University of Oregon PPPM

For six decades, PPPM has been preparing leaders, shaping communities, and creating positive change through public policy, planning, and management.

We’re excited to celebrate our past, recognize the people who made it possible, and look ahead to what’s next.

Learn more about 60 years of PPPM at the link in bio.

Here’s to 60 years and the future ahead. 💚💛

At our recent Awards Ceremony, PPPM celebrated the students, faculty, and partners who make this community what it is. Congratulations to our honorees:

🌟 Benni Howard, Service to PPPM by an Undergraduate Student

🌟 George Perakis, Service to PPPM by a Graduate Student

🌟 Anne Brown, Service to PPPM by a Faculty Member

🌟 Katie Gatlin, Outstanding Teacher of the Year

🌟 Business Oregon, Outstanding Community Partner

We also recognized three alumni who have left a real mark on PPPM and the communities they serve:

🌟 Robert Parker, Outstanding Service to Oregon, has mentored generations of Oregon planners and helped pioneer the Community Planning Workshop.

🌟 Keavy Cook, Outstanding Alumni, Vice President of Programs at the Ford Family Foundation, supports rural communities across Oregon.

🌟 Kelsey Zlevor, Outstanding Recent Alumni, planner and founder of Mental Landscapes, is exploring how public space can support mental health.

Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients. Your work reflects the very best of what PPPM stands for!

Students in PPPM 5/486: Philanthropy and Grant Making have awarded a $10,000 grant from the Chambers Family Foundation to Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE).

In this course, students study the history, economics, and practice of philanthropy, then put it into action by awarding a grant to a nonprofit of their choice. This year, that choice was FUSEE, an organization working to change how we think about wildfire. Rather than only fighting fire, FUSEE advocates for working with it: protecting rural communities, restoring fire-adapted ecosystems, and preserving fire-dependent species.

Congratulations to FUSEE and to the students who worked to get it right.

The 2026 PPPM awards brought our community together to celebrate six decades of public service, planning, and policy work.

Students opened the evening by presenting their work, and the range of projects spoke for itself. One group proposed redesigning Patterson Street from 19th to 24th to improve safety. Another traced Lane County’s path toward a unified wastewater future. Others examined how we navigate gender in society. Different challenges, all approached with the same drive to make a difference.

We were honored to welcome UO President Karl Scholz and College of Design Dean Adrian Parr Zaretsky, who joined us to mark the milestone.

Thank you to everyone who came out. Here’s to the next 60 years.

We’re proud to celebrate eight PPPM students who were recognized in the Oregon Daily Emerald’s 25 Ducks of 2026, honoring students who are making a difference through leadership, service, scholarship, and community impact.

Congratulations to:

🌟 Avi Thaler (Class of 2026) – Planning, Public Policy and Management major; Global Health and Political Science minors

🌟 Samantha Wiesner (Class of 2026) – Planning, Public Policy and Management and Global Studies majors; Arabic minor

🌟 Rut Ramirez Pineda (Class of 2026) – Planning, Public Policy and Management and Political Science majors; Spanish minor

🌟 Abdirizack Hussein (Class of 2026) – Planning, Public Policy and Management major

🌟 Kali Kleven (Class of 2027) – Planning, Public Policy and Management and History majors

🌟 Audriana Ethridge (Class of 2027) – Planning, Public Policy and Management and General Social Science majors; Global Service minor

🌟 Ohnmar Khine Min (Class of 2026) – Second-year Master of Public Administration student

🌟 Seng Nu Pan (Class of 2026) – Second-year Master of Public Administration student

Your dedication to public service, leadership, and creating positive change reflects the very best of PPPM. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition!

Congratulations to all our exceptional awardees! We can’t wait to celebrate your achievements at the PPPM Awards on Thursday, May 28th.

✨ Kelsey Zlevor, recipient of the Outstanding Recent Alumni Award, is a spatial strategist and founder of Mental Landscapes, a design lab that weaves mental health and public space scholarship. Her planning expertise has been recognized with a speaking spot at SXSW and the publication of a new book.

✨ Bob Parker, recipient of the Outstanding Service to Oregon Award, is a pioneer of practitioner-based planning education who spent three decades mentoring nearly 600 students and directing IPRE, earning the Oregon APA’s Distinguished Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

✨ Keavy Cook, recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award, is a RARE program alum who now serves as Vice President of Programs at the Ford Family Foundation, Oregon’s largest private foundation focused exclusively on rural communities, where she leads grantmaking and program strategy.

This year’s Service to PPPM by a Community Partner Award goes to Business Oregon, recognized for its lasting commitment to providing community-based learning opportunities for PPPM students and faculty.

And stay tuned, the Outstanding Teacher of the Year, chosen by PPPM students, will be announced at the ceremony.

Calling all PPPM Class of 2026 graduates, your celebration is almost here! 🎓

Join us on Monday, June 15, for a special PPPM reception at Hendricks Hall before the College of Design Commencement Ceremony.

Here’s what to expect:

🌟 2:00 PM: Reception with student awards and class photos

🌟 2:45 PM: The PPPM Parade of Graduates, a celebratory walk with faculty, family, and fellow students from Hendricks Hall to Hayward Field

🌟 4:00 PM: College of Design Ceremony at Hayward Field

Please plan to arrive at Hendricks promptly at 2:00 PM and aim to be at Hayward by 3:00 PM to find seating before the ceremony begins.

Congratulations, Class of 2026. We are so proud of you!

🦆 We can’t thank our community enough for gifting to the College of Design for ! Yesterday, our schools, departments, and programs raised $142,386 through the generosity of 83 gifters, including the Sandy Smalley $125,000 Challenge Gift supporting student scholarships in memory of her late son, Jeffrey Marc Smalley.

🦆 Looking for ways to solve the complex challenges that are facing our communities?

The University of Oregon PPPM provides hands-on experience that occurs at the intersection of the community and the classroom. PPPM students learn the skills necessary to tackle the problems communities face, including solving community development issues, conducting public transportation research, and developing solutions for disaster resilience and relief. Our students make a positive impact in communities across the state of Oregon and throughout the country, before they even graduate.

Please consider giving to the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management to support our students and their mission to serve our communities! https://ducksgive.uoregon.edu/giving-day/112779/department/112782