UD planner gets career achievement award

4:45 p.m., Oct. 24, 2006--Ed O'Donnell, a policy scientist in UD's Institute for Public Administration, received the Peter Larson Memorial Achievement Award at a joint conference of the Delaware and Maryland chapters of the American Planning Association held earlier this month. O'Donnell is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

"Throughout his 41-year planning career, Ed O'Donnell has become an expert in land use planning, growth management, infrastructure and community facilities, natural-resource protection, state
growth-management policies and intergovernmental coordination,” Tigist Zegeye, executive director of Wilmington Area
Planning Council (WILMAPCO) said in nominating O'Donnell for the award.

"I'm delighted by this recognition," O'Donnell said. "It's particularly
meaningful for me to receive an award that honors Peter Larson, a visionary city planner who guided the development of Wilmington during turbulent times in the late 1960s and the 1970s."

Before joining the Institute for Public Administration as a policy scientist in July 2005, O'Donnell served as a planner for the Montgomery County (Pa.) Planning Commission, the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization and the New Castle County Department of Land Use.

"Ed O'Donnell is an outstanding planner whose knowledge and skills are continuing to benefit the state and region though his work with the
Institute for Public Administration," Tim Barnekov, dean of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy, said. "Equally important are the contributions Ed makes by sharing his knowledge and skills with graduate students in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy."

The regional planning conference, held Oct. 4-6 in Wilmington, was
cosponsored by the Delaware Humanities Forum and AARP Delaware.

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

E-mail this article

Subscribe to UDaily

Subscribe to crime alert e-mail notification