Dear Planning Community:

Warm Greetings from South Texas!  It is my honor to serve as the Chair of the Planning Accreditation Board and APA Public Member Appointee for this coming term. While I am relatively new to the planning world, I will be celebrating my 20^th year of practicing law in 2025, and most recently served as the Mayor of Brownsville, Texas from 2019-2023. I also served as the Historic Preservation and Design Review Board Chair at the city of Brownsville for several years, and as Trustee at Texas Southmost College for 9 years. I trust that my background and experience will serve our board well going into what may be an eventful year.

As many of you know, the PAB spent much of 2024 amending its Standards to better define the goals and expectations placed upon programs of higher learning, while also taking into account the expected challenges to certain core values shared by much of our community at both a state and national level. I wanted to personally thank everyone who provided valuable feedback and input through comments, as well as those who attended our session at the ACSP Conference on November 8, 2024. We feel that the amendments provide much needed flexibility for departments to instill core planning concepts to their students while being sensitive to trending political measures taking place around the country. The PAB supports diversity, equity and inclusion and has proactively worked to protect its value to our community. More information on the standards amendment will be shared in February.

Congratulations to the incoming presidents of APA, AICP and the ACSP. I look forward to continuing to build upon several collaborative efforts this past year and welcome the opportunity to engage in conversations that will streamline the work, success, and membership value of all entities. In the coming months, I look forward to meeting more of our membership at the spring and fall conferences.

Updated January 17, 2025