Design, planning and environmental review firm PlaceWorks boasts a deep bench of UC Irvine alumni, including multiple MURP graduates. At center and in the inset photo is Davis Alejandro Garcia, who PlaceWorks first sponsored as a MURP student and later hired as a full-time intern. Photos by Han Parker
How UC Irvine’s MURP network is shaping the next generation of planners
By Matt Coker
When Davis Alejandro Garcia enrolled in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program at UC Irvine, he was drawn by a desire to transform abstract policy into tangible community improvements. Considering Garcia’s undergraduate background at UCI—he earned dual B.A.s in political science and social policy & public service with minors in history and literary journalism in 2025—he recognized that urban planning offered a direct path to physical, meaningful change.
“I realized how important long-term planning is so we can actually get what we want established in the future,” says Garcia, who is on track to graduate from MURP in 2027. “UCI provided the avenues to understand exactly what challenges we’re going to be facing. The program pushes us to get into the field, get hands-on experience, and actually understand what we’re learning—because what’s the point of reading textbooks if you’re not going to do anything with it?”
That drive to put theory into practice found an ideal outlet through a novel corporate sponsorship program between the School of Social Ecology and PlaceWorks, a prominent design, planning and environmental review firm headquartered in Santa Ana. PlaceWorks provided funding toward Garcia’s tuition as a sponsored scholar, giving him the freedom to focus on high-level research, community engagement and applied planning.
For PlaceWorks CEO Brian Judd—who earned his B.A. in social ecology from UCI in 1991 and his MURP in 1994—providing the tuition credit was both an investment in top-tier talent and a way to give back to the program that launched his own career.
“The MURP program is pretty amazing,” Judd notes. “Whereas other schools may be much more focused on just the technical side of planning, MURP provides a deeper foundation of understanding all these different issues that are interrelated. Learning how to write a general plan is important, but understanding all the different forces at play—whether governance, economics, environmental or social aspects—is really helpful for developing long-term solutions as well as career growth.”
Judd remembers firsthand how crucial MURP connections and mentors are. Decades ago, a planning studio instructor helped Judd land his first role in Orange County’s advanced planning department, helping him weather economic downturns and eventually build a thriving career. Now, he’s ensuring today’s MURP students get similar footholds. PlaceWorks boasts a deep bench of UCI alumni, including Principal Colin Drukker (MURP ’01) and several other principals, senior associates and project planners.
A corner office at PlaceWorks is occupied by President Randy Jackson, a former MURP guest lecturer and graduate-level course instructor in the School of Social Ecology. He was recognized as a “Distinguished Fellow” in 2016 by what was then the Department of Planning, Policy and Design, which is now the Department of Urban Planning & Public Policy.
“Being in a workplace with various alumni and people associated with UCI gives me hope and a stronger desire to immerse myself in the MURP program,” Garcia says. “Seeing the level of success and influence the program has had throughout Southern California, as well as its interdisciplinary approach to understanding planning law, land use, and design in communities that exist in my own backyard, has been especially meaningful to me and the role that planners have to the communities we’re involved in.”
As an applied research resident at PlaceWorks, he was immediately immersed in complex, statewide initiatives—from analyzing environmental justice concerns for a public outreach effort in Barstow to evaluating parcel-by-parcel changes for a dining and retail project in Garden Grove. He also spearheaded research into utilizing social media for broader public engagement in long-term municipal planning.
Drukker, who works directly with Garcia, quickly noticed the MURP student’s sharp analytical instinct. In one notable instance, Garcia was tasked with evaluating the subtle differences between versions 4.0 and 5.0 of CalEnviroScreen, the state’s environmental hazard mapping tool.
“While AI tools gave confident answers that seemed perfect but were wrong, Davis was able to quickly discern the real answer,” Drukker recalls. “He explained quickly where the state’s modeling tools used different local air quality monitoring data and filtered out wildfire smoke, leading to a dramatic change in ranking. UCI students often bring an ability to research and arrive at solutions to problems they’ve never faced. Davis is proof positive that the planning profession needs intelligent humans more than ever.”
The 10-week tuition-sponsored experience proved so mutually beneficial that Garcia didn’t want it to end—and neither did PlaceWorks. Out of a burning desire to see his long-term projects through to completion, Garcia reached out to Drukker about staying on board. PlaceWorks promptly hired him as a full-time summer intern.
“I’ve grown so much, not just with my knowledge of planning, but geographically,” Garcia says. “I feel like I know California better now by being here at PlaceWorks than I ever have.”
With Garcia successfully transitioning into his new role, the pipeline of Anteater talent shows no signs of slowing down: UCI and PlaceWorks are already finalizing arrangements to select a second MURP student for a sponsored tuition award during the Winter Quarter.