Our Staff

Jennifer Allen        resume
Planner
Prior to Alta, Jennifer worked as a policy associate at Livable Places, an advocacy organization working to establish policies that create more affordable housing, transportation options, and better public spaces in Los Angeles. Jennifer coordinated community planning efforts such as the "Making the Connections" bicycle and pedestrian plan and Westlake Walkabout; she also led the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles and Planning for Justice coalitions. Jennifer joined the Alta team in 2008. Her experience includes community-based planning, project management, and workshop facilitation.

Michael G. Jones        resume
Principal
Michael Jones has managed more than 200 studies since 1985, ranging from major national, state, and regional plans to corridor studies to plans for small towns. Mr. Jones is a nationally-recognized expert in bicycle, pedestrian, and trail planning and design, as well as in financial analysis, and transportation and parking management. He has developed innovative methodologies and models for topics such as bicycle demand, GIS-linked roadway suitability, and shared-use parking. He has presented to and been published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

Brett Hondorp        resume
Principal
Brett Hondorp has over 10 years of non-motorized transportation and environmental planning experience. In addition to his work developing dozens of bicycle, pedestrian and trail plans and feasibility studies, Brett is a leading national Safe Routes to School (SR2S) expert. He has worked on a wide range of SR2S projects from coast to coast, including leading walking audits, developing engineering improvement plans, preparing grant applications, creating walking route maps, and managing strategic SR2S funding and implementation programs. As a Safe Routes to School National Course instructor, Brett has taught numerous SR2S trainings attended by local agency staff, advocates, and community leaders. Brett is an avid bicycle commuter and a competitive road, mountain, and cyclocross racer who helps manage a prominent Bay Area cycling team.

George Hudson        resume
Principal
Mr. Hudson is one of the leading trail and bikeway designers in the Western United States. He has worked exclusively on alternative transportation projects for the past 12 years. He has acquired rights-of-way, master planned over 200 miles of alternative transportation routes, secured in excess of $10 million dollars for development projects, facilitated public processes on over 25 projects, addressed endangered species issues in conjunction with development projects, successfully negotiated trail rights with railroads, and overseen $35 million dollars of construction. Mr. Hudson has a proven record of accomplishment on complex projects requiring a multi-disciplinary team approach. His experience has ranged from major urban waterfront esplanades to earthen hiking and ski trails in the national forest.

Mia Birk        resume
Principal
Mia Birk has 16 years experience in the transportation field, focused exclusively on energy-efficient and environmentally-sensitive planning, design, and implementation. She is an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University, teaching Pedestrian and Bicycle Issues for Masters’ students in urban planning. She has developed over 60 bicycle, pedestrian, trail, and corridor plans, and has managed the public process, design, and implementation of over 300 miles of new walkway, trail, and bikeway improvements. She is a nationally-recognized author and speaker on pedestrian and bicycle issues, including Main Street design, traffic calming, context sensitive design, and safe routes to school.

Jeff Olson        resume
Principal
Jeff Olson is a registered architect and recognized as one of the leading experts in the country in the area of trail and bikeway planning and design. Mr. Olson has worked on numerous similar studies throughout the region and country, and was the creator and founder of the Millennium Trails program for the USDOT. Jeff has developed and teaches a course called “Bicycling, Walking and Trails: Innovations in Transportation” at the State University of New York, the first university program of its kind in the U.S., and is director of the university’s new Initiative for Healthy Infrastructure (iHi). He has served on the Pedestrian Committee of the Transportation Research Board and was a co-founder of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP).

Brooke DuBose        resume
Senior Planner
Brooke joined the Alta team in November 2007. Prior to Alta, Brooke was a planner for Transportation Alternatives, New York City’s leading advocate for walking, biking and sensible transportation. She provided technical assistance to communities throughout New York City to help design safe and livable streets. While working towards a Masters degree in urban planning, she worked for the Highway Safety Research Center in North Carolina, where she researched current applications of engineering, design and planning techniques for walking and bicycling. She also worked on smart growth initiatives and comprehensive corridor schemes for Project for Public Spaces in New York City. Her experience includes traffic calming design and public space revitalization, placemaking methodologies and community-based planning.

Eric Anderson        resume
Senior Planner
Eric has seven years of experience in the bicycle and pedestrian transportation field, spanning agency, consulting and advocacy roles. Prior to joining Alta, he served as the Director of Planning for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition where he was involved with bicycle and pedestrian projects such as the countywide bicycle plan update process, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) rail-with-trail pathway, and the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Program. He also assisted the County of Marin with their efforts to implement the County of Marin Unincorporated Areas Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (2001). Mr. Anderson got his start in non-motorized transportation as one of the first staff members for the City of Chicago Bicycle Program, where he biked to every neighborhood in the city while conducting fieldwork.

Michael Rose        resume
Senior Planner/Landscape Architect
Michael Rose has been with Alta since 2004. Mr. Rose is a registered Landscape Architect in Oregon and has a background in transportation planning. He has experience with a broad range of planning, design and engineering projects including: parks, soft surface trails, rails with trails, regional trails, light rail transit and bus rapid transit. Mr. Rose also has strong technical skills in data analysis, Geographic Information Systems(GIS), digital visualization graphics and construction drawings.

Sherry Ryan        resume
Transportation Planner
Dr. Ryan is a transportation planner with a focus on GIS applications, transit, transportation planning, and research. In addition to her duties at Alta Planning + Design, Dr. Ryan is also an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University in the graduate program of City Planning where she teaches courses in GIS, transportation planning, and land use planning. She has published extensively on the subjects of transportation-land use relationships, travel behavior, and urban form.

Philip Sales        resume
Associate
While with Sonoma County, Mr. Sales was responsible for managing park acquisition, development, park and trail construction, major park renovation projects, resource management planning and environmental documentation for the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department (SCRP) with an annual capital budget of $6 million. During his tenure, the SCRP received over $30 million in competitive grant funds. He has extensive experience working with public agencies, elected officials, community organizations, private, state and federal funding organizations and the general public. During his tenure, the SCRP developed 22 new park and regional trail facilities and expanded 10 existing parks. Prior to his tenure with Sonoma County, Mr. Sales worked as a landscape architect in both the private and public sectors including employment as a Landscape Architect with the Cities of London, England, Oakland, CA and Las Vegas, NV.

Chris Bernhardt        resume
Senior Associate
Chris Bernhardt has managed natural-surface trail projects in 35 states, three provinces, and Singapore, Tasmania, and Israel, with a focus on building bicycle-friendly multi-use trails. His planning project experience includes team management of transportation, land use, environmental, and legal disciplines, and extensive work in trail advocacy and stakeholder involvement. Chris presents and has been published on the topic of sustainable, risk-managed innovative bicycle trails, and has worked with the Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, and over one hundred state and local jurisdictions.

Steve Durrant        resume
Senior Associate
Mr. Durrant’s experience includes award winning waterfront redevelopment, greenways and trails, interpretive plans, regional open space policy, and national park planning and design. He recently received national recognition for his innovative light rail station designs in Minneapolis where he led a team of artists and architects designing stations as individual civic landmarks for the region’s first LRT. He has more than 25 years of experience practicing across the US and Canada, in Taiwan and South Korea. His bicycle, pedestrian and greenway work includes the Spokane River Centennial Trail, the Cedar Lake Regional Trail while with Jones & Jones, and the Great Rivers Greenway District - River Ring Plan (St Louis) while with URS. Mr. Durrant is a Bicycle League Certified Instructor.

Adrian Leung        resume
Planner
Adrian began at Alta in July 2007. His knowledge of transportation planning comes with skills in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, and experience with bicycling advocacy organizations. While Adrian has comprehensive technical, research, and communication skills, he also a keen interest in questions regarding transportation identity. This is the notion that the way people move contributes to the way they experience the world and how they view themselves, which informs their participation in society. This line of inquiry adds a dynamic and creative approach to the projects in which he collaborates.

Lauren Buckland        resume
Planner
Lauren Buckland has seven years of technical writing, data analysis and research experience. In 2005, she earned her Master's Degree in Urban Planning from UCLA with a concentration in transportation planning. While at UCLA, she had extensive training in Geographic Information Systems, technical writing, and data analysis. In June 2005, she received a Lewis Center GIS award for her GIS project utilizing land-use, transit access and residential density to determine potentially walkable neighborhoods in Los Angeles. She has also developed a map of suitable bicycle routes for central Los Angeles using traffic volume and street gradient data. For her thesis, she analyzed the suitability of redeveloping an industrial area adjacent to the Los Angeles River into a pedestrian-oriented district. She has been involved in bicycle advocacy organizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has been instrumental in creating a pedestrian advocacy nonprofit for Los Angeles.

Matt Lasky        resume
Planner
Matt Lasky joined Alta in September 2006. Matt brings strong skills in transportation planning, data analysis, report writing, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Alta. Prior to joining Alta, Matt worked on various transportation planning projects, including bicycle plans, transportation elements of general plans and environmental impact reports, and traffic impact studies. For many of these projects he focused on traffic operations and level of service analyses. As the Non-Motorized Transportation Intern with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Matt interviewed Bay Area planners focusing on why they included bicycle and pedestrian facilities in various types of transportation projects. With the results, he wrote a report that included recommendations to ensure bicycle and pedestrian facilities are included in more transportation projects.

Jessica Roberts        resume
Planner
Jessica Roberts joined Alta in September 2006. She brings strong experience with bicycle facilities design and policy, public process and community relations, and data collection and surveys. Her professional work has involved successful collaboration with public agencies at every level of government as well as community groups. Ms. Roberts has experience in ADA requirements, international trends in bikeway design and traffic safety measures, innovative pedestrian and bicycle facilites, and web-based tools for public involvement. She bikes or walks every day, both for fun and transportation.

Kim Voros        resume
Planner
Kim Voros joined Alta in July, 2007. She brings skills in GIS, cartography, research, technical writing and data analysis. Prior to working for Alta, Kim worked as a research assistant for Professor Jennifer Dill analyzing Portlander’s bicycling behaviors and perceptions and the viability of replacing paper trip diaries with GPS units. She also worked with the Portland State University library on the Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library, which aims to make historic planning documents available to the public, planners and scholars.

Mike Tresidder        resume
Planner
Mike Tresidder joined Alta in December 2003. Mike brings strong skills in technical and analytical research and writing, data analysis, and Geographic Information Systems(GIS) to Alta. Prior to joining Alta, Mike was involved in research at the Center for Transportation Studies at Portland State University. His primary research topic focused on creating various street connectivity measurements for bicyclists and pedestrians in the Portland Metro region.

Rory Renfro        resume
Planner
Rory Renfro joined Alta in 2005. He brings strong skills in technical and analytical research, writing, transportation planning and graphic rendering. Rory participates in a variety of projects including community-wide bicycle and pedestrian plans, university non-motorized transportation plans, streetscape plans, trail feasibility studies, and conceptual design. He also has strong skills in non-motorized demand modeling, mapping, sketch rendering and grant writing. Rory also has experience in environmental documentation, including preparation of transportation technical reports for Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements.

Matt Benjamin        resume
Planner
Matt Benjamin brings to Alta extensive experience in leading public outreach and planning efforts. Mr. Benjamin has worked with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He specializes in developing strategies to ensure that the desires of the public and the needs of the organization for which he is working are met.

Joshua Poppel        resume
Planner
Joshua Poppel is a planner and an advocate who has been dedicated to the bicycle and pedestrian cause for the past decade. His initial exposure to bicycle and pedestrian planning was through a cross-country bike trip to raise awareness about the renewal of ISTEA. Since that time, he has been an avid bicyclist, actively in involved in the promotion of bicycling and walking. He continues that commitment through not only his planning projects but also the education and outreach efforts as a League Cycling Instructor and Safe Routes to School Trainer.

Charlie Denney        resume
Senior Associate
Charlie Denney has over 15 years experience in Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning and Program Management. The majority of his work has been in the State of Virginia. Most recently he has worked for Arlington County, Virginia as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager overseeing the installation of 23 miles of new bike lanes and managed over 50 bikeway and pedestrian improvement projects. He has also worked as private consultant on bicycle and pedestrian planning and design projects around the country

Joe Gilpin        resume
Planner
Joe Gilpin brings a diverse background, including European perspectives, in bicycle and pedestrian advocacy, education, design, and planning to Alta. Mr. Gilpin provides technical and analytical research and writing, fieldwork and site analysis, mapping, data analysis, facility design and creative services to the firm.

Hagen Hammons        resume
Designer
Hagen Hammons joined Alta Planning + Design in 2006. Hagen brings strong skills in concept design, photo simulations, construction management and documentation, and computer presentation renderings. He has deep interests in non-motorized connectivity and has participated in organizations such as the Central Valley Rail to Trail Foundation and Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. He is an avid mountain biker and outdoor enthusiast.

Karen Vitkay        resume
Designer
Karen Vitkay has joined Alta with over five years of plant ecology and landscape design experience. Ms. Vitkay brings strong skills in both digital and hand graphic techniques. Her experience includes greenway master planning with the Drachman Institute for Regional Development and Land Planning in Tucson, Arizona, as well as the facilitation of an international design collaboration related to the development of a water conservation demonstration garden in the Middle East. Karen is an ASLA Student Honor Award recipient.

Robin Wilcox        resume
Designer
Robin Wilcox joined Alta Planning + Design in June 2007. She brings a wide range of experience from both public and private projects from throughout the western United States. Robin’s skills include hand graphics, sustainable design, construction documentation, and design development. She volunteers with several organizations to promote alternative transportation choices and is an Oregon State ASLA Executive Committee Member.

Thanh Do        resume
Project Assistant
Thanh Do brings to Alta several years of experience in project support, office and contract administration, business development, bookkeeping, research analysis and client services. Her work with Alta includes cover design, report editing, formatting and production. She serves the Berkeley office and the company in a variety of capacities from project support to office administration. Ms. Do also spends her time at a foreign language school in San Francisco as an assistant where she is either helping teachers and students or working at street fairs to promote the language school. She enjoys learning different languages, has conversational skills in German, French and Vietnamese, and is currently picking up Arabic and Spanish.

Susan Peithman        resume
Project Assistant
Susan Peithman has several years of experience working with pedestrian and bicycle programs. Her work with Alta includes support for Safe Routes to School and personal travel planning programs. She assists senior staff in project and proposal research, writing, editing, layout and production. Ms. Peithman is also responsible for assisting project managers with pedestrian and bicycle encouragement and safety projects which includes document production of newsletters and reports as well as management and execution of public meetings. Ms. Peithman relocated from Chicago, Illinois to Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2007 to pursue her career in non motorized transportation. Her previous experience working both as an employee of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and as a consultant located at the Chicago Department of Transportation has given her a valuable perspective on municipal and contractor relations and coordination. Susan enjoys spending her free time being a bike racer riding very fast in road and stage races.

David Parisi        resume
Traffic/Civil Engineer / Marin County, California
David Parisi has experience managing multi-modal transportation projects throughout the West Coast. Mr. Parisi's 17 years of experience include aspects of transportation and environmental planning, and civil and traffic engineering. He spearheads multi-disciplinary transportation projects from inception through design and development. Projects include: environmental assessments in accordance with NEPA and state environmental policies; highway, railway and multi-modal corridor studies; area-wide traffic circulation studies; heavy and light rail transit projects; roadway and interchange feasibility analyses; freight mobility analyses; access planning for pedestrians, bicyclists and people with disabilities; localized traffic impact evaluations; and transportation system improvements. Mr. Parisi is a reputable speaker who often leads technical and citizen groups. He has valuable experience working on controversial projects that require his creativity, his ability to build consensus, and his skills in encouraging public participation.

Gabriel Tiller        resume
Graphic Designer
Gabriel Tiller has 6 years of experience in the graphic design field, including many projects focusing on outdoor activities. His work with Alta includes report writing, editing, and design on bicycle, pedestrian, and trail master plans and rail-with-trail feasibility studies, as well as design and production of brochures, proposals, logos, mailers, and other marketing materials. Mr. Tiller is also responsible for writing, editing, and distributing Alta’s quarterly electronic newsletter, Alta Update, and the quarterly Portland-Vancouver Regional Trails electronic newsletter. He also edits the national quarterly newsletter for the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) and designs the newsletter for the National Documentation Project.