Staff Bios 

Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.

Professor Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., is an internationally known scholar and founding director of the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies (CENTER), a research, neighborhood planning, and community developing institute, which focuses on providing planning and technical support for distressed communities in the Buffalo-Niagara region.

He is also a full professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning at UB.

Taylor is the editor of three books and a monograph and is currently completing a book on neighborhood development in Havana, Cuba, between 1989 and the present. He has written more than 80 articles, book reviews, commentaries, and technical reports on urban and regional planning. Taylor has appeared on ABC Nightline, and he has been quoted in numerous national publications, including the New York Times, USAToday, and Time Magazine.

Professor Taylor has received numerous awards for his research and neighborhood planning activities. In 2001, along with Sam Cole, he won the Fannie Mae Foundation Award for the best practice base paper at the American Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, and in 2005, he received the Distinguished Leadership Professional Planner Award from the American Planning Association, New York Upstate Chapter. Most recently, the Black Community Division of the American Planning Association gave him a Certificate of Appreciation for his work on the division Task Force on Hurricane Katrina, which is working with the New Orleans African American Community. TIME Magazine selected his quote on Americans losing sight of Martin Luther King, Jr. dream as its Quote of the Day on January 21, 2008.

As an urban planner, Taylor participates in projects on brownfield redevelopment, economic development, and neighborhood planning and community development. In 2005, he received the prestigious HUD Community Outreach Partnership Grant to launch a community development project in the Fruit Belt and Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhoods. He is directing a major community outreach component of a broader project on brownfield redevelopment with Urban Strategies, Inc., a Canadian based planning and architectural firm, and the City of Niagara Falls on a Brownfield Redevelopment project.

For more about Dr. Taylor, please visit http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/planning/people/taylor.asp

Ms. Jacqueline N. Hall

Project Director-East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership

Office: 333 Hayes Hall                                  

Phone: (716) 829-2133 ext. 342                    

Fax: (716) 829-2713  

Field Office: 326 High Street

Phone: (716) 887-9466

Fax: (716) 881-3794

B.S.W (Social Work) Buffalo State College (2000)

M.S.W. (Social Work) University at Buffalo (2005)

A graduate of the University at Buffalo's School of Social Work, Jacqueline returned to UB and joined the Center for Urban Studies in June 2006. As Project Director, she is responsible for setting up and managing the Neighborhood Transformation Community Outreach Partnership Center and for coordinating day-to-day activities. In addition to these responsibilities, she must chair the Community Advisory Committee and manage the development of the COPC website and newsletter.

Public Service

Jacqueline serves as a board member for the Buffalo Perinatal Prenatal Network and as a member of the March of Dimes program services committee. She also is a representative for the School Based Management Team at the Dr. George E. Blackman School of Excellence Buffalo Public School 54. Jacqueline is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. a public service organization.

Dr. Kelly Patterson

Kelly Patterson is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Urban Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo. Her research and teaching focuses on housing policy, neighborhood revitalization and community development. She has published a book chapters and journal articles on these topics. 

For more about Dr. Patterson, please visit http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/planning/people/patterson.asp

Dr. Robert Silverman

Robert Silverman is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Urban Studies and an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo. His research and teaching focuses on citizen participation, nonprofit management and community development. He has published a number of journal articles on these topics and is the editor of Community-Based Organizations: The Intersection of Social Capital and Local Context in Contemporary American Society. Before coming to Buffalo, he was a faculty member at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI and Jackson State University in Jackson, MS.

For more about Dr. Silverman, please visit http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/planning/people/silverman.asp

Mr. Jeffrey A. Kujawa

Assistant Director/Research Associate - Center for Urban Studies

Office: 333 Hayes Hall

Phone: (716) 829-2133 ext.340

Fax: (716) 829-2713

Email: jkujawa@buffalo.edu

B.A. (Political Science) Canisius College (1990)

M.U.P. (Urban Planning) University at Buffalo (1995)

A graduate of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning's Master of Urban Planning program, Jeff returned to UB and joined the Center for Urban Studies in January 2000. As Assistant Director, he is responsible for overseeing all of the Center's day-to-day operations in the areas of administration, budgets, grant management, information technology, and personnel. In addition to these responsibilities, he is the Co-Director of the Center's Department of Housing and Urban Development - Community Development Work Study Program and is the lead instructor for the Center's Urban Internship Program and its service learning component.

Furthermore, he participates on research and planning teams. His recent participation includes: "East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership - HUD Community Outreach Partnership Program" (2005), "Village of Depew, Main/Penora Revitalization Project" (2003), "Building a Minimum Housing Standard in Erie County, New York" (2002), "The Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural District and Cultural Corridor" (2001), "The Turing Point - A Strategic Plan and Action Agenda for the Fruitbelt/Medical Corridor" (2001), and "Universities as Sites of Citizenship and Civic Responsibility" (2000).

Public Service

Jeff serves as Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., one of the City of Buffalo's non-profit housing agencies.

Selected Activities

Recently, Jeff has been selected a peer grant reviewer for the Department of Housing

Urban Development (HUD) - Office of University Partnerships. He has reviewed for the

following programs:

• 2006 HUD - Tribal Colleges and Universities Program
• 2006 HUD - Universities Rebuilding America Partnerships - Hurricane Katrina and Rita Relief Program
• 2005 HUD - Community Development Work Study Program
• 2005 HUD - Community Outreach Partnership Center Program - New Directions Grant

Ms. Frida Ferrer

Frida Ferrer coordinates the education component and activities of the ESNTP.  She manages the ESNTP flower and vegetable community gardens, assists the block clubs manage the other gardens around the area and conducts summer outdoor classroom activities for neighborhood kids.  She organizes a yearly neighborhood clean-up mobilizing the community school, CBOs, the local government, donors, volunteers, students, faculty and staff of the SUNY at Buffalo's Department of Urban and Regional Planning.  She works closely with Block Clubs and budding entrepreneurs/organizations by sourcing and/or providing technical and administrative support to their projects.

Ms. Ferrer has a long record of providing support to various projects.  To name a few, support in management and coordination of the HUD-funded Buffalo Community Development Work Study Program from 1998 to 2007, SUNY at Buffalo's Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs Mentoring Program from 2002 to 2005 and the UB Center for Urban Studies' Health Status of the Near Eastside Community and Neighborhood Conditions from 1999- 2000.

Prior to joining the Center for Urban Studies, she provided support to rural development research at the Philippine Department of Agriculture from 1977-1989, Projects Preparation Unit, Office of the Minister.  She served as Program Coordinator to the fact-finding and feasibility missions of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Highland Development Program for Benguet and Mt. Province in northern Philippines.  She also assisted in the design of the Training Component for the Philippine Agricultural Support Services Project funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (IBRD).  Further, she facilitated a number of planning sessions among farmers and assisted in the review and evaluation of support programs to pilot projects in farming technology.

In 1985, with distinction Ms. Ferrer earned a diploma in Project Development from the Research Institute for Management Science (RVB) at the Delft University, Netherlands.  In 2000, Ms. Ferrer earned some credits towards a diploma in Urban Planning from the SUNY at Buffalo's Department of Urban and Regional Planning.  She graduated with a business degree from St. Paul College, Philippines in 1973 and earned credits in liberal arts and elementary education at Maryknoll College, Philippines from 1968-1970.

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