I am an emerging urban planner and designer with a passion for instilling humanity in our built environments. With unique training in psychology and neuroscience and over a decade of experience in community building through customer service, I balance people’s social needs and innate sense of beauty in my approach to placemaking.

My projects and design philosophy follow three major focus areas:

Design as Resilience

I decided to pursue planning with the belief that changing how we think about our cities is a critical step in addressing climate change. The design of cities affects how we identify with them, how we move through them, and how we connect with each other in them. I take a less is more approach, and think nature is often the best model for designing space.

Related projects:

Bridgeless to Better Burnside

SW College Street

Portland Parks Access Pilot Study

Sustainable Food Systems

Food is a core need for life, a touchstone of culture and community, and too frequently inaccessible in many cities in the US and worldwide. I expand my planning ideas to the regional scale and advocate for urban farming and small-scale gardening to enhance our social fabric.

Related projects:

SNAP Match in Oregon

Portland 20-Minute City

Portland Food Scarcity Profile

Places for Play

With life shifting indoors and work seemingly consuming more of our energies, people need more public space dedicated to free-form play. This is an essential part of life for kids and adults alike. When we can exercise creativity together, we learn to solve problems and appreciate the fun, beautiful things that bring people to cities in the first place.

Related projects:

Happy Valley Back 40 Master Plan

Hollywood Theatre District

SW College Street