of 1995. He received a dual Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Political Science-Urban Studies with concentrations in urban studies, public policy and administration and American politics. Dr. Jelier currently teaches Metropolitan Politics and Administration and Economic Development at the graduate level and Local Politics and Administration, Community Analysis and Comparative and International Administration at the undergraduate level. He was co-director and instructor of the London Urbanization summer program in 1999 and created, directs and instructs the Public Affairs and
Planning summer program in Australia 2000 to 2007. Dr. Jelier successfully initiated a full university to university partnership between GVSU and Macquarie University in Australia that was signed by the universities in 2006.

Dr. Jelier’s research and service remains active in planning, economic development and urban and community affairs. He currently serves (2005-2008) on the Educational Advisory Committee for the State of Michigan’s Cool Cities Initiative. He served as chairperson of the Urban Committee – United Growth for Kent County and was GVSU’s liaison to the Grand Valley Metro Council. He was co-principal investigator of a two-year Dyer-Ives Neighborhood Initiative Study. Dr. Jelier served as a research fellow and instructor at Kingston University, London, during his 2002 sabbatical. In the last two years he has presented scholarly papers at the Urban Affairs
Association, The Public Administration Theory Conference, the Midwest Academy of Management, and the European Urban Research Association.
His recent book chapter, “Jelier, et al. 2005, “United Growth: Rural and Urban Land Use Strategy in West Michigan” appears in Wiewel and
Knapp (eds.) Partnerships for Smart Growth: University-Community Collaboration for Better Public Places. New York: M.E. Sharpe. His publications have appeared in Urban Education, Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Public Affairs Education and The International Journal of Economic Development.

Rex LaMore
Michigan State University

Rex LaMore is State Director of the Michigan State University’s Community Economic Development Program and a member of the faculty of the Urban and Regional Planning Program in the newly established School of Planning, Design and Construction at MSU. Dr. LaMore teaches ethics, urban policy and co-supervises the capstone practicum courses in the Urban and Regional Planning Program. Dr. LaMore has over 25 years of experience in Community and Economic Development and has focused his career on the unique challenges of revitalizing distressed communities.

Dr. LaMore provides leadership in a number of research and outreach activities designed to create jobs and improve the quality of life in distressed communities. His current research is focused on Michigan’s “knowledge economy and creative communities” where he and a team of scholars at MSU have developed a knowledge economy index for Michigan’s counties and municipalities. Dr. LaMore has authored numerous publications on community and economic development, including a recent article for the National Science Foundation on the potential effects of technology on the development of social capital by community based affordable housing organizations.

As the architect of the 1992 Outreach Partnership Act with Senator Don Riegle of Michigan, Dr. LaMore’s work has affected the nature of University/Community partnerships nationwide. In 1995 he was the national recipient of the Community Development Society’s Distinguished
Service Award, in recognition of his leadership and sustained commitment to excellence in community development. Dr. LaMore received his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Michigan State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

John D Warbach
Michigan State University

Dr. Warbach is a Professor at Michigan State University and Associate Director for Research and Faculty Development of the Land Policy Institute. John coordinates the MIHELP Consortium, LPI research initiative development and teambuilding, curriculum development, grant administration, and Distinguished Speaker Series. His research investigates human preferences and nature, land use and environmental communications, coastal access, community sustainability, and green economic strategies.

Previously, he was Associate Director of Planning & Zoning Center at MSU, and before the Center moved to MSU, Principle with the private firm, Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. where he consulted on a range of topics, including master plans and design guidelines for communities, futuring and strategic planning, landscape character, open space preservation, watershed management planning and natural resources preservation techniques. He was a primary author of the first edition of the Grand Traverse Bay Region Development Guidebook, collaborator on dozens of local Master Plans, and a frequent contributor to Planning & Zoning News.

Dr. Warbach has fifteen years of university teaching experience and currently co-teaches the MSU online course, Smart Growth and Strategic Land Use Decision Making with Dr. Adelaja.

He has a Ph.D. in Urban Forestry from Michigan State University, a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California-Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University.