The Young Planners Network Committee (YPNC) is the Planning Institute of Australia’s explicit commitment to the future of the planning profession. The YPNC is a committee of PIA’s Board of Directors and is comprised of representatives from each state and territory. The committee promotes, supports and represents young planners at a national level.
We asked each of the committee members to share who they are, what they do and one quirky fact about themselves.
Young Planner Director - Brooke Yates
Brooke is the Convenor of the Young Planners Network Committee and the Young Planner Director on the Planning Institute of Australia’s Board of Directors. When not tweeting under her alias @PlanningNerd, Brooke is a strategic planner. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, with experience ranging from project management and high level strategy development, to advising the Deputy Chief Minister and the ACT Government on planning and land development matters. Her ultimate planning fantasy is to be the Chief Planner in New York City or Chicago.
ACT Representative - Charlene Liau
Having suffered an early, early mid-life crisis and realising she no longer could survive on two-minute noodles alone, Charlene set aside her dreams of being an unfit astronaut and embarked on a planning career where she hopes she could do more good than damage (or was that the other way around). She has plodded through life with a range of jobs as an assistant retail valuer, property manager and is now working as a planner for the Australian Government.She can often be found in the Rose Garden taking an afternoon nap, drinking gin while singing along to Evita, loves her PS3 and has just bought 4m of astroturf. Her ultimate planning fantasy involves a micro nation, herrings and perhaps shrubbery.
NSW Representative - Harry Quartermain
Harry is a pommie planner who
has been living and working in Sydney since 2010. Having gained cross sector
experience in London, he has been working in the private sector in Sydney,
predominantly on large infrastructure projects. Harry spent over two
years as the NSW State convenor before taking on the role of NSW National
Representative. His current planning fantasy is to help provide affordable
places to live in Sydney!
NT Representative - Adelle Godfrey
Adelle works in the private sector preparing statutory planning and rezoning applications, policy development, urban and rural subdivision design, and concept planning. Since moving to the NT a few years ago she has discovered a love for bushwalking, waterholes, gin and tonics, 4WDing, the wet season and general exploration of Australia’s Top End. She is passionate about advocating the benefits of higher density living in the right locations, tropical architecture and subdivision design, and the use of landscaping for cooling. Her ultimate planning fantasy is ever-changing but currently involves the introduction of rail transit in Darwin in coordination with infill developments to enable more sustainable living.
QLD Representative - Chris Curtis
Chris is currently working in the private sector, dealing with Sim City in real life - strategic, regional and development assessment planning. At present he is looking intently into the approvals required for large poo-pipe structures in the ground. When not dealing with people's crap, he can usually be found watching the AFL, or googling really bad puns for future NYPNC Facebook posts. His ultimate planning fantasy is to be confirmed, but it will involve being awesome. And having a really nice car. For sales of the un-renowned 'I <3 Goody' t-shirts, please contact him.
SA Representative - Olivia Franco
Olivia is currently working in the private sector after spending several years undertaking development assessment in local government. In her current role, she has worked on a range of projects including developing planning policy, providing strategic advice for both government and private sector clients, undertaking airport master planning, and providing input into a range of transport and health planning projects. Her ultimate planning fantasy is to become an urbanist that somehow involves regular travel to Europe, and to work for EA Games to develop the next update of Sim City.
TAS Representative - Sara Vikstrom
Sara is a Tasmanian in the making who fell in love with our nation's island state over five years ago. With a background in Social and Economic Geography she decided to get some hands-on practical knowledge and pursued a career in planning with the endeavour to save humanity and mother earth. She is a practicing town planner in a planning and urban design consultancy in Hobart where she works to bring joy to the Tasmanian community. When she is not working away she attempts to grow her own vegetables and herbs, though she struggles to keep both mint and parsley alive (blames the Tasmanian climate). She is thankful for all the wine, cheese and produce Tassie has to offer and loves the beauty of the ever changing landscape of Tasmania. Her current planning fantasy is to break the stigma of “high” density housing in Tasmania and to eliminate the curse of unsustainable traffic patterns that so evilly lies over Hobart.
VIC Representative - Tina Ngu
Tina began studying planning to change the world - which she still believes will happen one day. She is an urban designer and strategic planner who tries really hard to make places that are cherished and valued by people. After being in private consulting for 6 years, she recently moved across to local government where she works on policies for planning new areas, existing areas and figuring out highly important stuff like where to draw lines on a map and what font should be used for headings. She likes second hand book stores, pretending to be fit, frozen yoghurt and watching Ted Talks. She is also trying to study a Master of Property in her spare time, but fails to keep up with her readings because numbers make her sleepy. Her ultimate planning fantasy is to do "real-world" planning in developing countries such as Africa, India or Mongolia.
Tina began studying planning to change the world - which she still believes will happen one day. She is an urban designer and strategic planner who tries really hard to make places that are cherished and valued by people. After being in private consulting for 6 years, she recently moved across to local government where she works on policies for planning new areas, existing areas and figuring out highly important stuff like where to draw lines on a map and what font should be used for headings. She likes second hand book stores, pretending to be fit, frozen yoghurt and watching Ted Talks. She is also trying to study a Master of Property in her spare time, but fails to keep up with her readings because numbers make her sleepy. Her ultimate planning fantasy is to do "real-world" planning in developing countries such as Africa, India or Mongolia.
Such an awesome committee!
ReplyDelete