Baumer Lecture Series, Bonnie Johnson

“Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow”
As a practitioner turned academic, Bonnie Johnson has had the opportunity to explore questions that puzzled her as a planner. She will share some stories and what she has discovered in terms of what's on those city managers' minds, what do planning commissioners want, and what inspires students about becoming planners. All of this work culminates in a focus on how to set planners free to be the experts that they are and should be.

Learning objectives include: exploring the relationship between planners and city managers, learning about what planning commissioners want from their staffs, understanding what attracts students to the planning profession, and unleashing the power of storytelling. 

Bonnie J. Johnson, PhD, FAICP is assistant director of the School of Public Affairs and Administration and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Kansas. She teaches planning history, theory, and politics. Research focuses on ethics and planning practice. Before academia, she was a planner for 8 years.

At the City of Liberty, Missouri, she was project manager for Liberty’s “Blueprint for Liberty: Land Use Plan” which was awarded APAs “Outstanding Planning Award”. She is the Professional Development Officer for the Kansas Chapter of APA and served on the AICP Ethics Committee. She was inducted into the AICP College of Fellows in 2020 and is on the Planning Accreditation Board.

This event is approved for AICP CM credit. To claim your CM credits, log into your My APA account on the APA website and enter the event into your online CM event log. 

This is event part of the Spring 2025 Baumer Lecture Series.

The Baumer Lecture Series invites prominent researchers and practitioners of architecture, landscape architecture, and city and regional planning to present their work and to engage subjects both topical and enduring.