Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance

Iowa State University, Kansas State University, North Dakota State University South Dakota State University, University of Nebraska

Community Development
Faculty Qualifications

Program - Master's Degree, Course Schedule, Faculty, Benefits, Learning Outcomes, Careers
General Program Information: Cost, Admissions, Financial Assistance, Grade Translation
Computer System Recommendations, Frequently Asked Questions

Department: Community and Regional Planning
Institution: Iowa State University

Dr. Borich holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Iowa State University and currently works in the department of Community and Regional Planning at ISU. At ISU, he is also the Director of Graduate Education, an Associate Dean for Research and Outreach, and the Associate Director of the Institute for Design Research and Outreach. His major focus areas are community and economic development, leadership development, rural sociology and development, multicommunity collaboration, public policy development, distance education, and citizen participation and planning. more

Department: Sociology and North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Institution: Iowa State University

Dr. Emery has taught numerous courses in Sociology as well as courses in conflict management, leadership, facilitation, and grant writing. In addition she has written several grants to develop on-line courses and trained faculty in course design for internet-based classes. Finally, Dr. Emery has over 25 years of field-based experience in applied sociology and community development. Currently, she is the Associate Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and program manager for the CSREES Higher Education Challenge Grant. more

Department: North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Institution: Iowa State University

Cornelia Butler Flora is the Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture and Sociology at Iowa State University and Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, a twelve state research and extension institute. Previously she was holder of the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota, head of the Sociology Department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State University, and a program officer for the Ford Foundation. A past president of the Rural Sociological Society, the Community Development Society, and the Society for Agriculture, Food and Human Values, she is author and editor of a number of recent books, including Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities, Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, Rural Policies for the 1990s, and Sustainable Agriculture in Temperate Zones. Her newest book is Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, Second Edition.

Her current research addresses alternative strategies of community development and community-based natural resource management. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is from the University of California at Berkeley in 1965 and her M.S. (1966) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees are from Cornell University, where she received the 1994 Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Science. She was president of the Boards of Directors of the Henry A. Wallace Institute of Alternative Agriculture and is currently serving on the boards of several organizations, CONDESAN (The Consortium for the Sustainable Development of Andean Ecorregion), the Midwest Assistance Program, the Northwest Area Foundation, Winrock International, and the National Community Forestry Center. The Secretary of Agriculture appointed her to the National Agricultural Research, Education and Economics Advisory Board. more

Department: Sociology
Institution: Iowa State University

Jan L. Flora is a Professor of Sociology at Iowa State University. He is also a Visiting Professor at the National Agrarian University-La Molina (UNALM) in Perú. He teaches courses in rural development; community organization and leadership; U.S. agriculture in transition and globalization, agricultural policy; and rural development. His current research analyzes the relationship of community social capital to economic, community, and sustainable development. His extension work focuses on involving Latino immigrants in the affairs of rural Iowa communities. He is co-director of the ISU-UNALM exchange program that focuses on strengthening graduate training and faculty research in sustainable agriculture in both institutions. Previous positions include: fellow at Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria, Australia; program officer in South America for the Ford Foundation, senior fellow in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota, and president of the Rural Sociological Society. Flora’s Ph.D. is from Cornell University in Development Sociology. more

Department: Agriculture/Natural Resource Management
Institution: Cankdeska Cikina Community College

James J. Garrett, Ph.D. is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Tribe in South Dakota . Jim grew up along the banks of the Cheyenne River where he raised cattle and horses and is an honorably discharged veteran. He returned to college at the age of 38 and obtained his Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies at the University of California @ Santa Barbara in 1990. After developing and implementing an environmental protection department for the Tribe, he entered graduate school at Humboldt State University and obtained a Masters of Science Degree there in 2001. Jim then went on to Colorado State University in Fort Collins , CO and received his doctorate in 2007. He currently is employed at Cankdeska Cikina Community College in Fort Totten , ND and is teaching in the Natural Resource Management Degree Program and is also developing the Land Grant program there. more

Department: Sociology
Institution: North Dakota State University

Dr. Gary Goreham has been a member of the North Dakota State University faculty since 1986. His primary teaching responsibilities are research methods, social organization, family, sociology of religion, and community development. Dr. Goreham's research interests include rural sociology, rural communities and churches, social and ethical impacts of agro-biotechnology, farm financial stress, sustainable agriculture, agricultural cooperatives, and rural poverty. He is also the Director of the Rural Social Science Education program, Co-director of the Center for Rural Studies, Treasurer of the Rural Church Network for the U.S. and Canada, President Elect of the Great Plains Sociological Society, and co-editor of the Great Plains Sociologist. more

Department: Agriculture Economics
Institution: University of Nebraska

Dr. Johnson is a member of the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He teaches courses in environmental economics, agricultural appraisal and community economics. His research interests include: agricultural land valuation and land use dynamics, analysis of retailing patterns and trends, and rural economic viability. He is currently designing a textbook which integrates the environment, economics, and ethics into the decision -making framework. He is also assisting with the administration of the annual Nebraska Rural Poll. more

Department: Landscape Architecture/ Regional and Community Planning
Institution: Kansas State University

Professor C. A. Keithley is the Director of Graduate Programs in Planning at Kansas State University, and is the Associate Department Head, Department of Landscape Architecture / Regional and Community Planning. He holds a Master’s Degree in Regional and Community Planning (1973), a Master’s Degree in Architecture (Interior Architecture, 1973), and a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture (1965), all from Kansas State University. His areas of teaching and research emphasis is in Planning Methods/Analysis, including demographic and economic analysis using census data, trend analysis, and in Computer Applications. He has taught in the KSU planning program for over 30 years, and served as department head from 1985 to 1995, when the two departments merged. more

Department: School of Communication and Native American Studies
Institution: University of Nebraska

Dr. Lamsam holds a Ph.D. in journalism with a related field in rural sociology, an M.A. in media management. Dr. Lamsam is Osage and grew up on the Osage Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. She has worked with Native American audiences since the early 1990s as a tribal media editor. Since the late 1990s, she has worked with Native American communities and groups in developing communication strategies for development efforts. Dr. Lamsam’s research includes attitudinal surveys, social capital in tribal bureaucracies, development communication, and development journalism. more

Department: Agriculture Economics
Institution: North Dakota State University

Dr. Leistritz is a Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at North Dakota State University. For more than 30 years, he has been actively involved in research on agricultural and regional economic development issues. In this context, he has authored or coauthored 12 books, more than 100 journal articles, and numerous research reports. He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has served as President (1993-94) and Director (1985-88) of the International Association for Impact Assessment and as President (1985-86) of the Western Agricultural Economics Association. more

Department: Agricultural Economics and School of Natural Resources
Institution: University of Nebraska

Dr. Lynne currently teaches an undergraduate course in environmental, natural resource and ecological economics. He also teaches a graduate course in behavioral economics, and another in ecological economics. His research expertise works from a base in behavioral economics theory, methods and an approach relying heavily on survey based data. Currently, he is working on two federally funded research projects with foci on: 1) assessing the drivers to farming that lead to sequestering more carbon, and thus alleviating the effects of global warming on the larger community, and 2) determining the extent to which the farming population is being influenced by weather information and forecasts in the face of global climate change. In both cases, special attention is being given to assessing and quantifying the community influences on individual choices; the behavioral (meta) economic theory being tested is that individual economic choices reflect the pursuit of both the self-interest and a dual, joint other (community)-interest. Another grant-funded project just now being finished has examined the role of social capital in the economic viability of a test case rural community. Still another project also being finished addresses the matter of recycling behavior and recycling policy, again using this dual interest, behavioral economics approach. Dr. Lynne’s research expertise has also been developed over the years on water resource and resource valuation questions. more

Department: Agriculture Economics
Institution: University of Nebraska

Dr. Peter' research areas focus on rural poverty, industry clusters, entrepreneurship, and effective rural development. His work on poverty looks at how person-based and place-based characteristics interact with a labor market to determine the chances of a person being poor. His work on industry clusters looks at how competitive industries share inputs within a regional economy, specifically looking at shared suppliers and labor. His work on entrepreneurship looks at measuring the socioeconomic characteristics of self-employed person and their communities; and also looking at the economic characteristics of high growth firms and the demographic characteristics of the firm’s owners. Lastly, His work on rural development looks at why certain communities are better at using their resource endowments (natural, economic, demographic, geographic, etc.) to promote development than other similar communities. more

Department: Rural Sociology
Institution: Adjunt, South Dakota State University

Dr. Phillips holds a Ph.D. in rural sociology, an M.S. in environmental systems, and a B.S. in computer science. He has worked with Native American audiences since 1997, first as the Director of the Cooperative Extension Service at Si Tanka University on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, then as International Programs Director at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), and since 2000, the USDA liaison at AIHEC. He has taught professionally at IBM and the US Peace Corps, and as adjunct faculty at Si Tanka University (computer sciences) and at American University (Native American agricultural policy). Dr. Phillips’s research experience includes crop irrigation studies, Native American diet and activity levels, tribal colleges' social capital, and tribal college faculty development. more

Department: Rural Sociology
Institution: South Dakota State University

Dr. Redlin’s areas of academic specialization include: rural and environmental sociology, with specific focus on local food systems and agricultural development in the U.S. and internationally; race and ethnic diversity in rural communities and rural society; rural community planning and development in the U.S. and internationally; social theory and sociology, theories of practice, discourse analysis, theories of urban-rural cultural hierarchy; theories of environmental constructions of the Great Plains region of the United States including Montana, Nebraska and North and South Dakota. more

Department: Landscape Architecture/Regional and City Planning
Institution: Kansas State University

Sheri Smith is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning Department at Kansas State University. She teaches courses in infrastructure planning and development, planning theory and ethics, community development and research methodologies. Prior to her tenure at K-State, Professor Smith worked as a planner in the cities of Chicago and Tulsa specializing in housing & community development. more

Department: Political Science & Public Policy
Institution: Iowa State University

Dr. Schmidt is a pioneer in the development of distance learning and has also written and consulted extensively on this topic. He has developed numerous distance learning classes on Coastal Policy, Coastal Zone Management, Electronic Democracy, and Identity Theft He is a founding member and was the Technology Review Editor for the Journal of Political Science Education. In 2007 he was awarded the IDLA “Innovator Award” for his work on distance education. more

Department:
Institution: Iowa State University

Dave Swenson's work centers on community economic analysis and affiliated projects in support of the department's efforts in community development and in extending economics education services to the public. Areas of research and specialization include community and regional economic studies and evaluations, economic development research and technical assistance, input-output (economic impact) studies, fiscal impact research, public finance and tax policy, community change and worker mobility issues, and public program and project evaluation. more

Department: College of Architecture, Planning and Design
Institution: Kansas State University

Dr. Weisenburger currently serves as an associate dean in the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at KSU joining the faculty in 1964 after completing graduate school at Cornell University. He entered private practice for six years. At KSU, Dr. Weisenburger teaches graduate courses in Preservation and Urban Design Theory, Urban Visual Analysis, and Land Development Planning. He has been a visiting scholar and lecturer in China at the Tainjin Institute and the Chongqing Jainzhu University as well as serving as re-accrediting academic administrator for landscape architecture programs at Washington State, Georgia, Florida, Texas-Arlington, Morgan State, and North Dakota State. He currently serves as a co-chair of the Kansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Historic Resources and is on the Manhattan Historic Resources Board. more