Kyle Ezell Inducted to AICP College of Fellows

City and Regional Planning Professor of Practice Kyle Ezell has been inducted into the American Institute of Certified Planners College of Fellows.

Kyle Ezell Inducted to AICP College of Fellows

City and Regional Planning Professor of Practice Kyle Ezell has been inducted into the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) College of Fellows. The highest honor the AICP bestows upon a member, induction recognizes outcomes that have left demonstrably significant and transformational improvements to the field of planning and the communities they served.

In 2018, Professor Ezell ran two undergraduate studios and a graduate workshop that explored ways that planners, architects, and landscape architects can create communities where adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder might thrive beyond “the cliff,” the time when people with autism age out of services offered through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Students who generated the final project report won the 2019 AICP Student Project Award from the American Planning Association (APA). Because of this project, the APA created a “Planning with Underserved Populations” Interest Group.

"I help build the bridge between the academy and the planning practice by training creative and highly-competent city and regional planners of the future," commented Ezell. "This is a dynamic bridge, keeping me motivated and inspired to meet the tremendous challenges communities face. I am thankful to be a part of students’ lives who soon become colleagues, and I take my job very seriously."

In 2019, Professor Ezell was the recipient of an Ohio State University Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. This award, the university’s highest teaching honor, recognizes the most exceptional educators at Ohio State, with particular focus placed on teaching excellence, student engagement, and pedagogical innovation. He has also been the recipient of the APA Vernon Deines Award for Outstanding Small Town Special Project Plan (2015), the APA Donald E. Hunter Award for Excellence in Economic Development Planning (2015), and the APA Ohio Focused Planning Project Award (2015). 

The AICP College actively encourages Fellows and others to participate in programs and initiatives in the service of communities and the planning profession, including mentoring the next generation of planners, volunteering expertise to underserved communities, leading initiatives within APA chapters and divisions, and sharing knowledge with the planning community, allied professionals, and the wider public.