Tag: Meet Our CSC Alumni

Meet our Alumni: Thomas Brennan

Posted on by Admin

Meet our Alumni: Thomas Brennan

Current City:  Portland, OR  

What Community Service Center program(s) did you work with?

Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE)

Community Planning Workshop (CPW)

What year(s) were you affiliated with the CSC?

1997- 2000

My most memorable experience or greatest accomplishment at the Community Service Center and its programs was…:

I was a Community Planning Workshop Graduate Teaching Fellow I helped create a recycling business plan for a small city in Oregon. It was a fun process to watch over the years, I got to see the plan implemented and its growth as I periodically checked in. We also help helped organize the Gorge Games around that time and got to see Ben Haper perform and hang out with him backstage – a perk of volunteering.

The most critical skill(s) I learned from being engaged in CSC programs are/is….:

The Community Planning Workshop is great lesson in project management and team building. I was a Graduate Teaching Fellow and I managed a project throughout my time there. It was an intimidating process, I had very qualified individuals on my team including a Japanese government official, a student who had 10 years of engineering experience, and a number of other students pursuing planning as a second career. I have found that the lessons I learned in writing proposals, quality control, and other skills have been very useful in private practice.

What was your first job after engaging with the CSC, with what organization and where?

My first job is the one I have now. I am a partial owner of Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates a national firm specializing in sustainable transportation planning. I manage the firm’s Portland office, and have over 13 years of experience in transportation planning. My clients include a broad range of public sector, private company, and non-profit groups. I have built on my special expertise in transit service design and policy, parking management, Transportation Demand Management, and strategic transportation planning. I have led many of the firms largest transit system planning and multimodal transportation planning projects.

What professional organizations do you belong to?

American Public Transportation Association

What advice would you give someone just entering this field?

Take the time to figure out what work styles and challenges will make you happy in a career.  Working as a planner in the private and public sector can be very different.  Both have pros and cons.   I’ve found that I enjoy the hard push, freedom to think boldly, and diversity of having a national consulting practice.  While I love traveling and the challenge of quickly learning the ins and outs of a new city, its transportation systems, and its politics, traveling can be challenging and disruptive to life at home.

Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Nelson\Nygaard was founded in 1987 as a partnership by two former San Francisco Municipal Railway managers, Bonnie Nelson and Diane Nygaard.  Together, they believed it was possible to create a transportation-planning firm that fosters a fun, egalitarian and creative work environment, and that provides high quality, principled work for its clients. Starting in Diane’s basement, their company has grown to over 80 planners and engineers, with offices across the United States and a work base that covers five continents.

Sustainability has been at the core of our corporate values from day one, and that our emphasis on sustainability includes not only the work we do for our clients, but also how we run the company.   With people, commerce, and vitality returning to urban cores in cities around the nation, our work has become more relevant than ever.  Denser urban places require transportation solutions other than the private automobile; helping cities solve these challenges is what we do every day.

More about the Community Planning Workshop(CPW)

 

Meet our Alumni and Partner: Brett Holt

Posted on by Admin

Meet our Alumni: Brett Holt

 Current City:

Seattle, WA

What Community Service Center program (CSC) did you work with?

Community Planning Workshop (CPW)

What year(s) were you affiliated with the CSC?

2006-2008

My most memorable experience or greatest accomplishment at the Community Service Center and its programs was…:

I was part of a project working  on  the Tillamook County’s Strategic Vision , my time with this project went beyond two terms and I was able to work side by side with the Community Planning Workshop Program Director, Bob Parker . This was the first time that I had been in the “hot seat” in terms of presenting and public speaking with local communities, I had to learn to listen to the needs of the community and be able to access their viewpoints. I presented in front of varying audiences from homeowners to the younger generation who were present with various concerns about how this plan could affect their community. In the end, it was great to have a collaborative product as an end result and to see it implemented.

The most critical skill(s) I learned from being engaged in CSC programs are/is….:

The most critical skill for me was communications. This could be both oral and written communication and CPW offered many opportunities to enhance these skills throughout the life of the project. I learned how to hear and understand what the stakeholders were saying and  try to put myself in their position  to understand their circumstances.

With my current position at FEMA, needs are different around the  region from Alaska to Idaho you need to try to relate as a planner, do research, understand perspective, and listen. The CSC experience was really good in getting you ready to became a leader in project management including student management, delegating work, meeting deadlines, and learning the components of public speaking and engaging with the communities.

What was your first job after engaging with the CSC, with what organization and where?

I worked for MIG, a Portland planning firm, for a year doing parks, recreation, and natural resource planning . I was an associate planner and worked with a variety of jurisdictions in Oregon and California. .

Who is your current employer and whats your current position/title/role? What do you do in your position?

Currently working at FEMA, I am a mitigation planner offering technical assistance to communities and states in safe community-building practices. I advocate for good planning but I also have to enforce federal regulations to ensure incoming natural hazard mitigation plans meet federal requirements.   The mitigation plans address a communities vulnerabilities to natural hazards and strategies to reduce their vulnerabilities. My role and work is diverse in nature from working on site after Hurricane Sandy to the mentioned regulation procedures and mitigation plans.

What professional organizations do you belong to?

The Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association is an organization of people with an interest in land use, housing, transportation, environmental, economic and social planning. Among others, our membership includes citizen planners, planning commissioners and other planning officials, and professional planners within the State of Washington and elsewhere.

http://www.washington-apa.org

What advice would you give someone just entering this field?

Planning is a diverse profession,  this program can make you employable in many careers, do not be closed minded or too set on one thing, examine how your skill set can be useful. I have learned from my past experiences that I am multifaceted, I can go anywhere professionally and the Community Service Center was a component of that realization.

Resources:

Find out more about Brett Holt at Linkedin.

FEMA Mitigation Planning Program: http://www.fema.gov/multi-hazard-mitigation-planning

More about the Community Planning Workshop(CPW)