Alyse Dees, M.S. in Urban and Community Planning (UCP) candidate in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE), has been selected to receive the 2025 American Planning Association (APA) Foundation Diversity Scholarship. Alyse is one of 21 recipients of the national scholarship.
The APA Foundation Diversity Scholarship is offered in support of the Foundation’s mission to advance social equity in the profession. Recipients of the award are encouraged to advance social equity in the profession and have demonstrated academic excellence.
Alyse is a first-year UCP student interested in the intersection of architecture and urbanism because she views it as an opportunity to fuse creative storytelling with community engagement to build towards an equitable future. She is also interested in climate-responsive projects that focus on social justice and community. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Design Studies and a Master of Architecture from Howard University. While at Howard, she was a finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon and received Howard’s M.Arch Department’s High-Performance Building Design Award.