2024 Planning Distinguished Alumni Award

The ECU Planning Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of graduates from the ECU Community and Regional Planning Program. It recognizes alumni for their outstanding achievements to the planning profession, service to society, or the ECU Planning Program.

The 2023-2024 committee consisted of five members: Michelle Nance, AICP (chair), Dr. Misun Hur (Director), Dr. Anuradha Mukherji (faculty), Cooper Hilbert (student), and Catherine Grimm (Alum). The Planning Distinguished Alumni Award page explains the award overview and the nomination and selection process.

The committee unanimously and resoundingly recommended the nomination of Marcus Goodson for the 2024 ECU Planning Distinguished Alumni Award. The committee’s recommendations include:

“His career journey to become a trusted expert in housing, focused on one of the most pressing challenges in our time. He has been successful in bringing in funding to the communities he serves and his level of excellence has extended throughout his career with numerous awards bestowed upon him from many organizations. His letters of support were also heartfelt and demonstrated his impact on communities and individuals.”

“Marcus Goodson’s statement on his dedicated work on quality housing for marginalized communities was impressive. His work certainly resonates with the purposes of this award—contributions to the planning profession and service to society.”

“He is to be commended for his work and contributions in the area of affordable housing, a professional path that is not an easy one. Affordable housing (or its lack) has been a long-standing issue in this country, and especially now when we have an affordable housing crisis. His leadership, professionalism, and commitment are deeply respected among his peers and his work and contributions in securing affordable housing for communities is highly regarded.”

Marcus D. Goodson

Marcus D. Goodson is the Executive Director of Lee County Housing Authority, Florida.

Mr. Goodson has held numerous positions in City Planning, as Housing Authority Executive Director and as an Interim City Manager. His career path has covered cities from Greenville, NC, Rocky Mount, NC, Sanford, NC, Fort Myers, Florida, Arkansas, and Puerto Rico. He has been recognized for his leadership, community involvement, and being a person of Impact.

“It’s not easy for me to point to reasons why I should be considered for such a distinguished honor when all of my affordable housing accomplishments in North Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico were the results of qualified team members who bought into a collective vision, I have committed the better part of my professional career to providing one of the three basic necessities of life, quality housing, to those members of our society who are many times marginalized and omitted from the discourse of the social conscience of politicians both locally and nationally. My career is not the path I thought I would follow after graduating from East Carolina University in 1990, but luckily for me, this profession chose me as much as I chose this profession. One of my proudest moments was when I was contacted by the Puerto Rico Housing Administration and asked to come to Puerto Rico to assist with rebuilding their public housing stock following the damage to the island as a result of Hurricane Maria.” – Marcus Goodson