Job Description

The School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston invites applications for the Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development (UPCD) position to begin September 1, 2025. We seek an outstanding scholar and leader with demonstrated academic experience in urban planning, community development, and leadership, particularly in fostering just and sustainable communities in the context of climate change. The Chair will provide transformational leadership to advance the department’s mission and vision, emphasizing collaboration, transparency, and excellence. We seek a candidate with experience as a department chair or other relevant academic leadership roles who can contribute to the growth of the department’s programs.

The successful candidate will be expected to maintain a research agenda focused on policies and plans to expand opportunities for our region's economically challenged and historically underinvested communities. The Department is especially interested in candidates whose planning scholarship and practice focuses on resident-led, community-based planning and development initiatives.

The Department of Urban Planning and Community Development, established in 2020, is housed within the School for the Environment (SFE) at UMass Boston. The department offers a Bachelor's Program in Community Development and a PAB-accredited Master’s Program in Urban Planning and Community Development. The department’s mission is to undertake research examining the structural causes of uneven and unsustainable patterns of development increasingly characterizing our metropolitan region while preparing the next generation of urban planners and community development professionals dedicated to building healthy, vibrant, equitable, sustainable, and democratic neighborhoods, towns, and cities within the Greater Boston Region and beyond through redistributive policies/plans and participatory planning and design methods.

SFE is an interdisciplinary hub at UMass Boston that tackles the diverse challenges of the natural, built, and social environments through teaching, research, and outreach. SFE engages in innovative, equity-driven approaches that address environmental and societal problems, focusing on the health of communities and ecosystems in the Greater Boston area and beyond. SFE offers undergraduate, master’s, and PhD programs, with faculty expertise spanning environmental science, environmental studies, marine science, and technology. At SFE, faculty and students collaborate to pursue transdisciplinary research and solutions, fostering partnerships with communities, organizations, and government agencies.

UMB is an urban public research university with a teaching soul that has an impact both locally and globally. We are the third most diverse university in the country - more than 60% of our undergraduate students come from minoritized communities and groups, and more than half of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or university. Thus, our students come to us from richly diverse life experiences and backgrounds; they bring to our classrooms and research settings the robust range of perspectives growing out of the socio-cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which they have lived, along with the challenges they encounter, engage, and strive to overcome. We invite applications from candidates who engage the diverse life experiences of our student body, who appreciate that students bring their holistic selves into the academic setting, and who recognize and articulate how their own life experiences and backgrounds have shaped their journeys, practices, and commitments as researchers, scholars, and educators.

Responsibilities:

• Visionary Leadership: Guide and shape the department's strategic direction, fostering research and teaching that address climate resilience and promote just communities.
• Program Development: Lead efforts to expand the department’s research, partnerships, and degree offerings, ensuring alignment with emerging challenges such as environmental sustainability, climate change adaptation, and inclusive community development.
• Teaching and Research: Maintain a research agenda in urban planning, community development, and climate-related fields. Teach graduate and undergraduate courses and advise students.
• Mentorship and Faculty Development: Demonstrate excellence in mentoring faculty at all career levels and support their research and development. Experience in building strong relationships within and beyond the academic environment is essential.
• Collaboration and Outreach: Engage with the campus community and foster collegial relationships with the college, the various institutes and centers, and external stakeholders, including local and national APA, community organizations, local businesses, and governmental agencies, to advance the department’s mission and interests. A strong interest in community engagement and collaborative work is vital.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice within the department’s programs, supporting a diverse student body and fostering a learning environment that reflects UMass Boston’s commitment to these values.

Qualifications:

• Successful candidates must have an earned doctorate in urban planning (a professional planning degree is also preferred)
• The ideal candidate will have demonstrated a distinguished scholarship, teaching, funding, and leadership record, having achieved tenure at a previous institution, reflecting their commitment to academic excellence and sustained contributions to their field. We prefer candidates whose research and teaching focus on or have the potential to contribute to crucial issues at the intersection of social justice, urban planning, community development, and climate change.
• Proven administrative and leadership experience, with a track record of effective department management or similar leadership roles.

Application Process:

Interested individuals can initiate the application process by visiting the UMB’s Career Portal at https://employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us/listing/

Please submit the following via the UMass Boston Employment Portal:

• A cover letter detailing qualifications, leadership experience, and vision for the department.
• Curriculum vitae.
• A statement of research and teaching.
• Contact information for three academic references.

Interested candidates should submit their application by January 15, 2025, for full consideration.

For more information, please contact the search committee chair, Prof. Richard Hung, at richard.hung@umb.edu

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.