Dr. Mandarano is an Associate Professor, Planning and Community Development in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University.  Dr. Mandarano served as Department Chair from 2015-2018.  She routinely teaches in the BS Community Development and MS City and Regional Planning programs covering topics such as Community Engagement and Empowerment, Sustainable Community Design and Development, Placemaking, Collaborative Planning and capstone Workshops and Studios. She also worked with Dr. Mary Myers (LAHort) to develop and co-teach a General Education (Gen Ed) course, The Science of Sustainable Design: A Focus on Philadelphia.  In January 2009, Dr. Mandarano and her co-teachers were honored with a Gen Ed Team Teaching Award.

She is very active promoting sustainable development at Temple University. In 2016, she served as the Acting Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities.  Earlier in her career at Temple University, she served as the founding co-chair of the Ambler Campus Sustainability Council and as a member of the President Hart’s Sustainability Task Force. Dr. Mandarano also is active in local sustainability initiatives. She was a board member of Green Village Philadelphia and a founding member of the steering committee responsible for the monthly public lecture series, the Urban Sustainability Forum for a Sustainable Philadelphia, at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

In recognition of her service, Temple University honored Dr. Mandarano with the Outstanding Faculty Service Award in October 2011.

Dr. Mandarano received her Ph.D in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania building upon more that 20 years of experience working in the environmental engineering and planning field. She joined Temple’s Department of Planning and Community Development in 2005. Her research focuses on understanding how communities and regions build governance capacity to address pressing environmental and social issues.  Her work has been published in, for example, the Journal of Planning Literature, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Planning Practice and Research, Society and Natural Resources and Water Policy.