Before I graduated from high school, my family had the opportunity to live in seven communities in two countries, and every summer was spent traveling to visit extended family and friends across the United States and Canada. Those experiences inspired my curiosity about the broad variety of places that people call home and the shared experiences that these people have within their communities. The process of being transplanted from place to place taught me that every community has worth, and even the toughest environments have their own charm. Thankfully my curiosity was rarely denied, often encouraged, and never resulted in me getting into any big trouble.
That same curiosity leads me to attend McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, for my undergraduate studies, then on to Moscow State University for specialized coursework and an internship in the office of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Following that experience, I realized that I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in urban planning. I enrolled in the Master of Urban Planning program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and worked simultaneously as the City Planner for the City of Greenfield, Wisconsin until graduation. My time in Milwaukee refined my love for neighborhood planning, urban history, and historic architecture, and my growing curiosity in those fields lead me to move to Athens in 1996 to enroll in the Master of Historic Preservation program at the University of Georgia.
Growing up in the South without ever having lived in Georgia, I only had second-hand knowledge of Athens from school friends, neighbors, and countless pop culture references. I arrived with expectations of Athens as a unique place, and what I found was a community filled with stories and a built environment reflective of its layered history. After completing the MHP coursework, I was offered a grant-funded position with the Athens-Clarke County Planning Department in 1998 and that opportunity evolved into a permanent long-range planning position. In 2001, I was named Assistant Director of the Planning Department, and have been fortunate ever since to work with a highly-skilled staff in serving the diverse needs of our growing community.
I have held professional planner positions at the neighborhood, municipal, county, and regional levels since 1992. My experiences have taught me that, even though the planning profession’s primary purpose is to manage change, guiding appropriate community change relies on appreciating the true value of a place. Understanding of a place requires listening to residents, learning their history and hopes for the future, and actively observing everything possible first-hand before taking any action.
