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While growing up in Minneapolis, Minn., Ethan Seltzer knew the bar was set high for him and his three brothers. Their father was a college professor and their mother worked for a research institute at the University of Minnesota. Both parents also were active in community organizations.

“I have really strong memories of my parents doing that when I was a kid, and we just followed their example,” Seltzer said.

Seltzer continues to be a strong believer in community advocacy and is one of Portland’s most well-known proponents. He has served as president of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, the Oregon Environmental Council, the 40-Mile Loop Land Trust and Portland’s Planning Commission.

As the founding director of Portland State University’s Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies and director of its Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Seltzer over the last two decades has been a leading voice in the dialogue about city and regional planning issues. He frequently is invited to speak on the topic throughout North America.

He got a taste of community leadership early on as president of the student senate at Marshall University High School in Minneapolis. He also competed on the tennis and ski teams (his ski team advanced to the state championships).

In 1976, Seltzer earned a biology degree at Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Melanie Plaut. They moved to Philadelphia after graduation, and she went to medical school while Seltzer worked in a biophysics lab.

“After doing that for about a year, I wanted something with a little more contact with people. I was working mostly with South American toads at minus 20 degrees centigrade,” he said.

He entered the graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania and, in 1979, earned a master’s in regional planning. Seltzer also holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from Penn.

He and Plaut, now parents to two adult daughters, moved to Oregon in 1980. Seltzer volunteered for the Oregon Environmental Council, and helped create a statewide water inspection system.

“Oregon was one of four states at the time that didn’t have a program, and we had a high incidence of waterborne diseases,” he said.

When the project was completed a year later, Seltzer joined Metro to resurrect water quality evaluations at Johnson Creek and complete a federal water quality planning grant. He became assistant director of Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition in late 1982, and began working with former Portland City Commissioner Mike Lindberg.

“That was a fantastic experience and I learned a lot. He had a really clear sense of public service and what Portland could be. Seeing both of those things in action every day was a real education,” he said.

Seltzer returned to Metro briefly as a land-use supervisor, then joined PSU in 1992 and has been a professor and guiding force there ever since. He said that over the years he has crafted a life philosophy that is twofold.

“One piece is that you’ve got to do something you absolutely love because when the chips are down that’s basically all you’ve got. The second is that good friends are indispensable.”

Who was a mentor who helped shape you into the person you are today? What did that person teach you?

“Mike Lindberg and Portland State University Dean Emeritus Dr. Nohad Toulan have been an important part of all this, as well as friends and family. One of the things I really like about Portland is the sense of possibility, and that a couple of people getting together can have an impact. Friends, family and my wife, in particular, have been encouraging collaborators.”

Tell us something about yourself that most people might not know.

“I’ve played the accordion for about seven or eight years.”