With a joint doctorate in geography and planning, Ron Foresta brings the perspective of both fields to the study of place and place policy.  Most of his publishing has been on natural-area management, and includes books on the American National Park System and conservation in Brazilian Amazonia. His most recent book, the Land Between the Lakes, uses one particular natural area as a lens for examining how our visions of the future get turned into public policies and places.  

Foresta’s teaching in recent years has increasingly focused on urban geography, with an emphasis on the livable city, the subject of most of his current research. He shoulders responsibility for our European and South American regional courses and for our professionalizing senior-capstone course.