Winter 2021 Newsletter

• WPD member (and social media maestro) Bethany Bella presented an e-poster at NPC21 that was recognized as one of the top 5 presented at the conference. She also got engaged this year! 
• After a year-long process, WPD Chair, Corrin Wendell, AICP was able to get her city’s first full zoning code rewrite successfully adopted!
• WPD Vice-Chair Melissa Dickens, AICP and team received the 2021 Award of Excellence - Comprehensive Plan, Large Jurisdiction from both APA National’s County Planning Division/ National Association of County Planners and APA Florida for the One Water Chapter update of the Comprehensive Plan for Hillsborough County, Florida!
• WPD Vice-Chair Melissa Dickens, AICP and WPD Director of Programs Katelynn Wintz, AICP launched the Division’s first-ever mentoring initiative. This pilot program connected 50 mentees and mentors for virtual mentoring and conversations.
• Congrats and kudos to WPD mentee, Meagan Booth, for her new position as a Principal Planner with Salt Lake City!
• Kudos to Alissa Barber Torres, FAICP, Ph.D., for her leadership and work on APA Florida’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.  Alissa continues to be a leader and champion for the important topic of EDI around the state of Florida and with national Divisions. Her dedication and efforts earned her the 2021 Distinguished Contribution to the Chapter Award for APA Florida!
• WPD sends a shout out to Heather Croney, AICP-C, and other volunteers leading the Orlando, Florida area’s Women & Planning initiative. This group formed during the early phase of the pandemic and has held regular programming, forums, discussions and virtual/in-person meetups throughout 2021. This initiative sets a great model for local, place-based Women & Planning groups!
• Kaitlyn Kong, a first-year planning student at UC Berkeley, is a recipient of the APA Foundation’s Judith McManus Award and the US DOT Dwight D Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program! In the Spring Semester she'll also start her term as Planning Student Association as Recruitment Chair!
• WPD Director of Communications Caroline Dwyer, AICP was honored to present at both NPC21 and APA-NC virtual conferences. She also co-authored an article on Healthy Cities that was published as a book chapter in March 2021!
• WPD Director of Student Engagement Gillian Hagstrom graduated from the UW's Master of Urban Planning program in June and started work at the City of Kirkland!
• Kudos to Pryia Zachariah, AICP, who has recently been appointed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner as Chief Resilience and Sustainability Officer for the City of Houston!
• Christine Lan, WPD Director of Membership, is proud of the dedication and time everyone on the WPD Executive Committee made to the Division to ensure programs ran smoothly year-round. It has been a different and difficult year and these contributions should be recognized!
• Kudos to Marissa Aho, AICP, who has recently taken the position of Policy Director & Chief Resilience Officer for the State of Washington!
• WPD Treasurer Margaret Wallace Brown, AICP received the 2021 Mosaic Award for a Diversity and Inclusion Integrated Campaign by the American Advertising Federation Tenth District. The campaign was the 2020 US Census Complete Count effort! Margaret was also spotlighted by her alma mater, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. See the spotlight here: https://www.uh.edu/architecture/alumni/spotlights/margaret-wallace-brown/ !!

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!