Alumni Spotlight

Contact Geography and Planning

Geography and Planning

Address:
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Department of Geography and Planning
College of Business and Public Management
Fifth Floor
Business and Public Management Center
50 Sharpless Street
West Chester, PA 19383

Phone: 610-436-2343

Name: Dr. Gary Coutu
Position: Department Chair
Email: GCoutu@wcupa.edu

Name: Heather MacQueen
Position: Department Secretary
Email: HMacQueen@wcupa.edu

Katelyn Thompson

The first Master in Urban and Regional Planning degree was awarded to Katie Thompson on May 12, 2018. She was also honored with the 2018 Outstanding Student Award in the program. She began her graduate degree at West Chester University in the M.S. in Geography program but switched in her second year to the Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. She worked hard at developing her technical (GIS) abilities, but stayed close to planning by connecting the technology to planning applications. Her thesis explores the movement of millennials back to the suburbs and investigates location preferences of millennials in Chester County. Katie has accepted a position with ESRI in Arlington, Virginia as a technical writer for ArcGIS Hub, one of their newest programs, that has wide-spread application for local municipalities to help manage planning and other municipal operations.