President's Message - Hello, Everyone
Hello, everyone!
As an introduction, I have just started my term as President of Western Planner this year, taking over from Dan Pava. I have been involved with Western Planner for about six years, and I love the progress we have made in sharing resources and networking with planners in the West. Thank you to Dan for all the work he has done not just in the last two years, but in the many years he has been involved in Western Planner. He is a dedicated volunteer and we appreciate everything he has done. Also, congratulations to Dan on his retirement last year.
While I am extending well wishes, I would like to congratulate the Western Planner 2020 award winners. We had some really great submissions and it was difficult to choose between them all! Here is a list of the winners:
Planner of the Year Award
Joe Dills, Angelo Planning Group
Rural Innovation Award
Uniquely Driggs Comprehensive Plan; Driggs, Idaho
Sheldon Gerber Award
Waverly Klaw, AICP, Program Director with Sonoran Institute
Citizen Planner Award
Andrew Kjellman, AICP, PTP, Manager Transportation Planning, Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Steadman People’s Choice Award
Land Use and Environmental Planning: History and Context by Dan Pava
Planning Team of the Year
City of Cheyenne Planning & Development Department
President’s Award
Laura Paskus, Environmental Journalist
Lester Award
Sherwin Racehorse & Shelly Wade
for their hard work facing the challenges of establishing the Tribal Interest Group of APA
All of our winners are being interviewed with videos posted in the next month or so—we look forward to hearing more about their great projects. Submission information for our 2021 awards will be announced soon, and those will be awarded at our annual conference.
Speaking of conferences, Western Planner is looking forward to participating with Arizona in the Western States Conference, to be held in the Phoenix area in August of this year. Look for more details on our website and in this and future e-newsletters. We look forward to meeting in person again!
Thank you to all of our board members, including our editorial board, for the work they do to provide articles for our newsletter. If you haven’t noticed, we have tried to have a theme for each month. We welcome articles from anyone, so please contact us if you are working on a project that you would like to highlight with an article! We also couldn’t have such a great network of planners without our readers! Please visit our website and donate so that we can continue to provide relevant content and information in our newsletters, and networking opportunities through Zoom meetings and in-person conferences. Thank you everyone!
Angela Parker
President
Western Planning Resources Inc. (WPR).