GLENN A. CAMPBELL

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

EDUCATION

M.A. (GEOGRAPHY); Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, 1995.

M.P.A. (PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION); Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky, 1990.

B.A. (GEOGRAPHY); University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 1987.

Leslie County High School, Hyden, Kentucky, 1983.

I am not a research oriented scholar. My training prepared me moreso for applying geographic principles and ideas at the practitioner level working in the public/private sector of community and economic development. This involved the areas of organizing community groups for development activities, project-program management, and assisting local government in grant application and administration activities, such as ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Enhancement Act), TEA-21 (Transportation Enhancement Act for the 21^st Century), Appalachian Regional Commission, Economic Development Administration, Community Development Block Grants and Land and Water Conservation Fund. Most recent grant application funded (2000) was a $375,000.00 TEA-21 for the City of Lynch (Harlan County) with the funds to be used for the replacement of sidewalks in their downtown.

GEOGRAPHY INTERESTS

After spending twelve years in the applied aspects of urban-economic geography in community-economic development field, principally engaged in the trenches of downtown development, my interest is examining trends and patterns in smaller city downtowns. The geographies (urban, economic, political, social, etc.) of these downtowns are now a strong part of my life. I have been in many of Kentucky’s downtowns and have personally witnessed for myself some of their successes and failures, as well as reflecting on my own in this field.

As a geographer, I understand moreso how a downtown interacts with its host community through the concepts of site and situation. Conversely then, it is easy to assess how the center of gravity, commercially and socially, for a community can shift with the development of new retail centers along major transportation arteries away from downtown via the concepts of central place theory, or seeing a community’s evolution into land use models consistent with the Hoyt Sector Model and Harris and Ullman’s Multiple Nuclei Model. I also enjoy such geographic engaging subjects/topics involving retail location strategies, historic preservation and market analyses.

As for my own experiences, probably my most rewarding was while in the Tri-Cities of Harlan County, as participants in the Renaissance Kentucky Program, all three cities were able to rise from bronze to silver status opening the way for additional federal and state funds.

A major personal and more enjoyable field of study is Kentucky Geography. Other major interests include weather and climate, geopolitics and the old German “geopolitik”, especially gerrymandering and the use of maps as propaganda, as well as maps used for commercial “propaganda”, geostrategy of World War 2, and watching the outdoor channel on TV.

GEOGRAPHY TEACHING

Since 1994: Human, Introductory, World-Regional, Meteorology, Economic, Europe, Historical Geo of Modern World, and Kentucky (my favorite class to teach!!!)

LIFE-LIVING THEMES AND MOTTOS

“TURN OFF THE T.V.”

“DO NOT LET WHAT YOU CANNOT DO INTERFERE WITH WHAT YOU CAN DO” (John Wooden)

THE FOUR “B’s”: “bust your butt on the bench with the books, or,…..somebody ought to bust you on the brain with a ball bat”

PLANS

I plan to begin work on a Ph.D. this Fall at University of Louisville’s College of Urban and Public Affairs. My desired focus is to more closely examine the level of success local government achieves in downtown development as they engage in an urban oriented public-private partnership. I would also like to discover if there are any differences in method of operation in small cities versus larger cities. Do they all tackle downtown problems in the same manner? Moreover, it might well provide a bonanza of fruitful information to examine conditions and experiences of the downtown development triangle – city officials, developers , and lenders, with regard to new concepts in development via our globilizing economies. This information could well be instrumentally beneficial for urban areas at whatever population scale. Just from personal witness, highly visible frontage locations are now not as critical to business success as before. This means that business and public leaders should be able to create new ideas for development within the framework of the nationally renowned Main Street Program and the Renaissance Kentucky Program.

Some specific study items in this critical analysis might well include the following: 1) along the urban-public sector approach, examining how and why local public policies, programs-projects were successfully implemented; 2) along the urban-economic approach, the level of success based upon measurable data i.e. occupancy levels, investment levels, public-private investment ratios, property values and taxes, and sales tax generation; and 3) along an urban-geographical approach, the local public sector’s use of maps in communicating the socio-economic-political importance of a downtown to all the players, and the use of GIS in the public sector development process for downtown and inner-city redevelopment. As a student of GIS myself, I would to see if, and how much, GIS is being utilized in the downtown development process. Lastly, (4) examining how unique partnerships or linkages have developed between downtowns and entities not located in downtown, but close to downtown such as riverfront areas, museums, strip shopping centers, medical centers, and athletic/recreational/convention centers.