Assembled by Hazel (Haeseo) Choi, associate editor.
Shannon Allen, AICP, is now Principal Planner with Good City Company. She has more than 20 years of professional land use and environmental planning experience spanning the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to joining the firm, Allen had been the principal planner with the City of Berkeley for seven years, 2014-2021. She was also a principal with LSA Associates for 11 years, 2003-2014, and an associate manager at EIP Associates, 2000-2003. Allen holds a master of planning from the University of Minnesota and a BA in environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz. You can read more about her in Northern News, November 2018, page 9, http://bit.ly/2NQ23Up.
Gaspare Annibale has joined the City of Dublin as an Associate Planner. He had been an associate planner with the City of South San Francisco and an assistant planner for the City of Sacramento. Before coming to the Bay Area, Annibale worked for the City of Mississauga (Ontario, Canada) from 2016-2018 as a planning associate leading development of the city’s middle-income housing strategy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario.
Reena Brilliot has been promoted to Assistant Director of Community Development at the City of Santa Clara where she has worked since 2018 as the planning manager. She previously worked for the City of San Jose in the City Manager’s Office of Economic Development, Environmental Services Department, and Department of Planning, Building & Code Enforcement. Brilliot holds a master of city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s in international/intercultural studies from Pitzer College.
Regina Celestin Williams has been named the next Executive Director of Silicon Valley at Home. Her first day as SV@Home Executive Director will be November 15. Celestin Williams most recently served as Director of Housing Development at First Community Housing, a San José-based affordable housing developer. She earlier was a member of the National Development Council’s East Team, providing housing and economic development consulting services to several East Coast municipalities and leading NDC’s green initiatives. Celestin Williams serves on the board of the Richmond, California, Local Action in Neighborhood Development community organization and is a Silicon Valley Next Fellow. She holds a master of city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in urban studies from Stanford University. Celestin Williams has also officiated professional tennis at WTA and ATP tournaments and at juniors and collegiate matches on both coasts.
Erin Morris, AICP, is now Community Development Director for the City of Vacaville. Before joining Vacaville, she was manager for the Planning and Code Enforcement Division of the City of Napa since 2017. Morris also worked for the City of Santa Rosa as a senior planner for 10 years, and for the City of San Jose for six years. She has more than 20 years of land use permitting, planning, and public policy experience with various cities. Morris holds a BA in liberal studies from Sonoma State University and completed master of urban and regional planning coursework at San Jose State University. She lives in Napa with her husband and teenage daughters and is an avid walker.
Mayank Patel is now an Associate Planner with the City of Dublin. He had been an associate planner with the City of Newark and a senior planner at the City of Orinda before that, where he worked on the Downtown Precise Plan, 2015-2020. Before entering municipal planning in 2015, he was an urban designer at PlaceWorks for four years. He holds a master of urban and regional planning from UC Irvine and a BS in landscape architecture from UC Davis.
Allison Schuster is now an Assistant Planner with the City of Dublin. She was previously a planner II with the City of San Jose for two years, from 2019-2021, where she was a member of the Citywide Urban Village planning team. Prior to working for San Jose, Schuster managed several federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant-funded programs for affordable housing and homelessness as a planner I, and was the program manager for Continuum of Care for the County of San Luis Obispo from 2017-2019. She holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Cal Poly–San Luis Obispo, and a BA in geography from Sonoma State University.
Laura Shipman has joined SPUR as Community Planning Policy Director. She was previously the director of community development and planning with One Treasure Island, where she advocated for community facilities, retail, housing, and transportation options and promoted community building and cohesion among the residents. Before that, Shipman was a planner coordinator and urban designer with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and an urban designer and planner with MIG before that. She holds a master of architecture in urban design from Harvard University, and a bachelor of architecture from Cornell University.
Nick Towstopiat is now Assistant Project Manager at David J. Powers. He had been an assistant planner with the County of Santa Clara and a planner for Shums Coda Associates, Pleasanton, before that. Towstopiat has a master of urban planning from San Jose State University and a BA in environmental studies from UC Santa Barbara.
Stephen Tu, AICP, is now Northern California Engagement Manager for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. He had been director of transportation policy with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group for two years, 2019-2021, and a planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission before that. Tu holds a master’s degree in public policy from The George Washington University and a BS in biological sciences and political science from the University of the Pacific.
Julie (Hawkins) Wyrick, AICP, is now Director of Campus Planning and Development for CSU Monterey Bay. Previously, she worked for the City of Gilroy, most recently as the customer services manager, 2019-2021. Before that, Wyrick was senior educational facilities planner at UC Santa Cruz and a campus planner at Cal Poly–San Luis Obispo. She has a professional certificate in construction management, a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Cal Poly–San Luis Obispo, and a BS in environmental studies from UC Santa Barbara.