Suzanne Morse Moomaw has spent the last three decades observing communities through social, design, and political lens at local, regional, national, and international scales. Her teaching in community economic development challenges students to consider possibilities and create transdisciplinary solutions to the “wicked” problems facing civilization. She involves students--both in and out of the classroom--in wrestling with the systemic causes of issues such as poverty, racial inequities, economic restructuring, and housing patterns through historical and cultural frames.

Her primary courses are Housing and Community Development, Economic Development, Advanced Housing Seminar, and the Neighborhood Planning Studio. The studio gives students the opportunity to use their knowledge of planning and design to reimagine "place” in collaboration with a community partner. Over the years, students have designed a dedicated service center for public housing developments, addressed the challenges of increasing jobs in low-to-middle income neighborhoods, and proposed scenarios for better connecting neighborhoods in cities reeling from economic downturns. She founded and co-teaches the Sustainable Europe program in Switzerland, Italy, and Germany offered during Summer Sessions.