PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Extension Specialist / Asst. Professor in Rural Economics, WVU Extension Service / Research
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, College of Creative Arts School of Art & Design
Donald "Kent" Kerr began teaching at WVU in 2022. He specializes in branding and identity systems, community-driven design, and commercial production and his research focuses on community identity and development and exploring the role design thinking plays in community engagement.
Through his research and professional practice, Kent focuses on community-driven design research, developing creative placemaking solutions, and helping communities find, visualize, and solve their own unique design and development challenges.
Christopher Plein has been actively engaged in community development efforts in rural West Virginia. He is a founding member of the West Virginia Community Design Team which organizes teams of volunteers that visit and assist rural communities in identifying community development needs and opportunities. Since 1997, this program has made over 30 visits to communities in the state. Dr. Plein has been a member of a team member on a number of these visits and serves on the program's steering committee. In 2006, Dr Plein's outreach contributions were recognized by West Virginia University when he was named an Eberly Professor of Outstanding Public Service. In addition to his current faculty positions, he was recently appointed as an Adjunct Specialist to assist the West Virginia University Extension Service in engagement activities relating to health programs and science education.
Research Interests
Public participation in planning
Facilitation of stakeholder engagement
Public administration and community development
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources
- Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Recreation
Dave Smaldone is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Recreation, Parks & Tourism Resources Program in the Division of Forestry & Natural Resources at West Virginia University (WVU) . He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Environmental and Cultural Interpretation, as well as Citizen Science and Natural Resource Management. He has extensive experience leading interpretive training workshops for a number of state and national organizations. He has conducted interpretive research and evaluation projects for a variety of agencies over the last decade. Prior to his position at WVU, he also worked for the National Park Service for number of years in various interpretive positions. Besides interpretation and environmental education, his other academic interests include nature-based/ecotourism, and studying connections between people and places. He received his Ph.D. in Recreation, Parks Tourism from the University of Idaho.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- Professor of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources
Dr. Deng is Program Coordinator and an Associate Professor in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Program, School of Natural Resources, West Virginia University. He received his Ph.D. in Recreation and Leisure Studies from the University of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Deng's current research interests focus on ecotourism, tourism planning, rural tourism, and urban forests. He explores subjects such as environmental attitudes and behaviors among ecotourists, GIS applications in recreation and tourism, stakeholders' attitudes towards rural tourism, and scenic beauty and recreational benefits associated with urban forests.
Emily Hughes Corio joined the WVU Reed College of Media in August 2011 and teaches courses in audio and video storytelling and special topical reporting courses. In 2014, Corio developed a new course, "Adventure Travel Writing and Photography," that she teaches yearly. This course ultimately led to Corio developing the college's Sports and Adventure Media major that launched in 2018. She was the 2018 recipient of the college's annual Outstanding Teaching Award.
Research Interests
Audio and video storytelling
Adventure travel writing and photography
Job Titles:
- Research Coordinator With the Natural Resource Analysis Center
- Research Coordinator, NRAC
Jacquelyn Strager is a research coordinator with the Natural Resource Analysis Center, in the Davis College. She works on various applied research efforts, including site specific projects in West Virginia and more regional analyses across the Mid-Atlantic Highlands and beyond. Her project work focuses on natural resource, watershed, and environmental issues with a geo-spatial context, making use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and associated technologies.
Job Titles:
- Extension Specialist / Asst. Professor in Community Planning, WVU Extension Service / Research
Job Titles:
- Director of Design and Community Development Associate / Professor of Landscape Architecture
Peter's research interests include cultural landscape research and planning; community design proces s; industrial landscape reclamation and interpretation; and design studio pedagogy. His research projects include cultu ral landscape inventory, analysis and treatment; visualization; brownfields reclamation; land use planning; historic transportation corridor planning; and participatory design methods.