Sustainable Design Faculty

Dr. Michael Kung is Director of Global Education and the Program Director for the Sustainable Design Master’s program at the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida. He earned his doctorate from the University of Florida and joined the College in 2010. Much of his research and international experience comes from regularly traveling to countries in Asia, such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Singapore. His research interests include sustainability and historic preservation, as well as international education and culture and educational technology. He has published and presented in North America and Asia and also serves as a guest reviewer for international journals. He currently teaches research methodology for the Sustainable Design program and educational technology courses for the College of Education, UF as an adjunct lecturer.

Professor Hailey’s research investigates the cultural and environmental contexts for architecture design and construction. He is interested generally how this subject relates to teaching, thinking, and making within both cultural landscape and material culture. Within this broad field of study, he has focused on three specific areas of research: place-making, redefining contemporary space, and climatic approaches to architecture.

Daniel E. Williams, is a Seattle author and practicing architect and planner. He is an internationally recognized expert in sustainable architecture and urban and regional design. He served as 2006 chair of the National AIA’s Sustainability Task Group and was a member of the national advisory council for United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA – NACEPT. Mr. Williams has been an invited speaker and held workshops at national conventions for AIA, APA, ASES, ASLA, AWRA, CNU, ULI, and USGBC. He participated in the development of the Council of Mayor’s 2030 resolution; he presented Watershed Planning Initiatives for the Center for Neighborhood Technologies in Chicago; wrote and directed the AIA/EPA grant – Conference on Water + Design in Washington D.C.; and co-authored the Barcelona Declaration of Sustainability for UIA. In 2003 he chaired the National Committee on the Environment -COTE – for the American Institute of Architects and chaired the

Michael Volk is a Florida registered Landscape Architect, partner at Volk Design Consultants, LLC, and a Research Assistant Professor in the University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, Department of Landscape Architecture. He has a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida and a degree in Architecture from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Michael has professional experience in planning and project management, specializing in work with historic and waterfront communities. His work with the Center for Landscape Conservation Planning includes work on regional conservation planning and research projects, including several current projects assessing sea level rise impacts on imperiled species and habitat in Florida.

Robert Ries is a professor with the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management. He graduated with a PhD in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. His specialization fields include Green Building, Sustainable Development, Life Cycle Assessment in the Construction Process.

Christopher Silver earned his Ph.D. in American Urban History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel-Hill, in 1981. He earned a Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, in 1979. He received a Master of Arts in American History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel-Hill, in 1975. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, in 1973. His area of expertise is international planning.

Dr. Jones is the Extension Program Leader for Energy Programs. He leads the development and delivery of educational programs and products related to energy- and resource-efficient community development with emphasis on housing. These programs and products include targeted continuing education courses for licensed builders, architects, engineers, landscape architects, interior designers, and others. Topical areas covered in these programs and products include energy efficiency; water conservation and quality; termite control and prevention; windstorm mitigation; resource efficient landscaping; indoor air quality; and other topics.

Dr. Jones works with Extension Specialists through Extension’s Goal, Focus and Work Action Teams as well as other organizational units to encourage progressive and timely delivery of research-based information to various user groups. He also directs the recently established Program for Resource Efficient Communities, an interdisciplinary group that promotes the adoption of “best design, construction, and management practices” in new residential master planned developments.

Before coming to the Extension Administration

Dr. Nawari (Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE) has more than twenty years of experience in design, teaching and research specializing in Building Structures and Building Information Modeling. Currently, he is an associate professor and teaches graduate and undergraduate Architectural Structures, Structural Modeling and Building Information Modeling courses at the University of Florida. He has written and co-authored over 70 publications and three books. He is an active member of the US National Building Information Modeling Standard Committee (NBIMS), BIM committee of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and co-chair the subcommittee on BIM in education and many other professional and technical societies. He is a board certified professional engineer in the state of Florida and Ohio with significant design and built experience.

Dr. Nawari received a 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant for teaching and research in Kuwait. He conducted research and taught in Kuwait for ten months during fall 2014 and spring 2015.

Kathryn Frank earned her Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009. She earned a Master’s Degree in City and Regionally Planning and Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon in 2000. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1994. In 1988, she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Frank’s areas of expertise focuses on innovative planning approaches that are simultaneously integrative, adaptive, and ethical. Examples of these approaches are: connecting science to public decision making, public engagement to build civic capacity, rural and regional planning, and university-based action research. Her research interests include environmental and natural resources planning; ecosystem, watershed, and regional governance; collaborative decision making and public participation; sustainability and social learning; climate change and sea level rise adaptation planning; and rural planning.

Bradley Walters, AIA earned his Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Design in Architecture with Highest Honors from the University of Florida. He has studied and taught at the Vicenza Institute of Architecture in Vicenza, Italy.

His research centers on material manifestations of design intent, pedagogical frameworks, and visual constructions as communicative devices. He has presented at numerous national and international conferences, including the European Architectural Envisioning Association, National Conference of the Beginning Design Student, and the Design Communication Association.

Dr. Hoctor’s research interests include the application of landscape ecology and conservation biology to regional planning, greenway and wildlife corridor design, large carnivore ecology and conservation, focal species habitat modeling, and Geographic Information Systems applications in conservation planning. He has served as a co-principal investigator on a variety of regional-scale conservation analysis and planning projects including the Florida Ecological Greenways Network with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Southeastern Ecological Framework, The Nature Conservancy’s Florida ecoregional planning process, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s South Florida Multi-Species and Ecosystem Recovery Plan, and the Department of Defense’s Sustainable Ranges initiative. His current projects include the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida Critical Lands and Waters Identification Project, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Cooperative Conservation Blueprint, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District Land Use and Management Decision Support System and Conservation Land Acquisition Project

Nam-Kyu Park is an Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Interior Design. She is a LEED accredited professional and NCIDQ certified interior designer. Park teaches upper level design studios focused on retail, hospitality and office environments, interior lighting design, building systems, interior design detailing, and graduate research seminar. Her research focuses on optimizing well-being, health, and human behavior through the design of the built environment. Theories of environment-behavior and social psychology thread together in her research program using a mixed methods research design. Her principle areas of research address the impact of lighting in interior environments and environmental design for special needs populations. She also examines cultural dimensions of the built environment defining environmental and social sustainability. The scholarship of Dr. Park and her students has been well presented internationally and nationally and has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals. Currently she is serving as a

Professor Armaghani’s expertise focuses on the areas of building performance optimization, measurement & verification; water conservation, sustainable infrastructure, cost benefit analysis of building green, sustainability in developing countries, and green roads assessment and evaluation.

Ruth Steiner received her Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. She also received her Master of City Planning (MCP) from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988. Dr. Steiner earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1982, and she earned her Bachelor of Arts in History from Lawrence University in 1979.

Dr. Steiner’s areas of expertise include growth management; land use; safety, health, and the environment; sustainability; and transportation. Her research interests include transportation policy and planning, land use and transportation interactions, multi-modal transportation planning, growth management, transportation concurrency, pedestrian and bicycle facility design, travel behavior, travel demand management, and planning research design.

William L. Tilson is Professor Emeritus of Architecture. Since 1992, he has been the Director of the Preservation Institute: Caribbean (PI:C), the College’s off-campus program in the Caribbean Basin and Latin America. Tilson has been lead researcher and consultant on numerous documentation and planning projects for historic sites and communities throughout the region including locations in Antigua, Barbados, Yucatán, Jamaica, Miami and Fernandina.

Professor Tilson teaches design studios at all levels, design theory seminars, preservation coursework, and mentors students on masters’ research projects and Ph.D. dissertations. He is a member of the United States International Council on Monuments and Sites sub-committees on Historic Towns and Historic Landscapes and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Amelia Island History Museum. His research focuses on the impact of new architecture and public space in historic rural and seacoast towns particularly the role codes and the media play in constructing the identity of