John Keller, Ph.D., FAICP

John Keller, FAICP is Professor of Regional and Community Planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning at Kansas State University. His teaching and research specialties include rural land use planning and development, small town comprehensive planning and economic development in non-metropolitan areas.

In addition to teaching and academic research, Keller serves as a practitioner and consultant in small town planning and economic development for communities in the Great Plains area. For the past 15 years he has also been associated with ongoing projects in Australia and New Zealand related to rural economic development, land use and local leadership.

Keller’s current work focuses on local and regional economic development in rural areas for housing, transportation, infrastructure needs, and travel behavior of workers and consumers using survey data generated from local residents. This data is used to prepare local strategic and comprehensive plans to guide communities in their decision making about investments in capital projects and facilities.

Keller is a contributor to both professional and academic literature in planning, rural development and local economic development. He frequently presents his research at national and international conferences. He is the co-author of Rural Planning and Development in the United States (1999), and co-author of three editions of The Rural Planning Handbook (2007 3rd ed.). He has authored several book chapters, including “The Importance of Rural Developments in the 21st Century: Persistence, Sustainability and Futures” in a work entitled The Future of Australia’s Country Towns (2001).

Keller has 39 years of teaching, research and practice in rural planning and development. His strength lies in the merger of teaching and consulting in small towns and rural areas and his understanding of the various planning, financial and development decisions that take place at the local rural level.