Profile

Edward Blakely is Honorary Professor of Urban Policy at the US Studies Centre, having previously served for two years as Executive Director of the Office of Recovery and Development Administration, the "recovery czar" for New Orleans following the devastation of hurricane Katrina.

One of the world's leading scholars and practitioners of urban policy, Blakely has been Dean of the School of Urban Planning and Development at the University of Southern California and Dean of the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University in New York City. He has also held professorial appointments at the University of California Berkeley, the University of Southern California and the University of Sydney.

Professor Blakely is author of four books and more than one hundred scholarly articles as well as scores of essays and opinion pieces. His publications include Fortress America, Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities, Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice, and Rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society.

Blakely's extensive record of public service includes advising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, state and federal governments in Australia and the United States, as well as governments in Korea, Japan, Sweden, Indonesia, New Zealand and Vietnam.

A Fulbright Scholar, Professor Blakely earned his BA at the University of California Riverside, an MA in Latin American history at UC Berkeley, and a PhD in Education and Management at UCLA.