After 20 years of experience as an urban design consultant, government planner and part-time academic, Ruth is a staunch advocate of a non-profit, collaborative approach to achieving urban design excellence.  

"The combination of professional and academic resources in a non-profit organisation like the UDC provides a powerful structure for the kinds of design innovation and research that is necessary to advance the state-of-the-art in urban design.

The private sector is too risk sensitive to experiment; government agencies are constrained by their statutory obligations; and without rigorous practical application, the investigations of the academy may be of only theoretical interest. Put them all together, however, and you get a design practice that stretches the boundaries of convention, within an ethic of public responsibility and pragmatism _ or one that dreams with its eyes wide open."

Before returning to Perth in 2004, Ruth spent six years in Cleveland, Ohio, as Director of a design centre with a similar mission to the UDC, attached to Kent State University.