Faculty and Staff Directory

Introduction

Anne Taufen is an interdisciplinary policy and planning scholar who specializes in interpretive methodology, applied teaching and research, and regional community development. Dr. Taufen joined the University of Washington Tacoma in 2008, was tenured in 2015, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2023. Her published research focuses on equitable governance, port city infrastructures, and the social-ecological networks of urban regions. You can view an interview about her research here, and read open access chapters about infrastructures of health and co-production in a larger collaborative volume (Routledge, 2022) on global sustainable development, here.

Teaching, Service, Research

Dr. Taufen teaches in the Urban Studies, Sustainable Urban Development (SUD), and Global Honors (GH) undergraduate programs; and in the Community Planning (MACP) graduate program. Her teaching connects governance and development concepts to evidence and experience from local sites and empirical case material, utilizing a variety of pedagogical strategies to develop student competencies in comprehension, analysis, comparative work, communication, and strategic action. She has developed and taught over twenty courses for the School of Urban Studies, frequently over-enrolling classes to serve our UWT students, adapting to challenges in communicating schedule and degree planning conflicts for non-traditional learners, and supporting shared degree completion pathways.

Dr. Taufen was responsible for successfully implementing and guiding the growth of the SUD degree as a new faculty hire during an extended WA state budget freeze (2008-2013); and for leading the collaborative curriculum development and successful launch of the MACP program (2015), serving as Graduate Program Coordinator and weathering suppressive pandemic conditions during its first five years (2017-2022).

Faculty service commitments at the campus, university, national, and global level include leadership on the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Cities and Landscapes hub of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU); the Asia Pacific Mayors' Academy in partnership with UN-ESCAP, UCLG-ASPAC, and UN-Habitat; former co-director of the UW Livable City Year Program (2017-2018); past chair of the Theory track for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (2015, 2016); and current Honors Executive Committee and Faculty Council of the UWT Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement.

Dr. Taufen was elected Vice Chair of the UWT Executive Council and Faculty Assembly for 2023-2024, after serving as her unit's representative and co-chairing the urban-serving focus of the Academic Planning task force, in 2022-2023 (with Andrea Hill, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice). She is pleased to support Chair Huatong Sun (School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and IIGE) in working towards shared implementation of APT reform, improved campus safety and security, and faculty-informed academic planning and program growth that aligns with student, community, regional, and global needs - and secures funding resources through a cyclical, transparent, and well understood budget process. Dr. Taufen will become Chair of the campus governance process in 2024-2025, and looks forward to serving the community of colleagues who have supported the career development and unique identity of our urban-serving collective enterprise (faculty, staff, students, and community partners) here at UW Tacoma.

In 2023, Dr. Taufen's undergraduate mentee, Samantha Smith was the recipient of the highest honor awarded to a graduating senior at the University of Washington, the UW President's Medal. A joint SUD and Law and Policy student, Sam worked with Dr. Taufen beginning in Winter 2022 to refine an original research project on the equity implications of arts districts in Washington State, building on an earlier paper for SIAS faculty member Cameron Collins. Dr. Taufen helped Sam focus and substantiate research questions about race, equity, and place-based outcomes; and in 2023 Dr. Taufen and co-mentor Dr. Matt Kelley (faculty, SUS) supported the further development of this work through geospatial analysis. Sam Smith was seated with university dignitaries onstage and received this award in front of thousands of faculty, students, family members, and alumni in the largest in-person graduation ceremony ever convened by UW Tacoma, at the Tacoma Dome on June 9, 2023. You can view the video made by UWT media services, and played for the assembled crowd of 14,000 that day, here.

Research with UW students and colleagues has resulted in peer-reviewed articles for high-impact journals in her field, such as the Journal of Planning Education and Research (with Anneka Olson, 2020), Territory Politics and Governance (with Lisa Hoffman and Ken Yocom, 2022); and in a series of applied policy reports such as the Roadmap for Civic Engagement (2018). For five years, Dr. Taufen led the SCL hub's working group on Port City Transitions and waterfront development, producing and leading peer-reviewed, co-authored publications from each of those gatherings (2017-2021) - an especially important mentorship and substantive, equity-aware outcome for participating scholars from across the globe.

Community

Beyond her academic commitments, Dr. Taufen volunteers for the Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center (T.U.P.A.C.), a Black-led classical arts and youth education organization located in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood; as well as a variety of groups where she and her family have long term interests and ongoing, active participation. These include the Tacoma Refugee Choir, the North Tacoma Soccer Club, the Annie Wright Schools, and St. Leo's Parish. 

Dr. Taufen has survived an extended period of stalking that significantly impacted her health, wellness, and relationships beginning in 2017. She is grateful for the support of a wide network of colleagues, friends, and family members whose care and commitment have enabled her children to remain safe, and to thrive. She is committed to improved understanding for professional communities of the inviolability and relational impacts of maintaining informed consent and human rights protections, in our shared spaces and interactions.

In the past Dr. Taufen has served on the board and executive steering committees for Communities for a Healthy Bay (CHB), which for 30 years has led community advocacy for the health of South Sound marine waters, and takes a strong stance for climate justice and racially, culturally inclusive waterway development; and for the George Pocock Rowing Foundation (GPRF), the nation's foremost non-profit rowing organization working to improve access and support excellence in sport-based programming and development. At CHB, Dr. Taufen chaired the DEI committee that changed the name of the organization from 'Citizens' to 'Communities,' recognizing the diverse and unevenly empowered groups whose stewardship of the bay is essential to its survival and health (2018-2021); and at GPRF, she helped grow Rainier Valley Rowing into the Row to the Future program, partnering with Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Parks Department to develop a nationwide model in diversifying sport and supporting student success, during the early years of her faculty career at UW (2008-2011).