Amber Ayers

I graduated with my Master's in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University in 2017, though I'd already been working in urban planning for a few years during that time. I then transitioned into my current role as a project manager and planner with a special district in the Portland metro area, where I've been for almost 9 years now. We are what I always call small but mighty - a small, lean team of really talented, passionate individuals. My work is locally based, though I do collaborate with local, state, and federal officials and different agencies, which sometimes requires travel. I also get called in when we're activated with a high water event or emergency management situations. The biggest challenge in my day-to-day life has been trying to do the same good work while navigating increasingly harder and stricter regulations at the federal level, and making sure we're still engaging with our communities in a way that seems meaningful and intentional. When you're doing large infrastructure projects, there's a lot of stakeholders and competing interests, so I'm really focused on trying to balance those and come up with the best outcome for everybody.