Read excerpts from Professor Ron Shiffman's Jane Jacobs Medal acceptance speech in Metropolis Magazine.

Shiffman has spent more than 50 years working to promote community-based activism and empower local groups to participate directly in the development of their neighborhoods. Trained as an architect and urban planner, he is an expert in community-based planning, housing, and sustainable development and a champion of green economies based on local manufacturing. He has had extensive experience bringing together private and public sector sponsors of housing and related community development projects. He teaches in Pratt's Program for Sustainable Planning and Development.