Women's History Month - Programs and Events!

In the wake of the pandemic, emerging work culture focuses on the power of infusing leadership with empathy. Empathy leaves space for genuine emotion at work and humanizes the workforce. The panelists will discuss their unique leadership styles and how engaging empathetically can strengthen relationships and the organization.

Presented in collaboration with APA Career Services and APA Women & Planning Division.

Panelists:

Katelynn Wintz, PP, AICP

Katelynn Wintz, PP, AICP (she/her) is a Planning Supervisor for the City of Colorado Springs Department of Planning & Development. Katelynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Ramapo College and a Master of Arts in Geography from West Chester University. She has 9 years of experience in the public sector specializing in development review and long-range planning. Although she focuses on development review at work, her passion for planning includes areas of interest ranging from comprehensive planning, bike/ped safety, affordable housing, food systems, and the intersections of gender and planning.  Katelynn volunteers on the Executive Board of APA’s Women & Planning Division as the Director of Programs and with APA Colorado as the South Central Area Representative.

Corrin Wendell, AICP

Corrin Hoegen Wendell, AICP, is the Director of Community Development & Planning for the City of Little Canada, Past-Chair of the APA Women & Planning Division, and the Founder and Executive Director of YEP! Youth Engagement Planning. A practicing planner with extensive experience providing planning, architectural, and research services, Corrin's specialties include regional planning, land use, zoning administration, community engagement, and urban design. Corrin holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Masters of City and Regional Planning from the Ohio State University as well as holds the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) national certification. Corrin is passionate about giving back to the planning community and serves as Chair of the Executive Board for the Women & Planning Division, various involvement in the APA Minnesota Chapter including member of the Women in Planning Committee and an ex-officio member as the Youth Engagement Planning Coordinator. She also serves as an AICP (CPE) Certified Planning Exam Contributor, APA National Planning Conference Session Proposal Reviewer, AICP Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) Site Visitor, Peer Reviewer for the Journal of Planning Education and Research, and a mentor to planning students and young professionals from the Ohio State University and APA.

Chloé Greene

Chloé Greene is a racial equity consultant and historian of racism with over ten years of experience in qualitative research and analysis and over six years of experience in housing and homelessness. She most recently worked as an EDI Associate at Abt Associates where she led efforts to embed racial equity principles and methods into their research, technical assistance, and evaluation practices; and partnered with divisions and departments on corporate wide EDI initiatives to deepen the company’s commitment to anti-racism, racial equity, and social justice. She currently serves on the Department of Housing and Urban Development TA Racial Equity Team, working alongside a core team of technical assistance providers to develop training and tools to better support communities in developing equitable strategies to end homelessness.

Ms. Greene is the founder of Chloé Greene Consulting where she specializes in the following: organizational change management and strategic planning, housing and homeless systems transformation and racial equity and liberatory workshops, all with the intention to support communities and organizations to shift from ahistorical approaches to healing centered, anti-racist methods that lead to reimagining and transformation. Her career reflects a commitment to solving complex challenges facing Black and Brown communities and amplifying marginalized voices. She earned a dual Masters from The Ohio State University in City and Regional Planning and African American and African Studies and her undergraduate degree in African American Studies and History from the University of South Carolina.

Silvia Vargas, FAICP

Silvia is an experienced planning leader with nearly 30 years of professional work in the US and abroad. She started her career in as a development review planner in Monroe County, FL, later becoming the County's Parks and Recreation Planner. Silvia subsequently transitioned to the private sector, progressing to a senior leadership position within the planning practice at WRT Planning & Design before becoming an independent consultant. She is now a Principal Planner at Calvin, Giordano & Associates (CGA). Over her career, Silvia has led a wide range of project types and project scales, becoming increasingly focused on  equity and inclusiveness. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards and speaking opportunities. Silvia earned her Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and her Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Kansas (KU). Silvia serves on the Advisory Board for the KU School of Public Affairs & Administration. Currently, Silvia is a Director at Large on APA's Board of Directors and chairs APA's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She previously served on the AICP Commission. Silvia is a member of ULI’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and has served as an expert to The American Architectural Foundation's Sustainable Cities Academy.  

This panel examines the role of planning in creating and maintaining gender divides in urban spaces in the United States. Despite the changing gender roles and crucial contributions of feminist planning scholarship, incorporating gendered perspectives into planning practices remains limited and tentative.

Planning in the United States claims to be neutral, but in practice, it targets a small segment of the population and pays inadequate attention to women’s needs. According to national surveys in 2014 and 2019, the proportion of communities which said they address women’s needs in their comprehensive plans increased from 2% to 12%. But how are women’s needs being addressed in plans?  We review 80 comprehensive plans from communities that responded to the survey. We identify potential planning interventions that would help create a more gender-responsive environment. We use Natural Language Processing to identify two groups of keywords regarding identities (female, child, senior, etc.) and planning elements (housing, land use, transportation, etc) and how they are used in the 80 comprehensive plans. Results reveal that “neutral is not neutral” as women are mentioned the least among all identities, less than family, child, elderly, or even poverty and race.

While women’s needs might be addressed indirectly through aging or care provider concerns, the unique needs of women as individuals are not. Comprehensive plans need to be updated to address new concepts such as trip chaining and complete streets, and give attention to safety and care concerns unique to women.

Chun Xu

Chun Xu is a recent graduate from Cornell University, with a master’s degree of Regional Planning and minor in Real Estate. Currently she works as a transportation planning consultant in Miami, FL.

When studying at Cornell, Chun was a fellow of the Cornell Women Leaders in Sustainability Fellowship Program, where she coordinated the Cornell Living Laboratory for Sustainability project, established a website for sharing living lab projects, campus resources and innovative pilots, in order to facilitate Cornell carbon neutrality and SDG goals.  

With strong interests in sustainable development, she took environment and equity into consideration together with economic development. Last summer, Chun presented a student group’s research “Invisible Women in Comprehensive Plans” virtually at the 2022 APA National Planning Conference, and we received over 500 views countrywide. She also did sustainability related research about “Bike-friendly Streets in Ithaca, NY” as her master’s thesis, and she continued working in the transportation planning field after graduation.

Yu Wang

Yu Wang is a master’s student studying regional science at Cornell University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Urban-Rural Planning from Wuhan University, China. Her research agenda focuses on social justice, immigrant communities, and gender-inclusive planning. Yu is currently involved with projects examining factors affecting the wellbeing of marginalized groups and shaping spatial inequality. Her recent research explores the effects of housing tenures on migrants’ social integration, which incorporates an intersectional feminist lens; the paper has been accepted by the Geoforum. Yu is also interested in planning theory and hopes to build vocabularies rooted in the East Asian context. Her research poster, Shiny Objects, Galaxies, and Bodies of Planning Theory, won the 2022 ACSP Best Poster Award. 

Yu was the former president of Cornell’s Women Planning Forum. During her tenure, she co-organized five panels to discuss gender issues in urban planning and to celebrate women planners’ contributions to urban development.