FAICP

Induction to the AICP College of Fellows is the highest honor the American Institute of Certified Planners bestows upon a member.

In an effort to assist and promote our qualified and deserving members for this honor, the NY Upstate Chapter has created an FAICP Advisory Committee. This committee is charged with helping to identify potential nominees, recommend them to the Chapter Board for nomination endorsement, and provide guidance to nominees throughout the application process. Our objective is not to write or prepare nominations for anyone, but assist in the review and development of quality applications to help increase their competitiveness.

To contact the committee, please email: faicp@nyupstateplanning.org

HOW WE CAN HELP! (View our Webinar Below)

Facilitation:

• Organize the “Call for Nominees”

• Establish recommended preparation schedule

• Keep you aware of deadlines

• Pair you with a Committee member for tracking and managing material

• Connect you with an FAICP mentor

• Recommend potential nominees to Chapter Board to secure endorsement

FAICP Nomination Tips for Chapters (from National)

WORKING WITH THE CHAPTER FAICP ADCOM

If you are seeking endorsement from the NY Upstate Chapter for a nomination, we ask that you coordinate with the FAICP AdCom in accordance with the following schedule. This is a recommended timeline - We’re here to work with you!

2024 FAICP NOMINATION DEADLINE - AUGUST 30, 2023

Submit the following via the AICP College of Fellows Online Nomination Submission Form and email to fellows@planning.org:

1. Nomination Package as a Single PDF file that includes:

   • Endorsement Letter Signed by Nominator (3 page max)

   • Narrative Statement with bulleted top 5 achievements (1 page max)

   • Annotated Resume (10 page max)

   • Letters of Support with Index Page (5 min - 10 max; 2 page max per letter)

   • 100-Word Statement

2. Nominee Headshot (digital file saved with nominee’s name) - Do NOT include in Nomination PDF.

3. Nomination Fee ($100) paid by credit card as part of the online submission form.

NOTE: Nomination materials should be prepared in accordance with submission guidelines, including but not limited to, minimum 11-point font, 1-inch margins, and separator pages between sections. No photos of the nominee or hyperlinks are permitted in the nomination package. For more direction on the required format of submission, see the 2024 Nomination Guidelines.

More information and submission guidance can be found on the APA National FAICP Nomination Page and in the AICP College of Fellows Nominations Package Toolkit.

FAICP INFORMATIONAL WEBINAR

The Chapter’s FAICP Advisory Committee hosted an informational webinar on February 15, 2023 at 11:30AM.

NY UPSTATE FELLOWS

As of 2022, there are 9 NY Upstate APA Chapter members that have been inducted into the AICP College of Fellows.

Vijay K. Mital, FAICP (2000)

Vijay K. Mital established the City of Auburn’s Office of Planning and Economic Development in 1979 which is involved with many aspects of city planning. Vijay has inspired and coordinated many successful economic development and community projects over his 30-year career in Auburn and Cayuga County, New York. His quiet, persistent leadership has motivated all levels of government and the private sector to work together toward a common cause. Vijay was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2000,from the Central New York Section of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Stuart Stein, FAICP (2000)

Stu Stein was one of the rare planners who effectively blended teaching and professional work with community and public service. He had an outstanding career as a public official at several levels of government and is praised for his mentoring of students, pro-bono planning and design assistance to neighborhood organizations, communities, and government leaders. Stuart was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2000, from the Southern Tier Section of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Richard W. Unger, FAICP (2008)

Rich Unger has been a community planner practicing both local governmental and private sector planning services based in four different states: Iowa, Wyoming, Arizona and Florida. His career has involved planning at the municipal level (18 years) and in the private sector (20 years). Throughout his planning career Rich has served in many American Planning Association leadership positions.  This has included serving on the Wyoming Planning Association Board, the Steering Committee for the formation of the Western Central Chapter of APA, the APA Arizona Chapter Board, and the APA Florida Chapter Board, including as its Chapter President.  More recently, since his relocation to the APA New York Upstate Chapter, Rich serves as Chair of the FAICP Committee to expand and encourage additional FAICP nominations.

Rich has significantly influenced planning practices and policies of communities across the country. Rich’s private and public planning practice and leadership skills have benefited communities in nine different states (IA, WY, AZ, CA, NM, NV, MT, RI and FL). For nearly 40 years Rich has demonstrated a very high degree of commitment to the planning profession and the APA organization. First and foremost, Rich has been an advocate for public planning and the fostering of community through the education of citizens, developers, community leaders and elected officials, and by mentoring younger planning professionals. He has viewed every project or planning activity he has ever worked as an opportunity to improve and educate the community.

After a career of working in several areas of the country, Rich and his wife relocated to the Historic Stockade Neighborhood of Schenectady, NY in 2014 and is now a member of the Capital District Section of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association. Rich was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2008, while he was with the APA Florida Chapter.

Lee H. Nellis, FAICP (2010)

Lee was a pioneer of planning and community-based conservation in the rural West, beginning his career in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin in 1974. He has degrees from the University of Wyoming and University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent 1981-86 teaching courses in regional landscape and environmental planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State and the Urban and Regional Planning program at Eastern Washington University.  

He has worked for, consulted with, or delivered training to local governments; conservation organizations, including the Sonoran Institute, where he served as Director of Land Use Policy; and state and federal land management agencies, including the Minnesota Forest Resources Council and the Bureau of Land Management. He was involved in the early development of performance zoning; assisted the Natural Resources Conservation Service in developing the Land Evaluation Site Assessment system; and led the public engagement campaign that resulted in Congressional designation of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area near Tucson, AZ.

He has introduced the idea of planning to numerous rural communities and guided plans to adoption in places where there is bitter conflict about land-use issues. Lee's exemplary plan-making and dynamic training skills have made him a leader in the planning profession and has helped shape how we promote public engagement, analyze issues, write plans and craft land use laws and regulations. Lee was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2010, and is currently residing in the Capital District Section.

Leslie Dornfeld, FAICP, CSBA (2012)

With more than two decades of diverse and recognized planning experience at all levels of government and mostly public sector clients, Leslie brings a creative and custom approach to every project.  A committed member of the professional community, Leslie is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, Arizona Technical Assistance Panel Committee and past chair of the City of Phoenix Complete Streets Advisory Committee. 

Leslie has developed and managed a broad array of land use, general, comprehensive, neighborhood, master, non-motorized transportation, parks and open space, and health plans and planning processes. For each project that she manages, Leslie develops and leads a public engagement process appropriate to the project and tailored to the community. Leslie is a 1979 graduate of Vassar College (AB) and in 1981 the University of Pennsylvania (MCP), and is a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor (comparable to LEED AP designation). Leslie was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2012.

Robert G. Shibley, FAICP, FAIA (2016)

Bob Shibley is the Campus Architect at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning (2011 to date). He has been a professor at UB since 1982, serving as chair of the Department of Architecture (1982-1990). Since 1990 he enjoys joint appointments in both the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the Department of Architecture. Bob was the founding director of The Urban Design Project (UDP), which he led from 1990 to 2011 when he merged it with the UB Regional Institute (UBRI). To date, Bob Shibley co-authored 17 books, including Placemaking: The Art and Science of Building Community, Urban Excellence, and Time Savers Standards for Urban Design. He has authored or co-authored 14 book chapters, 14 U.S. government publications, and well over 100 articles in professional and academic presses. He has a total of twenty-lifetime achievement awards from national (8) and regional/local (12) institutions. Bob was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2016, from the Western New York Section of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Michael H. Long, FAICP, ICMA-CM (2020)

Mike began as an architecture student at Dutchess Community College and the University of Buffalo, NY.  He then attended the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) at Syracuse for Environmental Design and received a Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. Educational Foundation and completed a management plan for Mount Parnassus, the first Greek National Park.  After graduating ESF with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA), Mike began working with the Cayuga County Planning Board.  While working full time he also completed a Master’s in Public Administration (MaPA) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship Masters in Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA) at ESF. 

Recruited to help establish the City of Auburn, NY Office of Planning and Economic Development, Mike had major projects in the area of Historic Preservation, Alternate Energy Systems, Downtown Revitalization, Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Grants and project administration. He also served as the City Administrator of Poughkeepsie, NY and City Manager of Oneonta, NY and then established a consulting practice, Finger Lakes Planning and Development. Mike was instrumental in working with the National Park Service on the creation of the “Harriet Tubman National Historical Park” which he has contributed to this site for over the last 40 years. Also involved with the American Planning Association of the New York Upstate Chapter from the Central New York Section, Mike has served as President and various other Board positions for over 14 years. Mike was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2020. 

John E. Steinmetz, FAICP (2020)

Over the past 25 years of John’s planning career, he has dedicated himself to demystifying the planning profession for communities across Upstate and Western New York. Building upon his experience and influence in both the public and private sectors, John has used his creativity and ingenuity to craft manageable community enhancement and development tools that are tailored to the ability and capacity of each community, large and small, to succeed in implementation long after his presence and influence. In 2004, he founded one of the only independent planning firms in the region, with the purpose of serving the many Upstate and Western New York communities unable to afford and secure much needed professional planning services. Through his firm’s work, John completed over 10 award winning planning efforts in the region, provided countless training sessions for civic planners and decision-makers, and authored several technical and advisory articles for local, state, and national publications. He was inducted in the American Institute of Certified Planners College of Fellows in 2020.

Nan C. Stolzenburg, FAICP (2022)

Nan is the founder and principal planner at Community Planning & Environmental Associates. Her almost 30 years as a planning consultant, built upon 10 years of prior work in the wildlife/natural resources field, has significantly contributed to rural community and environmental planning throughout the Hudson Valley and upstate regions of New York State. She concentrates on the unique community and environmental planning needs of small and rural communities by providing comprehensive land use, and environmental planning services. Nan’s education includes a BS from ESF,  an MS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MRP in Regional Planning from the University at Albany.

Nan’s work has helped over 70 New York small and rural communities embrace comprehensive planning, asset-based economic development, and implementation of innovative land use tools.  She has developed dozens of agricultural and farmland protection plans resulting in such accomplishments as creation of a local “Ag-navigator” to enhance agricultural economic development, implementation of transfer of development rights programs, and establishment of agricultural overlay districts. Her work as planning board consultant in multiple communities has improved streetscapes, protected stream riparian areas, and contributed to widespread application of conservation subdivision techniques. Nan has had positive impact on environmental protection through co-authorship of the NY State Environmental Quality Review Environmental Assessment Form Workbooks which are used throughout the state for all required site plan, subdivision, and zoning permit approvals. She provides extensive leadership and promotes planning through a variety of volunteer roles. Nan was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2022.