Edward J. Blakely , Ph.D.

Visiting Professor
Executive Director of Recovery Management, City of New Orleans

Joint Ph.D., Management and Education, University of California at Los Angeles. Master of Management, Pasadena Nazarene College. Master of Arts, History and Development Studies, University of California at Berkeley. Bachelor of Arts, University of California at Riverside.

Dr. Edward J. Blakely has recently been appointed as Executive Director, to lead a 17 person office and to serve as the leader for marshaling a recovery process in New Orleans.

Dr. Edward J. Blakely is Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Planning Research Centre at the University of Sydney. He has been featured in several Australian periodical for his planning work and most recently in the Australian 2026 forecast for the nation. Prior to this post he was Dean of the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University.  He was Dean and Lusk Professor of Planning and Development for the School of Urban Planning and Development at the University of Southern California (1994-1999).  Previously he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley (1986-1994). In 2003, the University of California, Riverside dedicated a new Center for Suburban Sustainable Development in honor of Professor Blakely.

Dr. Blakely has held academic positions in teaching, research, academic administration, and economic development policy for more than thirty years.  He is a leading scholar and practitioner in the fields of planning and local economic development.  He has held senior positions in the private sector at Pacific Telephone Company (1960-65) and in government as a U.S. senior Foreign Service officer (1969-71).

Dr Blakely served as a policy advisor to the mayor of Oakland and advisor to the Los Angeles Public School District. He organized and led the Oakland response to the earthquake in1988 and The Oakland Fire in 1991 the largest urban fire in the 20th Century. He ran for Mayor of Oakland against Jerry Brown in 1998 finishing second in a large field. He moved to New York just prior to the attacks at Ground Zero and became one of the leaders in the City recovery effort helping guide the citizen and community planning effort. In addition he serves on a number of task forces and commissions at the local, state, national and international levels on urban disaster recovery.  He was appointed by President Clinton as Vice Chair of the Presidio Trust where he played a key role in the development of the former army base to a profitable civic facility. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association, the Nature Conservancy, and Fulbright Association. He is also a Director and principle of several private sector firms including Kidzmouse, Board SE Corporation as well as a Managing Partner of Humboldt Realty Corporation. He has served on bank advisory boards for Broadway Federal Savings, Check Spring Bank and other financial institutions in California and New York 

 He received the 1990 San Francisco Foundation Award for improving community life in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2002 In addition, Dr. Blakely was President of the Pacific Rim Council on Urban Development (1993) and remains on the Board of Directors. He was appointed by President Clinton as Vice Chair of the Presidio Trust to serve a two-year term (1997-1999). Elected Fellow to the National Academy of Public Administration. Dr. Blakely was honored as the keynote speaker at the Annual Meetings of the American Planning Association. He was one of the 75 alumni honored for making a difference by the San Bernardino Valley College's 75th anniversary in 2002. He received the Community Development Outstanding Research Award in July 2002 from the Community Development Society. He is a Hall of Fame Athlete UC Riverside as well as co-Athlete of the Year 1959 for the University of California campuses. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of California at Riverside. Dr. Blakely has recently been asked to guide the recovery efforts in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Blakely is the author of eight books and more than 100 scholarly articles.  His publications include Local Economic Development Finance with Susan Giles (Sage, 2001); Fortress America with Mary Gail Snyder (Brookings Press, 1997-academic book of the year); Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities (Temple University Press, 1992--Davidoff Award for Outstanding Academic Book), Planning Local Economic Development Theory and Practice in its 3rd edition (Sage, 2002), and Rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society (Praeger, 1979).  His articles include "Room for Whom: Change in the Central Valley" (1990), "Theoretical Approaches for a Global Community" (1989), and "Shaping the American Dream: Landuse Choices for America's Future" (1993).  His work is widely cited and translated into other languages including Arabic, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish and Italian. 

Dr. Blakely has extensive experience in Europe, Latin America and Africa as well as his background in Asia. He was selected for the French American Urban Exchange program for the summer of 2002 in Paris and Lyon, France. He has been an advisor to local and regional governments in Korea, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and New Zealand, Vietnam and currently in Turkey and Armenia.

Dr. Blakely chaired the Rhodes Scholarship Committee for the Western United States. He is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and a Trustee of the University of California at Riverside. The University of California, Riverside announced it intention to establish an Edward Blakely Center of Suburban Sustainable Development in May 2002.