Associate Professor Emerita
City & Regional Planning, Community Development
Lynn Mandarano, PhD
- Email: lynn.mandarano@temple.edu
- Phone: 215-777-9112
- Office: Architecture 135
- Website: http://sites.temple.edu/mandarano/
Lynn Mandarano is an expert in community engagement and capacity building for collective action to address complex social and environmental concerns. Her research explores how everyone from individuals to regional collaborative institutions develop capacities, such as knowledge, relationships and political will to plan and implement projects that have positive, long-term impacts. Her work in Philadelphia has assisted communities with capacity building and engaged students through community-based service learning projects.
Her work is published in leading planning journals, including the Journal of Planning Literature, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Journal of Planning, Education and Research, Local Environment, Planning Practice and Research and Society and Natural Resources, among others.
Mandarano taught for 18 years at Tyler, retiring in December 2024. Before becoming a professor, she worked for more than two decades as a professional consultant in the fields of environmental engineering and environmental policy for United States municipal, county and state governments, private business and international clients. In 1998, Mandarano started her own consulting practice, The Natural Resource, which is a certified as a woman-owned business enterprise in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.
PhD, City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
MBA, Management Science, Iona College, 1990
BS, Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 1984
Selected Work
Mandarano, L. 2023. “Empowering Emerging Leaders: A model public planning academy.” Community Development Journal. Published Online December 26, 2023. DOI:10.1093/cdj/bsad037
Mandarano, L. 2023. “Elevating Community Voice: Community Engagement in Planning Studio” in Routledge Handbook of University-Community Partnerships in Planning Education, eds. Megan Heim LaFrombois and Jay Mittal. Routledge Press. ISBN 9781032389875
Meenar, M. and L. Mandarano. 2021. “Using Photovoice and Emotional Maps to Understand Transitional Urban Neighborhoods.” Cities. V118, November 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103353
Mandarano, L., & Meenar, M. (2017, July). Equitable Distribution of Green Stormwater Infrastructure: A
Capacity-based Framework for Implementation in Disadvantaged Communities. Local Environment,
22(11), 1338-1357. doi:10.1080/13549839.2017.1345878
Mandarano, L. (2015, June). Civic Engagement Capacity Building: An Assessment of the Citizen
Planning Academy Model of Public Outreach and Education. Journal of Planning Education and
Research, 35(2), 174-187. doi:10.1177/0739456X14566869