Deb Ryan Email & Phone Number

I am a landscape architect emeritus and Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UNC Charlotte, former director of Master of Urban Design program, former adjunct faculty member in the Master of Science in Real Estate program (MSRE), co-instructor of classes in Women’s Studies and in Department of Africana Studies, and a former member of the landscape architecture faculty at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. I was the founding and former Director of the UNCC Charlotte Community Design Studio (CCDS), the first, off-campus, community outreach arm of the College of Architecture where I raised over $1,000,000 to fund educational events and demonstration projects that illustrated innovative planning principles. I brought the Mayors’ Institute for City Design: South and the Open Space Leadership Institute to the CCDS and served as Director of both.My professional work includes serving as Director of Urban Design for the Freelon Group, and projects that included the UNCC Urban Open Space Study that led to funding for Romare Bearden Park and the designation of First Ward Park, Charlotte’s Third Ward Vision Plan (with Civitas and HR&A), Charlotte’s Second Ward Master Plan (with LandDesign), and Charlotte’s South Tryon Master Plan (STAMP) that contributed to the design of the Levine Cultural Campus. I also led the community engagement process and writing of Charlotte’s Millennial Plan that led to the city undertaking the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. I have a deep commitment to civic engagement and was the creator of Wikiplanning, an early, interactive website that engaged over 10,000 people in the community planning process. I led the civic engagement process for the NC Piedmont Triad Sustainability Project and for LatimerNOW as a Senior Edward I. Koch Fellow. I was awarded the Individual Achievement Award from the Museum Association of New York, named one of Charlotte’s Fifty Most Influential Women by the Mecklenburg Times and included in the Charlotte Ledger’s inaugural class of Charlotte’s Forty Over Forty.My community work includes serving as Chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission and Public Art Commission, and as a member of Charlotte’s Historic District Commission, Arts and Science Council, Leadership Charlotte, University City Partners, and on the Old Salem Museum and Gardens Board of Trustees. I am co-author of the Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums (Routledge, 2015). Now, in its eighth printing, the book was a #1 best seller on Amazon (Museum Industry Related, February 2016).

Listed skills include Urban Design, Site Planning, Sustainable Design, Community Development, and 26 others.