APDesign In the News

Kansas State University Graduate Student Wins Prestigious Ed McClure Award for Best Master’s Student Paper

The College of Architecture, Planning & Design (APDesign) at Kansas State University proudly congratulates Maria Binte Edrish, a second-year master’s student in Regional and Community Planning, on receiving the nationally prestigious 2025 Ed McClure Award for Best Master’s Student Paper from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).

Edrish’s paper, “Changing Foodscape of Kansas City Metropolitan Area: A Spatio-temporal Analysis,” was recognized for its methodological strength, confident analytical voice, and clear contribution to advancing health equity in urban planning. She will receive a $1,000 award and present her paper at the upcoming ACSP Annual Conference in Minneapolis.

Edrish is working as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) under the supervision of Dr. Shakil Kashem, Associate Professor of Regional and Community Planning. Her research is a part of an interdisciplinary research project on urban food system funded by K-States's Game-Changing Research Initiative Program (GRIP).

Advancing Health Equity Through Research

Edrish’s research focuses on improving food accessibility in underserved communities through GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). By integrating socio-economic and built environment data, her work provides evidence-based solutions that support equitable and sustainable planning practices.

Her academic foundation includes a Master’s in Disaster Management from the University of Dhaka (2019) and a Bachelor’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology in Bangladesh. This multidisciplinary background informs her expertise in disaster resilience, transportation systems, and community engagement.

Professionally, Edrish has applied her skills as a GIS Intern at Bartlett & West, contributing to transportation and infrastructure mapping, database management, and project coordination.

Leadership Reflections

Dean Michael McClure commended Edrish’s achievement as a reflection of APDesign’s mission: “Maria’s recognition by ACSP is a tremendous honor not only for her but for our entire college. Her work demonstrates how rigorous research and innovative analysis can directly address urgent equity challenges in our communities. She exemplifies the talent and purpose that we strive to foster in all our students.” Huston Gibson, professor and head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning (LARCP), emphasized the significance of her scholarship: “Maria’s research provides meaningful insights into one of the most pressing issues in urban planning—access to healthy, affordable food. Her use of GIS-based analysis to address these disparities highlights the vital role planning can play in advancing health equity and spatial justice. We are extremely proud of her success.”

Looking Ahead

With aspirations to pursue a Ph.D., Edrish is committed to developing data-driven, GIS-based solutions that address equity challenges in urban and transportation planning while bridging the gap between academic research and policy implementation.

Anton Rozhkov, chair of the award selection committee and a professor at New York University, praised her work: “We are impressed by the strength of the methodological workflow for accessing food accessibility and the synthesis of the planning and public health literature. The study’s findings are of direct relevance to urban planning practice, particularly in advancing health equity and spatial justice. The paper’s core strengths lie in its empirical rigor and practical relevance.”

Student Reflections

Upon learning she had won, Edrish described feeling “stunned” and “immensely grateful.” She credited her advisor, Dr. Shakil Kashem, along with her classmates and family, for their support: “My inspiration for this project came from seeing how unequal access to healthy, affordable food continues to affect the health and well-being of underserved communities. By combining spatial and statistical methods, I hope my research can help identify priority areas for intervention and ultimately improve food access for vulnerable populations.”

About the Ed McClure Award

The Ed McClure Award recognizes superior scholarship in a paper prepared by a master's student. The paper may address any topic of investigation generated in the course of pursuing a master's degree in urban planning.

The 2025 selection committee included:

· Anton Rozhkov (Chair), New York University

· Ladan Mozaffarian, University of Oklahoma

· Shengxiao (Alex) Li, National University of Singapore

· Yao Wang, Louisiana State Univer