Division Resources

Student Scholarship Announcement

The FPD Executive Committee would like to congratulate Lee Halasz Quabbin on a successful submission for our 2021 Division Scholarship. After careful consideration of a number of highly qualified applications, our scholarship committee found his submission the best overall. He was awarded $1,000 to use for education expenses.

EDUCATION

•  Dual Master’s in Regional Planning and Sustainability Sciences - University of Massachusetts Amherst. Fall 2019 until present. Current GPA 3.945. 
• Graduate Certificate of Ornithology - Charles Sturt University, Australia. Graduated in 2010. GPA 4.0. 
• Bachelor of Science (Resource and Environmental Management) - Australian National University; focused on forestry and wildlife ecology. Graduated in 1996.

Lee is currently a Master’s Candidate in Regional Planning and Sustainability Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and works as a Research Assistant with the University of Massachusetts Extension focused on Information Sources and Tools for Forest Conservation. Lee grew up in Australia and has professional experience with the Australian Federal Government, creating endangered plant profiles to guide the consideration of development applications, and technical work incorporating biological information into a GIS land prioritization tool used to inform landscape planning. He has lived in Western Massachusetts for nine years, and is now an American citizen. He wishes to find an opportunity to expand his current knowledge of landscape planning issues, and work on achieving sustainable outcomes. Given his interest in natural and working lands, he has always felt slightly out of the mainstream within the planning field, despite very valid planning concerns with this topic. Lee is interested in how his planning focus can contribute to Federal Planning. He plans to use the scholarship to help complete his degree and build a resource library of relevant planning textbooks.

Steve Baird, AICP
FPD Scholarship Chair