Wayne Feiden

Wayne Feiden serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he concurrently directs the UMass Center for Resilient Metro-Regions. He also operates as principal of Plan Sustain, Inc., a mission-driven planning and sustainability consultancy, leveraging extensive municipal experience from his tenure as Director of Planning and Sustainability for Northampton.

His educational foundation includes:

• Masters of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• BS in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Feiden's research integrates urban planning with climate resilience, focusing on practical frameworks for sustainable municipal operations. His work pioneers methodologies in downtown revitalization, sustainable transportation networks, and open space preservation, directly addressing regulatory streamlining challenges through evidence-based approaches developed during his Five-STAR Communities certification leadership.

Internationally recognized for cross-cultural planning applications, his projects span waterfront development in Staten Island and St. Vincent, Hopi reservation master planning, and Haitian reconstruction efforts. This global perspective informs his development of standardized assessment tools for municipal sustainability metrics adopted nationwide.

His distinguished recognition portfolio encompasses:

• American Institute of Certified Planners Fellowship (FAICP)
• Eisenhower Fellowship to Hungary (1995)
• Dual Fulbright appointments to South Africa (2007) and New Zealand (2011)
• German Marshall Fund Fellowship across Europe (2015)
• State Department exchanges to Malaysia (2017) and Indonesia (2023)
• Bellagio Residency for advanced research (2017)

Feiden's pedagogical approach bridges academic theory with municipal implementation through courses including Sustainable and Resilient City and Tools & Tech In Planning. His professional consultancy provides experiential learning frameworks where students engage with real-world challenges in community economic development and decentralized infrastructure planning across global contexts.

The Center for Resilient Metro-Regions operates as his primary research hub, coordinating interdisciplinary teams addressing climate adaptation through integrated land-use modeling and community engagement protocols. Current initiatives focus on post-pandemic urban recovery strategies and equity-centered resilience frameworks for vulnerable coastal communities.