Megan is a planner with over eleven years’ experience working in the public and private sectors here in New Zealand and abroad. She presently leads the Statutory and Policy Knowledge Centre at Beca, which develops and implements training initiatives to drive continual improvement and the adoption of good practice throughout the Environments Team.
Megan brings energy and enthusiasm, fresh, innovating thinking, and a passion for the profession, for the environment and for people. She is committed to raising the profile of the profession and making sure that the planning community’s needs are met as it transforms this Parliamentary term.
Megan has been a Full Member of the NZPI since 2017 and has been actively involved in Institute affairs since University, serving on the Emerging Planners Committee from 2014 to 2016, and has served on the Auckland Branch Committee since then. She is excited about the opportunity to take her commitment to the profession to the next level, and represent the broader planning community as a member of the Board.
Megan is also passionate about the role of emerging technologies in planning practice and has presented on digital literacy and the use of emerging tech. She is on the Steering Group of the PlanTechNZ Special Interest Group, which aims to bring planning and resource management practitioners together to make the most of new technologies in the planning profession, and to achieve better outcomes for our communities and the environment.
A US citizen, Megan travelled to New Zealand as a Fulbright grant recipient specifically to learn about how cultural and environmental values have, and continue to, influence New Zealand’s planning framework. Megan holds a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Auckland (honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (manga cum laude) from Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Critical Social Thought. She is also a trained Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator, which focuses on dialogic communication, group building, conflict surfacing and de-escalation, and holds a Certificate in Engagement from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).
Megan lives in Hobsonville Point, Auckland with her husband and three-year old daughter.
