Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning

Specializing in community and economic development planning, Suzanne Morse Moomaw continues to lead a distinguished career in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds as well as academia. She served from 1991 to 2012 as president and CEO of Civic Change (formerly Pew Partnership for Civic Change) and has been lecturing at the U.Va. A-school since 2009. The first decade of her career she spent in higher education administration working on issues of strategic planning and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Her research specialties are community and economic development at the neighborhood, community, and regional levels, with a particular focus on civic engagement.

Founder of the national dropout initiative Learning to Finish, Moomaw is a national commentator on issues facing cities and regions worldwide. She chairs both the Board of Trustees of the Kettering Foundation (in Dayton, OH) and the Piedmont Virginia Community College Board (in Charlottesville). Her books include Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future (2004) and the forthcoming Competitive Global Communities: Using Sustainability and Innovation to Secure the Future, which addresses ways communities can design a more globally competitive future. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research at Virginia Tech. In 2002, she received the Ethical Leadership Award from the Content of our Character Project at Duke University.

Moomaw was previously a Jepson Fellow and visiting professor at the University of Richmond; an adjunct professor at Antioch University, McGregor; and a guest lecturer at six different institutions, including Duke and Columbia universities. Moomaw holds a PhD, a BA, and a certificate in regional and urban planning from the University of Alabama.