Featured Planner: Dee Caputo, FAICP

Dee Caputo, FAICP is serving as an at-large member of the Western Planner Resources board.

Dee Caputo, FAICP (right) with friends at a Western Planner conference

Describe your current job or what you’re engaged at doing?

As of mid-2017, I retired from professional practice. I’ve remained involved in planning from the late 1980’s till now. As of 2020, I serve as the chair of APA WA-Chapter’s Planning Officials Development Committee (PODC), and by default as chair, the chapter’s Planning Official Development Officer (PODO).

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up? How did you get into planning?

Throughout my life, I wanted to be a great parent, support my family, travel and enjoy the Great Outdoors and CAMP. I also chose to embrace education as a way of life; I remain prepared to make daily investments.

I love to camp, especially with my children. While camping in college, I saw firsthand the massive harvests on forest lands and wanted to learn more so I could do something. Originally, I thought to pursue a career in resource conservation and management. However, my professor Ralph Lewis suggested planning instead. Given my predilection for open spaces and rural areas, I pushed back thinking that planning was only an urban practice. Fortunately, I discovered that planning is broad and wide and inclusive of so many interests—urban or rural. And I still love camping!

Describe a mentor or someone you admire that has had an impact on your career.

I acknowledge and appreciate Sister Mary Aquin from 8th grade at St. John’s Elementary School and 9th/10th grades at Sienna High School, both located in Napa, CA, for instilling a deep sense of personal competence in me regarding my educational (and other) endeavors. Barbara Laslett from Berkeley Alternative High School taught me the meaning of being safe and well-cared for, while she inspired me to aim for academic achievements beyond my young imagination. Several instructors from Skagit Valley Community College (SVCC) helped me to regain scholastic confidence when I returned to school after a long absence (I attended two years of High School before leaving home).

The major person who steered me into the arms of planning (through geography) was Ralph Lewis at Eastern Oregon State College (EOSC - now renamed Eastern Oregon University, EOW). Lois Moon, also an instructor at EOSC, did her fair share of successfully snaring me into planning. Abby Byrne, professor-adjunct at Eastern Washington University (EWU), advocated for my academic and professional planning successes by providing her unwavering support and friendship. Leonard Bauer, FAICP, former Managing Director for Growth Management Services at Washington State and the ‘boss’ of our planning unit, supported my volunteer and professional work while at Commerce, and was incredibly instrumental in helping to guide me through the FAICP application process. Another FAICP team member rooting for me to succeed was Fred Hurand, my former prof from EWU who recommended that I apply for my first planning position at Adams County, fresh out of college with my Masters—that opportunity became the genesis of my planning career in Washington State.

Two other individuals were significant to my career; both continue to be my friends. Ron Faas, former editor for the Western Planner Journal; chair of the WPR editorial board; editor of the PAW Newsletter, and board member for both the WPR and PAW, bequeathed his entire legacy to me. I continued to serve as his successor for nearly two decades as a committed volunteer. Joanne Garnet, former WPR president, and so much more, now heavily involved with APA National, including on their FAICP board, recruited me to become involved with WPR by inviting me to write an article for the Journal on the heels of a survey to which I admitted I might agree.

It’s worth noting: Abby, Fred and Ron were all involved on the ground floor in helping to create and foster the PAW and WPR—I came immediately after them, standing on the shoulders of those tireless giants.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in their career? What do you wish you’d have known when you were starting out?

Never Give Up! Always be kind and respectful. Plenty of people will cross your path—more than you can even imagine (I imagined my eventual career as a sole cartographer in the back room, leaning over the glass on a light table trying to squint and squirm maps into existence; I truly failed to anticipate the digital age). Some will become the bane of your existence—temporary—while others will become lifelong friends and compatriots. Expect to make a positive difference in the world—it’s your right and your obligation. Who knows how hefty it will all turn out? Life will surprise you, if you let it, by forming an enormous, composite picture derived from all those tiny gestures to which you agreed to engage over a lifetime. Aim High! Look Up! And Keep an Open Mind. I got what I needed at my start up: thank you to all those people I mentioned, and many more!

Why do you belong to the Western Planner? Why is the Western Planner valuable to you as a planner? Why did you decide to serve on the board?

The Western Planner dynamic is based on ‘belonging,’ much like family. It is a family; to quote one of my committee members from a recent Zoom meeting, we are “a family of families.” As such, it is a valuable source for social connection, educational support and it provides tremendous opportunities for each of us to help make a positive difference in the world.

In addition to feeling like I’ve decided to come ‘home,’ I also recognize and cherish certain reliable networking options. I hope that my WPR involvement provides uplift and value to WPR, APA and the PODC, and especially, for the Public who are the crux all of our planning endeavors.

What’s something in particular or interesting about yourself?

I am complex yet simple, a true paradox in my own mind. I love my family, I love life, and I try to fill mine with lots of interesting options. I take a lot of photos—documentation! I appreciate art, science, history, the future (and the stars which are BOTH history and the future!). I like to get into EVERYTHING. I particularly frown on bullies. We should all have the right and allowance to feel this way about life. Planning provides a fundamental pathway to achieving this goal.

About Dee:

Dee’s more than 25 years of public service included providing technical and financial assistance to local governments throughout Washington to help them achieve compliance with the state’s Growth Management Act. She helped foster local, state and regional planning knowledge by investing in professional and voluntary educational programs designed to support effective planning, in cooperation with Washington State Department of Commerce, the Planning Association of Washington, the American Planning Association and Western Planning Resources, Inc. Currently, she chairs the WA-Chapter APA's Planning Officials Development Committee as the Planning Officials Development Officer to provide access to training, education and support opportunities for elected and appointed planning officials.