Kimberly Diedrich, AICP
Kimberly Diedrich, AICP, is a Transportation Planner II at HNTB in Oklahoma City, where she has worked for approximately three years. In her role, she engages in diverse day-to-day tasks, including performing safety analyses, developing accessibility plans for major events, and writing grants to ensure that smaller local communities can achieve roadway expansions and sidewalk improvements. She also works on NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) projects, ensuring that natural and cultural resources are protected, while coordinating with the State Historic Preservation Office on mitigation strategies. Kimberly thrives in dynamic environments, embracing opportunities to learn and adapt, and finds joy in tackling a wide range of transportation and planning challenges.
Prior to HNTB, Kimberly spent four and a half years as an Architectural Historian with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s Cultural Resource Program. During that time, she recognized a need for greater community engagement in infrastructure projects, which inspired her to pursue a degree in planning to make a meaningful impact on the communities where she lives and works. Her academic background in anthropology and public history informs her approach to planning, helping her integrate cultural heritage, equity, and community priorities into transportation projects.
Kimberly holds a Master’s in City, Urban, Community, and Regional Planning from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture and a Master’s in Cultural Anthropology from Texas State University. Her research, including her thesis “Make El Paso Great Again: Correcting the Alternative Memory in the Border City,” highlights historically marginalized voices and informs her commitment to inclusive urban design. Passionate about historic preservation, sustainable mobility, and community engagement, Kimberly actively collaborates with colleagues and stakeholders to create resilient, accessible, and thriving cities.
• AICP Certified
• Texas State University - BA, Cultural Anthropology
• Texas State University - MA Cultural Anthropology
• Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture - MCRP
• Interested in volunteering with retirement community or end of life care
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my parents growing up. I was honestly never a great student. It wasn't until later in my life that I actually got diagnosed with ADHD, and when you aren't diagnosed as a child, you just learn the coping mechanisms to get around it and develop those skills of how do I study, how do I actually learn to learn, which sounds like a crazy concept. But actually really having the opportunity and the parents to allow and almost encourage my creative outlets and learning, instead of putting me down and saying, oh well, you're not getting good grades in this, why is that, they would always shift the dialogue to, how can we have you learn this? I think that was really helpful. It always presented me with my self-worth of, oh, if I don't understand this information as it's given to me, it's not because I'm dumb, it's just because I learn differently. Having a parent that really does encourage that and even understand it really did help me grow and flourish in my later life. I'm really thankful for that, and having parents who didn't see C's or B's as bad. It was never taken in defense of, oh, just give up on that topic. No, I love sciences, but I never understood how to learn them. I think my parents, by accepting that and being like, okay, well, if you love it, let's keep on looking into it, but that doesn't mean it has to be your career. And now, later on in life, now that I fully understand what is my learning style, how can I learn science, now that I have that time, now I'm trying to expand on that skill.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think right now, one of the biggest challenges, at least in my field in being in more of corporate sectors, is understanding that sometimes what you think is best is not what the client is requesting. So really understanding your place in the work environment and understanding how you fit in to the overall progression of events and how things get applied. Within my field, there are a lot of different ways that you could go, in terms of private or public, and then as well as non-profit. I have had the lucky opportunity to also work for a non-profit and working for the state, and now for private, I have been exposed to how different types of agencies and groups really try to adhere to also the existing policies that are being pushed out. There are times, at least as a planner, where it's hard because you can disagree with the current politics and what is happening in terms of, especially for grants, how things get applied, and how individuals who are applying for these are getting impacted by the change and by the different actual application requirements, which can be very disheartening, because you know there are so many communities out there that are needing and deserving of this money to actually make their infrastructure complete, but under current administration, how they have now been removed from even applying for them, when in reality, they used to have access to this application. It's really understanding that you are still doing good, even if you do not agree with everything that is happening within the current political climate. And that sometimes you have to take a step back and understand that the joy that you get is maybe not even from the delivery of the project, but the joy is also how you get there and what the process is. Really just taking a step back and trying to understand the benefits of the day-to-day tasks, to see how they all impact the end picture, but also not forgetting to have gratitude for them as well.