As an Urban Planner III for the City of Alexandria, VA (pop. 160K), I help developers and attorneys with projects in the West End navigate the Site Plan Review process from their initial concepts through to decisions by the Planning Commission and City Council. I'm thrilled that I have the opportunity to shape projects to meet the goals of the City's Master Plan, Small Area Plans, Green Buildings Policy, and more.Prior to joining Alexandria, I was the Senior Planner for the City of Lowell, MA (pop. 111K). I managed the three member Development Review Group to ensure that projects headed to the Zoning, Planning, and Conservation Commission met the goals of Sustainable Lowell 2025, the City's master plan, including achieving best practices in urban design.As a former senior manager in a healthcare consulting firm, I have four years of experience managing client relationships and translating complex regulations, public policy and ideas into concise, multimedia formats. My favorite memories as a consultant were when I was able to help clients understand the likely effect of a several hundred page federal regulation on their business soon after its release and configure and reconfigure PowerPoint Slides and other deliverables to present hard data in clear manner that exceeded their expectations. Although the firm provided me continued opportunities to grow, I took a risk and left healthcare consulting to pursue my passion for planning.From September 2016 to September 2017, I lived overseas to pursue a Master's degree in urban and regional planning and to identify and learn from the strengths and weakness of a wide variety of European cities and towns. In classes, I expanded my knowledge of the history, theories, techniques, and software of planning (from GIS to SPSS and SketchUp). Before starting my degree, and ongoing today, I fed my passion for planning by devouring countless articles from urbanist publications, including Strong Towns and City Observatory, and numerous books on urban and transport planning, design and more. I regularly participate in public comment opportunities and I have contributed to the smart growth blog Greater Greater Washington.I completed my Master of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool in September 2017 and I have a BS and BA from American University.
Listed skills include Politics, Research, Public Policy, Blogging, and 22 others.