about
“Technologies can and should enrich our lives.”
Mustafa Suleyman, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma
Welcome to my website. I am Bev Wilson, an Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and Graduate Program Director for the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning. My research focuses on two increasingly important areas—ensuring that emerging technologies benefit society and leveraging data to improve resilience and climate adaptation planning efforts.
Bio
I am a first generation college graduate hailing from Warren County, North Carolina which is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement in the United States. Although it would be decades before I heard of urban planning, I now understand the tools and competencies of the planning discipline as having the potential to improve quality of life for all—especially in places like the one where I grew up.
As an undergraduate student at Duke University, I studied Economics and Political Science but rather than directly leveraging either Bachelor’s degree, I found a position as a computer programmer after college focused on Y2K remediation. This began my interest in coding, data analysis, and technology writ large which I brought to my study of planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is where I enrolled in my first geographic information systems (GIS) course and discovered environmental modeling.
After completing a Master’s degree in planning in 2002, I was a Spatial Analyst with the NOAA Coastal Remote Sensing Program in Charleston, South Carolina before returning to Chapel Hill to begin the doctoral program in City and Regional Planning.
Since January of 2020, I have been a faculty member at the UVA but I also spent 10 years on the Department of Urban and Regional Planning faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant, then Associate Professor.
My transition to the University of Virginia was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic but I have succeeded in building research partnerships across Grounds while expanding the breadth of course offerings and contributing to the administration and leadership of the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning.
Leadership + Service
During academic year 2022-2023 I served as the inaugural UVA Institute for Engagement and Negotiation (IEN) Faculty Fellow. In addition to deepening my understanding of IEN’s work, I led the development of an ongoing working papers series and contributed to grant proposals. Several of the externally facing, applied courses that I have taught at UVA draw upon the sustained engagement and strong community relationships that has characterized IEN for decades.
Since arriving at UVA in January 2020, I have spearheaded the establishment and refinement of a framework for assessing student learning outcomes within the MUEP program. In my role as Graduate Program Director I have instituted several process reforms related to faculty-student mentoring, the structure of our Advanced Standing (4+1) option for planning undergraduates, graduate student recruitment, and alumni engagement. I have also led the departmental strategic planning process that began in Fall 2023 and that culminated in the adoption of an updated UEP Strategic Plan in May 2024.
I am a member of the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) Site Visitor pool and I have also led efforts to prepare for my department’s upcoming review and site visit scheduled for January 2025.
Since 2021 I have served as an Editorial Advisory Board Member for the Journal of the American Planning Association which is perhaps the highest-regarded academic journal for planners. My service to the discipline also includes a three-year term as a Track Chair for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Annual Conference and mentoring PhD students as a member of the ACSP Doctoral Committee. I am currently entering the final year of my term on the Doctoral Committee which plans and delivers an annual workshop for doctoral students to prepare them for dissertation research that has been very well received by participants.
I also serve on the board of Working Landscapes, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “build more healthy and sustainable lives and livelihoods in the Warren County, NC region through stewardship of our natural and cultural assets.”
Awards
I am honored to have had my work recently recognized by the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association (i.e., Outstanding Faculty Award in 2022) and the University of Virginia (i.e., Outstanding Researcher Award in 2023).
Contact
Please reach out to me via email or connect with me on LinkedIn.
