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Alumni Awards List

REBECCA HESSEL GARTEN is a very active professional in her chosen field of planning. Majoring in geography/urban and regional planning, Hessel Garten was a Dean's List Bachelor of Science graduate in 1978 from Southwest Missouri State University. While pursuing her undergraduate education, she was an intern at the Southwest Missouri Office on Aging in Springfield where she used computer analysis and population projections to determine the optimal location for a Senior Citizens' Center in the year 2000. She also served as an intern and aide in transportation and planning for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) in Kansas City, Missouri. From 1978 to 1980, Hessel Garten was employed in the Greene County, Missouri, Planning Department, and in 1980 she entered graduate school at KSU to attain a Master of Regional and Community Planning degree. As a graduate research assistant in civil engineering during that time, Hessel Garten assisted with a project resulting in a manual, submitted for publication to the U.S. Department of Transportation, that has been used throughout the United States to write emergency hazardous material transportation plans. She also served as Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development in Salina, Kansas, from 1982 to 1984, completing her Master's degree in 1986. A conscientious, deliberate and articulate student, Hessel Garten was well respected by her peers and very active in the Student Planning Association. She is currently City Planner for the City of Leawood, Kansas, one of the fastest growing cities in Kansas, where her duties include total involvement in the development process. She is also currently representing Leawood in the Johnson County Historic Museum inventory project and the Johnson County Bikeway Plan. An avid supporter of the regional and community planning program, Hessel Garten has willingly returned to the KSU campus several times to participate in accreditation visits. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, as well as both the Kansas Chapter and the Kansas City Section of the American Planning Association in which she has held various leadership positions.