Laura Wolf-Powers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment
School of Architecture
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
Phone: 718-399-4323
Fax: 718-399-4379
E-mail: [email protected]
Academic positions
September 2002-present – Assistant Professor, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment School of Architecture, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
2000-01 – Adjunct Faculty, Milano Graduate School of Urban Policy and Management (Political Economy of the City)
New School University, New York, NY.
2000 -- Instructor, Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development (Development and Theory of Urban Planning)
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1997-98 – Instructor, Department of Urban Studies and Community Health (Introduction to Urban Studies)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
“Beyond the First Job: career-ladder initiatives in telecommunications and related information
technology industries.” In E. Melendez ed. Communities and Workforce Development. W.E. Upjohn Institute, Forthcoming.
“Up-Zoning New York City’s Mixed Use Neighborhoods: Property-Led Economic
Development and the Anatomy of a Planning Dilemma.” Forthcoming in the Journal of Planning,
Education and Research.
“Building a Workforce Infrastructure.” In R. Hanley ed., Moving People, Goods and Information in the Twenty-First Century: The New Economy, Urban Technologies, and Cutting-Edge Infrastructures. Spon
Press, 2003.
“Post-Cold War Conversion: Gains, Losses and Hidden Changes in the US Economy.” (with
Michael Oden, and Ann Markusen). In S. DiGiovanna, A. Markusen, and Y.S. Lee, eds. From
Defense to Development? Military Industrial Conversion in the Developing World. London: Routledge,
2003.
“Technology and Urban Labor Markets in the United States.” International Journal of Urbanand Regional Research 25:2 (2001), 427-437.
Contract Research Publications
The Telecommunications Infrastructure Industry in New York City: Framing Issues for Workforce Developers.
CUNY Workforce Development Initiative, 2002.
“Beyond the First Job: career-ladder initiatives in telecommunications and related information technology industries.” Community Development Research Center, New School University, 2002.
A Just Transition? Lessons from Defense Worker Adjustment in the 1990s. With Ann Markusen.
Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 1999.
Book reviews
Review of Walter Thabit, How East New York Became a Ghetto. Forthcoming 2004, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment.
Review of Benjamin Miller, Fat of the Land: Garbage of New York, the Last 200 Years. Journal of Urban Technology 8:3 (2001), 141-147.
Review of R. Freeman and P. Gottschalk eds, Generating Jobs: How to Create Demand for Low-Skilled Workers. Journal of the American Planning Association. 67:2 (2001), 235-36.
Non-Academic Publications 2003-2004
How the Far West Side Will be Won. Architect’s Newspaper #13, July 27, 2004. Fuzzy Math on the West Side Stadium. Architect’s Newspaper #10, June 8, 2004. Twilight Zoning. City Limits Monthly, December 2003.
Academic Conferences 2003-2004
April 2004. Urban Affairs Association Annual Meeting, Washington Marriott, Washington, DC.
“Up-Zoning New York City’s Mixed Use Neighborhoods: Property-Led Economic Development and the Anatomy of a Planning Dilemma.”
March 2004. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Philadelphia Marriott,
Philadelphia, PA. “Union-sponsored intermediaries in telecommunications: the success of geographic strategies in a transforming industry.”
September 2003. International Sociological Association Research Committee-21 conference,
University of Milan, Bicocca, Milan Italy. “Spatial Planning and Social Consequences in a Global City: The ‘Up-Zoning’ of New York City’s Waterfront Industrial Neighborhoods.”
Community Service 2003-2004
Pratt Institute Academic Senate, 2004-present.
Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development Strategic Planning
Committee, 2004 -present.
ACSP/ACSA Joint Committee on Collaborations between Architecture and Planning,
Manufacturing Land Use and Zoning Initiative working group (Municipal Art Society of New
York City and Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development), 2002-present.
New Source Staffing Board of directors, (Workforce development initiative started by New
Community Corporation and the Hispanic Development Corporation, Newark, NJ), 2002-present.
Community Service Society Bedford-Stuyvesant Economic Development Advisory Committee,
2003-present.
Center for An Urban Future Telecommunications Policy Advisory Board, 2003-present. President’s Council, Legal Momentum, 2004-present.
June 2004. Workshop Coordinator (“The Arts, Economic Revitalization and Community
Development”), Planners Network Biennial Conference, New York, NY.
April 2004. Presentation on zoning basics to Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers
Inclusionary Zoning Workshop.
April 2004. Presentation at inter-disciplinary workshop on arts and community development,
Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development.
May 2003. Coordinator of 2-hour mini-course session on inclusionary zoning co-sponsored by
Hunter College and the Municipal Art Society of New York City.
Honors and awards
Susan S. Fainstein award for outstanding doctoral scholarship, Edward J. Bloustein School of
Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, 2003
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant,
October 2000
Rutgers University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Bevier Fellowship, 2000-2001▪
Excellence Fellowship, 1997-98 and 1999-2000 ▪ Teaching Assistantship, 1998-99
Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 1995-97 New York City Urban Fellow, 1990-91
Norman Holmes Pearson Prize for best senior thesis in American Studies, Yale University, 1990
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Yale University, 1990 (Summa cum Laude)
Ph.D., Urban Planning and Policy Development, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, 2003. Dissertation: The Effect of Labor Market Intermediaries on Career
Opportunity For Non-College-Educated Workers: A Supply- and Demand-Side Analysis. Chair: Ann
