DIANA C. DONALD AWARD
What do the following thirteen outstanding women in the field of urban planning have in common? All of them have been awarded the Diana C. Donald Award. This award recognizes annually APA members as "outstanding planners who have made a substantial contribution to women’s rights; demonstrated significant contributions to the profession; held a responsible management position in planning; and devoted substantial effort to community service. This broad definition of outstanding planner is chosen because it reflects Diana’s own achievements and those qualities believed to be helpful in effecting change in any long term effort, such as women’s rights." (Resolution statement, 25-26 October 1975, AIP Board of Governors Meeting Minutes, San Antonio, TX.)
In 1975, the year she died at the age of 40, the American Institute of Planning (AIP) Board of Governors established the award. This was introduced as a resolution by then President Robert C. Einsweiler at the annual meeting and after unanimous approval by the Board was read to the membership at the Tuesday, 26 October 1975, President’s Luncheon. At the time of her death, Diana Collins Donald was First Vice-President of AIP and in line to become President. As the first woman in such a position, this set a historical precedent for the organization. In 1972, she was chairperson of the AIP Jury of Awards in addition to chairing the joint AIP/ASPO (American Society of Planning Officials) Committee on Women’s Rights. She was chairing a meeting of this joint committee when she was suddenly taken ill in 1974.
Diana Donald was equally outstanding in her professional career as President and partner with Brown, Donald, and Donald Planning Services, Inc., Farmington, Connecticut for ten years. This success followed her academic achievements of a BA, magna cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College in 1956 where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Master in City Planning from MIT in 1958.
Her contributions to AIP, besides being elected First Vice-President, were in several elective offices at the chapter level. "AIP must face the current challenge with a conscious effort to promote the profession nationally and to improve it internally if it is to be relevant to the present needs of its membership." Diana Donald continued to encourage education and maintaining competence "to re-tool in order to meet the changing demands of society…." (Position statement for District I Board Seat, 1971-1974.)
Diana C. Donald Awardees
Charlotte Garrido, a professional planner, was recognized not only for her involvement in women’s issues, but also her broad contribution to planning as one of three elected commissioners of Kitsap County. This is the "ultimate implementation", according to one juror. (Planning, April 1998, 19.)
She is close to finishing her dissertation on the politics of land-use planning which focuses on women, especially low-income women. This theme of focussing on women’s issues was further demonstrated in the paper she wrote for the World conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 entitled Basing policies on our experiences and principles. She is immediate past chairperson of the APA’s Planning and Women Division.
"It was White’s concern for her students and her ability to combine feminist values with good planning practice that led the awards jury to select her as the 1992" awardee. At the time of the award, White, AICP, was a professor at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona; founding member and current chair of APA Planning and Women Division and a member of the task force on women and minorities. She received her bachelor’s degree in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959; a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of Southern California, in 1969; and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1983. According to awards jury chair Edward Blakely, "She is a great professor, a true feminist planner." (Planning, March 1992, 16.)
"What Diana Donald and Marsha Ritzdorf have in common is a commitment to a practical political agenda—the kind of commitment that makes people say, ‘let’s figure out what needs to be done and then go out to do it.’" (Planning, March 1990, 14.) Marsha is past chair of APA Planning and Women Division and helped prepare the policy statement on child care which was adopted by the organization in 1987. In 1989-90 Marsha chaired a committee for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) which conducted a survey and wrote a report concerning women and minorities in planning academe. In addition she pushed for APA to collect data on how many women were members. Up to that point in time, no one even knew how many there were in the organization. Marsha was a professor at Virginia Tech until her death this past spring.
1989 Grace Evans, Tucson, Arizona
During Grace Evans’ Peace Corps assignment in Costa Rica, she came upon a copy of Jane Jacob’s, Life and death of great American cities. This is the stimulus that caused her to decide to go to planning school at the University of Tennessee to earn a master’s degree after she finished her work in Costa Rica. Immediately after graduation, she was a senior planner with the Memphis and Shelby County Planning Commission. Following this, she then moved on to various positions in planning in Illinois, Colorado, and Arizona where she was the assistant director of the Tucson Planning Department. During this time, she mentored women planners; was active in encouraging planning students at the University of Arizona in Tucson; and resurrected the nearly defunct southern section of the state’s APA chapter. She was chosen for the Diana C. Donald award "for her work in encouraging women planners." (Planning, March 1989, 26.)
"Dolores Hayden has been the trailblazer in bringing the importance of the relationship between the built environment and the needs of women and their families to the forefront of national and international planning and design scholarship and practice. She has been the instrumental figure in creating a vision of future communities which support intergenerational, non sexist, non racist environments for all people." (Marsha Ritzdorf’s nomination letter, 24 August 1987.)
She earned her master’s degree in architecture in 1972 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); she taught at MIT for several years; and then moved on to the University of California at Los Angeles joining the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning faculty permanently in 1979. She was awarded the Paul Davidoff Award by the American Collegiate Schools of Planning for her book, Redesigning the American dream; the Los Angeles and California Chapter Awards for Contributions to Women’s Rights; and an award for outstanding contribution to architecture and urban planning from California Women in Government.
"Dolores Hayden has been a role model for literally hundreds of bright, young female planners, who have seen through her work that they can advance the cause of women through the field of urban planning." (Martin Wachs’ nomination letter, 30 July 1987.)
"Housing for ‘nontraditional’ families is what interests Jacqueline Leavitt. Housing is not a commodity; it’s a social service." (Planning, April 1987, 1.)
Jacqueline received both her Master of Urban Planning, 1965, and her Ph.D., 1980, from Columbia University. Her interest in the issues of planning and women was demonstrated from the beginning by her dissertation, Planning and women, women in planning. During graduate school and after, she has taught at City University of New York, Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, and at the time of the award was an Acting Associate Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. She was one of the founders of the APA Planning and Women Division.
Jacqueline was chosen for this award because she "had made substantial contributions to the planning profession through her teachings and writings and that these actions helped further the advancement of women in the planning field." The committee stated, "The focus of her actions has been truly geared toward helping women in the planning profession. The influence she has with her students is very positive for planners and particularly for women. Her writings carry a strong message to the general public which is the type of contribution we need as a profession." (Comments from awards letter to Ms. Leavitt, 25 November 1986.)
"Carol Barrett is one of the most committed women I have know—committed not to the narrow or utopian feminist ideal, but to the idea that all women should be able to participate in and be comfortable with the communities we are creating." (Marsha Ritzdorf’s nomination letter.)
Carol earned her Master of City Planning, 1975, from Georgia Institute of Technology. During this time she commented that "she first felt the sting of discrimination when one of the professors declare that ‘women were not constitutionally fit to be planners’."
Comments such as this only encouraged Carol to focus more on the issues of women and planning. She was chair of the Planning and Women Division from 1981-1983. She drafted policies on individual and household services, which the APA Board of Directors adopted in 1982 and are being implemented through changes in the APA Bylaws. She still serves on the Task Force on Women and Minorities. Before this she was president of the National Capital Area Chapter from 1978-1980 and served on the National Policy Coordinating Committee from 1979-1983. As a member of the AICP Ethics Committee, she wrote Ethical awareness in planning. She is still writing and speaking on the issues of ethics and planning.
According to Carol Barrett, "The Diana C. Donald award is important in that it serves to memorialize a planner whose life exemplified passionate involvement in the profession, the family, and the community. The award is not a project award, but recognition of a career ‘in process’." (Planning and Women, summer 1994, 4.)
"’Mentoring’ is in, we’re told by the popular press. Women, particularly, need someone to offer advice and encouragement, to serve as a role model. But in planning, a ‘man’s field’ until not so long ago, mentors for women were hard to come by." (Planning, April 1985, 14.) It was in recognition of her effectiveness as a mentor that Mary Lou Henry was the 1985 Diana C. Donald awardee.
She has a degree in planning from Rice University. After graduation she worked under the director, Ralph Ellifrit, of the Houston planning department. From this job, she moved on to working in large architecture/engineering firms up to the time she became vice-president of Vernon G. Henry and Associates.
During this timeperiod, she was the first woman director of the Houston AIP section; first women president of the Texas chapter; and a board member of the chapter’s educational foundation. This gave her opportunities to appoint women to chair a variety of committees. As a national AICP commissioner and APA board member, she initiated a ‘mentor program’ to guide newcomers to the field. In 1984, she won the Texas chapter’s Practicing Planner Award to an outstanding consultant.
Edith Netter earned both her M.A., Urban Studies, 1975, and her J.D., 1977, from Washington University. She has specialized in the area of land use law throughout her career. In 1978 she came to work for the APA where she served as a staff attorney and as the editor of Land Use Law and Zoning Digest. At the time of the award she worked for Robinson, Robinson, & Cole as a land use lawyer.
"Her work as an individual and as a planner has done much to assist in the attainment of women’s rights within the planning community and society at large. Her writings have helped planners to understand that issues, such as day care, housing discrimination against children, zoning for abortion clinics, and definitions of the family are not just problems faced by women." (Nomination submitted by the Planning and Women Division, 14 January 1981.) Edith was cited for her work on behalf of women and for advancing the practice of land-use law.
"There’s a danger in assuming that ‘women’s issues’ have been resolved. In fact, there’s still a lot of work to be done." (Edith Netter, Planning, May 1983, 18.)
At the time of the award, she was a planning consultant.
At the time of the award, she was the human resources director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
At the time of the award, she was working at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
At the time of the award, she was a professor at the University of Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, there was very limited information about the first four Diana C. Donald awardees. If you have updated information concerning any of these thirteen outstanding individuals which you are willing to share, please contact the chair of the Planning and Women Division. Also contact the chair, if you have nomination suggestions. The deadline for the 1999 award is 11 September 1998.