Congratulations to Silvia E. Vargas, FAICP

On October 1, 2025

The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is the professional institute for APA and oversees professional certification, training and continuing educations. Their election was also recently completed. Silvia E. Vargas, FAICP has been elected as the next AICP Commission President. She is a Principal Planner with Calvin, Giordano & Associates. Silvia and I have known […]

Dallas Leader Elected to APA National Board

On October 1, 2025

The American Planning Association (APA) recently completed its elections for officers. It’s great to see that Emily Liu, FAICP will be serving on the APA Board of Directors in one of the At-Large positions. Emily has had a career studying and working in many places, and last year came to Dallas, where she serves as […]

Kudos to Civity!

On July 18, 2025

Civity is “a national nonprofit organization that works with people to build the relational infrastructure necessary for communities in which everyone has what they need to thrive”. It defines ‘civity’ as “a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different”. By assisting communities and organizations, and training local […]

Anna Broberg and Maptionnaire

On June 5, 2025

Whenever I visit a major foreign city, I try to learn about it from the people who live there. As we were preparing to travel to Finland, I decided to see if I could locate people in Helsinki who could tell me about their city’s planning, design, culture and current challenges. Through APA, I connected […]

Congratulations to the 2024 Fellows!

On April 16, 2024

I was pleased to celebrate with the latest class of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Induction as a Fellow is one of the highest honors a planner can receive. This class has 33 members. Of those, several are friends and colleagues. These include: APA’s website shows the full list of new Fellows. […]

Wow! 75 years!

On July 21, 2021

This year, the Greater Dallas Planning Council is celebrating 75 years of impact on the character and quality of life in this region! A retrospective event on Thursday, July 22nd will be both in person and virtual. Karen is honored to be part of the panel reflecting on the accomplishments of the organizations. Here’s her […]

Bi-annual Workshop explores new ideas

On July 21, 2021

Again this year, Strategic Community Solutions LLC has been asked to work with the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association, Texas Chapter to develop the priorities and action plan for the next two years. These Action Plans are structured to set the priorities for the organization as a new President takes office. This […]

Congratulations to the 2020 AICP Fellows!

On March 26, 2020

I was pleased to see the announcement of this year’s class of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Induction as a Fellow is one of the highest honors a planner can receive. This year’s class has 53 members. The full list of new Fellows is now on the APA website. Of those, several […]

Greater Dallas Planning Council’s 2019 Urban Design Awards

On December 11, 2019

The Greater Dallas Planning Council (GDPC)’s Urban Design reception took place on December 10, 2019. It was held in the historic Dallas High School, an amazing adaptive reuse of the building and now the home of Perkins + Will. A good crowd was on hand to recognize the award winners, congratulate the 2019 GDPC Board […]

People Shaping Places Shaping People