Journal of Resilient Urbanism & Sustainable Design (JRUSD) is honoured to welcome Prof. Michael West Mehaffy

Journal of Resilient Urbanism & Sustainable Design (JRUSD)
is honoured to announce and warmly welcome

Professor Michael West Mehaffy
Executive Director, Sustasis Foundation (Portland, Oregon, USA) · Faculty Associate, Arizona State University · Former Director of Education, The Prince’s Foundation (UK)

as a distinguished member of our Advisory and Honorary Boards.

Professor Mehaffy is an internationally recognised urbanist and design theorist whose work bridges architecture, urban planning, philosophy, and complexity science. He has held teaching and/or research appointments across multiple universities in several countries, and currently serves as a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University. He is Executive Director of the Sustasis Foundation and has previously directed education at The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment in London.

A prolific author and editor, Professor Mehaffy’s publications include Cities Alive: Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander and the Roots of the New Urban Renaissance; Design for a Living Planet (with N. Salingaros); the edited volume A City is Not a Tree; and A New Pattern Language: Places, Networks, Processes, developed in part through a collaboration with UN-Habitat. His scholarship has advanced ideas such as place network theory, generative codes, and urban self-organization that inform resilient, human-scaled, and sustainable urbanism.

Beyond academia, Professor Mehaffy has contributed to internationally noted projects (including transit-oriented and walkable neighbourhood developments) and to global agendas for better cities through initiatives connected with UN-Habitat and the Future of Places network. His cross-disciplinary influence continues to shape contemporary debates on urban form, climate responsiveness, and equitable, adaptable design.

We are honoured to welcome Professor Mehaffy to JRUSD’s Advisory and Honorary Boards. His leadership and vision will strengthen the journal’s mission to advance resilient and sustainable urban futures grounded in rigorous scholarship and impactful practice.