Biography:

Professor Renski will serve as acting department Chair from 1/17/21 to 8/30/21.

Henry Renski joined the faculty of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning in the fall of 2007. He teaches courses in quantitative methods, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis, and state and local economic development policy.

Dr. Renski’s research focuses on understanding the technological and social forces driving regional economic competitiveness and transformation, and building upon this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of economic development policy. His current work examines regional influences on entrepreneurship; changing patterns of commerical development in the internet age; industrial cluster analysis and cluster-based development strategies; and the application of spatial-analytical techniques to local economic policy decision-making.  His work has been published in a variety of planning, economic development and regional science journals including the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Planning Research and Education, Regional Studies, the Journal of Regional Science, Papers in Regional Science, andEconomic Development Quarterly.

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Renski serves as the Director for the UMASS Center for Economic Development - a  campus-based institute which provides technical assistance and conducts applied research on behalf of states, communities, regional planning and development agencies, and other public/non-profit entities interested in promoting economic development. He is the Graduate Program Director of the PhD in Regional Planning.

Prior to joining LARP, Dr. Renski worked as a Special Assistant to the Governor of the State of Maine as both the Deputy Program Manager of Maine’s WIRED (Workforce Innovations in Economic Development) initiative and as a Research Economist with the Maine State Planning Office.

Center for Economic Development: www.umass.edu/ced

Institute for Social Science Research:  www.umass.edu/issr