Marie Kennedy
M.Arch., Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Professor, Emerita, Community Planning
marie.kennedy@umb.edu


Marie Kennedy combines the roles of activist and scholar, teaching, working in and writing about community development, planning education and participatory action research. Over the years, Marie supervised numerous collaborative projects, through which students earned academic credit while providing service to community organizations focusing on housing, anti-displacement, anti-racist, human service and community empowerment issues. She was the faculty sponsor of Women in Community Development and of the Roofless Women's Action Research Mobilization, programs through which low income women were supported in acquiring a college education while focusing their academic work on issues of importance to homeless and low income women. Marie has worked extensively with community organizations in the Greater Boston Area, as well as in San Francisco, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and Nicaragua. In 2007 she taught in the doctoral program in regional development at the Colegio de Tlaxcala in Mexico. In 2008, she joined the faculty of the Urban Planning Department at the University of California Los Angeles as a visiting professor. Marie serves on the board of directors of Grassroots International, is co-chair of the steering committee of Planners Network and serves on the editorial board of Progressive Planning.