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Alumni Awards List

DAWN LANDHOLM received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1988. Her interest in planning was sparked by a social psychology class that explored how people react to the built environment. Interested in helping communities preserve their sense of history and place, she asked the Dean of UNL's College of Architecture for career guidance. He told her about the Master's degree in Regional and Community Planning. Dawn began her graduate degree at UNL but transferred to K-State so that she could specialize in historic preservation and community design. Dawn's broad-based K-State education--supplemented by classes she took in drafting, transportation planning, and GIS after graduation--prepared her well for her varied career, which has included working for a large city, a mid-sized city and county, and a largely rural ten-county region.

Dawn's career began with an internship and two temporary positions with the City of Omaha, Nebraska, in the Planning Department's Historic Preservation Division. There she photographed and documented historic properties for the Historic Omaha Building Survey, wrote National Register nominations, worked with the Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission, and assisted with the urban form and urban design sections of the Omaha Comprehensive Plan. Her first "permanent" job was in transportation planning, for the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission in Springfield, Illinois. As an Associate Planner, Dawn prepared the Springfield Mass Transit District's annual transit development programs and the City of Springfield's annual parking inventories, co-authored the Metropolitan Planning Organization's long-range transportation plan, and prepared a paratransit coordination study--an IL DoT demonstration project. In 1996, Dawn joined the staff of the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission, in Anniston, Alabama. During her tenure as Regional, Senior, and now Principal Planner, she has performed a variety of duties, including providing Census data to the public, advising local governments about land use issues, writing comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances, preparing redistricting plans and special studies, participating in multi-regional and statewide planning projects, and acting as program facilitator for the Chambers County Enterprise Community.

A firm believer in continuing education and career evolution, Dawn is currently pursuing a Master's Level Certificate in Spatial Analysis and Management at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. She also is a member of the American Planning Association, the Alabama Chapter of the American Planning Association (where she serves on the Member Services Committee), and the American Institute of Certified Planners.