Public Service, Education, and Social Sciences Hub Innovation Fellow
Dr. Ralph P. Hall
Professor, Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP)
Director, Undergraduate Studies, School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA)
Virginia Tech
Dr. Hall has over two decades of academic and professional experience in applying the concept of sustainable development to socio-technical systems with a specific emphasis on transportation systems in developed regions, and rural water supply and sanitation systems in developing regions.
He co-developed the interdisciplinary Studio model at Virginia Tech in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) which features a unique co-teaching approach across teams. Its core curriculum includes theory, law, economics, methods, and project-based studios along with such topics as sustainability, real estate development, urban design, community engagement, transport, technology, and planning. Each semester UAP offers studio experiences, in which student teams working for public, private, and nonprofit clients tackle real world planning, policy, development, or design problems. Several studios have won awards from the Virginia American Planning Association.
He is currently developing research agendas around new economics (with a focus on binary economics and community wealth building), food access and security at institutions of higher education, agrivoltaics (APV) in Virginia, and the use of blockchain technology to improve food security in last-mile agricultural communities. The underlying theme throughout all of his work is to make progress towards more sustainable forms of development.
It is because of Dr. Hall’s work in the development of the unique studio model for cross-disciplinary course sharing and co-teaching in hands-on, product driven environments, as well as his research and development in the space of Community Wealth Building, that he was selected as the Innovation Fellow for this hub.