Reconstruction after disasters, design and planning, sustainable community development
PhD, University of Cambridge (UK)
Adenrele Awotona, professor of sustainable urban development, is the founder and director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters. He is a former dean of the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
He earned his doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He also earned a certificate from Harvard University’s Institute of Management and Leadership in Education; two certificates from Cornell University, one in managing performance in higher education and another from the Administrative Management Institute; as well as two certificates from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), one in financial planning in an institutional setting and another from the Executive Leadership Institute. Furthermore, he is a graduate of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Millennium Leadership Initiative Institute.
Professor Awotona is a certified federal grants administrator. He was a peer reviewer for the Office of University Partnerships in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Austrian Science Fund (in Europe). He has also been a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators.
He has been a principal investigator (or co-PI/researcher) on major projects funded by various agencies. These include the Boston Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the US Department of Education, the British Government Department for International Development, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, the United Nations Development Program, and the European Union. A stream of publications has, therefore, emanated from his work. Similarly, through research, consultancy, and teaching, he has professional experience in many countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and the Caribbean. Furthermore, he has been an external reviewer/examiner of more than 200 master’s theses and doctoral dissertations internationally.
In public and community service, Professor Awotona was a former member of the Design and Planning Selection Board of the City-Parish of East Baton Rouge. He was also an educator/coordinator of seminars (on sustainable community development, etc.) at the annual American Institute of Architects National Conventions for several years. Similarly, he has been a member of the US National Architectural Accrediting Board’s program review team internationally and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Academic Leader, the national newsletter for academic deans. At the global level, he is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. He was a director of studies for British Council International Seminars (reconstruction after disasters) in the United Kingdom, a technical consultant to the British Council Committee for International Cooperation in Higher Education, and an associate adviser to the British Council on various aspects of the built environment.
