brian a. salmons

me at amelia island, florida natural florida sunrise thornton park fountain, photo by josh hallett, april 2006 (http://hyku.com/) tree and leaves on grounds of thomas edison museum, fort myers, florida

who am i? (my resume)

Welcome to the personal webpage of Brian Salmons. I am a graduate student at Iowa State University, located in Ames, Iowa. I am enrolled in the Community Development distance degree program offered through Iowa State and its partner universities in the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (GPIDEA). I live in Orlando, Florida and attend my classes entirely online.

As a graduate student in Community Development, I am involved in research into various aspects of "community", including its formation, organization, history, social and financial capital, infrastructure, and how communities are affected by public policy and planning initiatives. Cheers and Luloff provide a nice definition of "Community Development":

"[It] focuses on enhancing the quality of life of the whole community - socially, economically, culturally, spiritually and ecologically - by enhancing agency (i.e. the capacity of residents to work together for the well-being of the entire community) primarily through broadly based local participation." ...from B. Cheers & A.E. Luloff (2001). "Rural community development". In S. Lockie & L. Bourke (Eds.), Rurality Bites. Australia: Pluto Press, p. 134.
As I am finding in my studies, Community Development is an interdisciplinary field, drawing on the knowledge of sociology, urban planning, economics, ecology, political science, anthropology, history, law, and even accounting and engineering. The following is a list of courses completed:

  • Principles and Strategies of Community Change
  • Organizing for Community Change (Planning Theory)
  • Community and Natural Resource Management
  • Community Analysis
  • Ecological Economics
  • Policy and Politics of Coastal Areas
  • Grantwriting
  • Transportation Planning
  • Land Use Law
  • Community and Regional Economic Analysis
  • Building Native Communities

background

I graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa with a B.A. in Anthropology. Since then I have been working mainly in the legal field. Currently, I work for a large Florida-based law firm. I have lived in a variety of places, including Orlando, Tampa, Chicago and the Netherlands. I love learning about different cultures and different viewpoints. I am an avid "genealogist" and have been researching my family's history for the past 8 years. I also enjoy reading, making music and collecting business cards.
Documents

writing:

links:

contact:

  • bsalmons *at* iastate *dot* edu

resources:

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