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President’s Corner | Chad Eiken, AICP 

Annual Report Published
Every year we are required to publish an Annual Report which summarizes key events and accomplishments from the previous year, and our 2024 Annual Report is now available via our Chapter website. I encourage you to take a look at the highlights here: 2024 Annual Report I’m proud of the great work by our Board, Committees, Sections and office staff to advance planning and support our members throughout the state!

Announcing New Chair of APA WA’s Indigenous Committee
I’m excited to announce that I have appointed Bridget Ray as our new Chair of the Chapter’s Indigenous Committee and she is already bringing a high level of energy and enthusiasm for finding ways that APA WA can connect with tribes and tribal planners.
Bridget (Ojibwe/michif) is well-positioned to lead the Indigenous Committee. In her day job, Bridget serves as the Tribal Planning Coordination Manager (a.k.a. Tribal Planning Liaison) in the Growth Management Services Unit at Washington State Department of Commerce where she is responsible for the policy implementation of the tribal coordination requirements of the Growth Management Act (GMA). Bridget works with tribes and local governments on comp plan collaboration and GMA implementation. She also supports building capacity and resources for tribal planners such as the quarterly online Tribal Planners’ Forum and frequently states, “Tribal Planning is awesome AND amazing!”.

Bridget has over two decades of experience working with tribes and Native communities in the Pacific Northwest Region focusing mostly on sustainable integrated green infrastructure and environmental planning. She serves on the Board of the Na’ah Illahee Fund and is an active planner/participant in the annual Tribal Canoe Journey. When she is not working, Bridget spends her time reading, making traditional medicines and exploring the Salish Sea. Welcome to the Board Bridget!

 

National Planning Conference Reflections
NPC25 in Denver from 3/29-4/1 was in my opinion arguably the best national planning conference I have attended and I was pleased that so many planners from Washington State were able to attend. To put it succinctly, Denver delivered! The sessions I attended were thought-provoking and relevant to many of the issues we face in our communities such as solutions to the supply and affordability of housing, equity and equitable outcomes, emerging technologies, innovations in transportation, and insights into how generations view the workplace differently, just to name a handful. There were also numerous sessions (and a keynote address) about how we as planners can maintain our own resilience in this time of great uncertainty (particularly at the federal level). Sue Schwartz, FAICP and current APA President, gave a moving talk about how planners are perhaps best-positioned to help others navigate through times of uncertainty -  it's what we're trained to do and what our communities depend on us for! She encouraged all planners to take care of our own well-being as we tackle these important but difficult issues. A large contingent of Western Washington planning students were in attendance which was great to see (several students received travel grants from the Chapter in addition to a separate fund-raising effort) and a number of presenters at the conference were planners from our Chapter. On Sunday evening APA WA hosted a social event for all Washington planners at a nearby pub, and food was generously provided by several sponsors: MAKERS, Psomas, Uncommon Bridges, and Nexus Planning Services. Next year's conference will be in Detroit, so mark your calendars and I hope to see you there.

 

Volunteers Still Needed

We accomplished a lot in 2024, and with your help, we can do even more in 2025. Many of our Committees are seeking committee members, including Communications, Indigenous, Membership, and Sponsorship Committees (which also needs a chair). If you are interested in serving on these or any other committee, please drop the APA Office a note at [email protected], and they’ll get you plugged in.