Joanna Winter, AICP

Joanna is a principal planner at the City of Oakland leading long-range planning projects such as the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan and the current phase of the Oakland General Plan Update. Since she was little, she wanted to be an interior designer, an architect, and a cohousing designer, and finally settled on designing places and policy at the city level. She wants everyone to have the option to live in a community where they feel safe, connected, valued and joyful, and have everything they need to thrive.

Joanna has a Master of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, a B.A. in Liberal Arts with a Sociology major from Grinnell College, and over twenty years of experience across the public sector, consulting and nonprofits. She has sat on the board of the Northern California Land Trust, helped found the Napa Local Food Advisory Council, and led her department's racial equity team for several years.

She hopes to help mid-career professionals (including herself!) connect and build their strengths so the upcoming class of experienced leaders in the field will be confident, diverse, compassionate and skilled in planning for exciting times.