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What I Do

I am a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). From January 2002 until August 2018 I was primarily a self employed planning consultant working with communities across New York State developing comprehensive plans, zoning laws, and other land use policies. In August 2016 I began teaching as an adjunct at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Looking for a change from the “always on” lifestyle of self-employment, I began working for Columbia County in August 2018 as the senior planner in their Planning Department. Most of my work in the planning department involves the development and maintenance of our Geographic Information System (GIS)

To put it simply:

Geography is the study of the Earth – its natural environment and the humans that inhabit it.
Planning is a subset of geography.
The goal of planning is to provide a healthy, safe, and prosperous place for people to live.

Planners study the details of the natural environment and human activity, and analyze the relationship between the two.
GIS is the primary tool planners use to collect, store, analyze, and visualize the data used for studying that human/environmental interaction.