Kathleen Dorgan, AIA, LEED- AP, principal of Dorgan Architecture & Planning in Storrs CT, is a designer and practitioner of comprehensive community development. Trained as both an architect (BS and B.Arch. Rensselaer) and an urban planner (MS Pratt), she has contributed to the development of incremental strategies for neighborhood renewal and community building. Her projects are featured in Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing, The Design Advisor, and Design Matters. Her project, Dove Street Independent Housing, is included in the exhibit Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset that opened at the National Building Museum and is now touring nationally. Past president of the Association for Community Design, her areas of expertise include participatory design, Main Street revitalization, affordable housing, public funding, homeownership, not-for-profit organizations, historic preservation and sustainable design.

Ms. Dorgan is a member of the adjunct faculty of the Partnership for Community Development at Roger Williams University. During a 2002 Loeb Fellowship she conducted research in the theory and practice of community design. As a HUD Community Builder Fellow she coordinated Livability, University Partnerships, Homeownership, Healthy Homes, Brownfield Redevelopment and Smart Growth Initiatives in Connecticut for the Department. Ms. Dorgan is a former Executive Director of the Capitol Hill Improvement Corporation in Albany NY. During her tenure the community-based organization participated in the renovation or construction of over 1500 buildings as well as developing a rich variety of support programs for area residents and merchants. Ms. Dorgan is active in local and national volunteer groups and is a frequent speaker, university instructor and writer on issues of design and community renewal. She is a member of the Design School at Harvard’s Alumni Council and the UMASS Architecture + Design Advisory Council.