Jeff Fugate is an Associate Professor of Extension and Program Director for the Urban & Environmental Design Program at the University of Kentucky’s School of Architecture.

Fugate has been appointed the inaugural director of the Urban & Environmental Design graduate program. In the spirit of the university’s Land-Grant mission, Fugate is cultivating a community-facing Urban Design program grounded in scholarship and practice. He co-leads the ongoing outreach projects Studio Louisville and Studio Appalachia. His current work applies community-engaged design solutions to contemporary social and climate-related challenges. Recently, Fugate secured seed funding to launch a Sustainable Housing Initiative within Cooperative Extension.

A city planner and urban designer by training, Fugate has a two-decade career in community and economic development prior to academia. With experience in both urban and rural settings, he has built affordable housing, undertaken adaptive reuse projects, operationalized mission-based investment funds, and led the former Lexington Downtown Development Authority (LDDA). During his time at the LDDA, Fugate successfully funded and implemented multiple public space projects, garnering national media coverage in CityLab, Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Architects Newspaper, Curbed.com, and NextCity.com.

In addition to his duties at the University, Fugate serves as Chair for the Lexington Affordable Housing Fund and Vice-Chair for the Fayette County Industrial Authority. He is also an advisory member of the Fund for Greater Lexington.

Fugate has a B.A. from the University of Kentucky in Geography and graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in City Planning and Architectural Studies.