Steve Howland earns first Mary R. Kihl Leadership Award

This year, the School of Planning granted its first-ever Mary R. Kihl Leadership Award. The award winner was Steven Howland.

Mary Kihl served as professor of Planning at ASU from 1996 until her death in 2007. The graduate student award established in her memory recognizes her dedication, leadership and contributions to ASU and the field of planning.

Steven Howland, this year's awardee, is working towards a Masters in Urban and Environmental Planning with a concentration in Environmental Planning. His goal is to become a researcher/policy-maker in an organization similar to the Morrison Institute or Sonoran Institute. He hopes to focus on issues of global climate change, declining resource availability, and the pending social and economic disorders that can cripple communities which are not properly planned or prepared.

Steven is programs coordinator for Planners@ASU and in this role has organized student discussion forums to examine problems and opportunities facing today's' planners. He has been actively involved in the transition of the School to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and helped produce a white paper on this topic for the Director. In addition to his activities at ASU, he has taken an active role in his neighborhood to decrease crime and graffiti.