IN THE NEWS: Mills Talks Career and Research with U-M Sustainable Food Systems Initiative
Taubman College’s Sarah Mills, Ph.D. U.R.P ’15, was interviewed as part of a faculty spotlight by the U-M Sustainable Food Systems Initiative. Mills, a professor of practice in urban and regional planning and director of the Center for EmPowering Communities at the U-M Graham Sustainability Institute, researches how renewable energy development impacts rural communities, the reactions of rural landowners to wind and solar projects, and how state and local policies facilitate or hinder renewable energy development.
The Sustainable Food Systems Initiative is a cross-campus collaboration of students, faculty, and community leaders from around the world to build successful and sustainable food systems. According to the initiative’s website, their main goal is to “offer a vision of a foundation regarding the development of sustainable and equitable ways to produce and deliver nutritious food to improve people’s health and livelihoods, with minimal environmental damage and lasting economic security.”
Mills talked about her initial interest in rural planning, her ongoing research, and her advice for prospective students in urban and regional planning.
“Yes, it is ‘urban and regional planning’, but there is a whole lot of change that is coming to rural America, and we do not have enough rural planners,” Mills said. “I think that the opportunities are wide if you think beyond just an urban environment and begin studying and understanding connections between urban and rural environments.”
