Communities

Broad-based strategist. Shrewd tactician. Inventive community builder.

Mark helps communities defined by outdoor recreation, the rural lifestyle, and tourism unlock and maximize economic, environmental, aesthetic, and recreational character—and potential—through community and land use planning, regulatory tools and regional cooperation. Mark brings together deep community planning expertise, an intuitive and informed understanding of how to bring together diverse communities for long-term consensus and gain, and a profound commitment to helping small communities find, articulate, tap into, and retain what makes them special. 

Experience

He brings over 30 years of experience in land use planning and analysis to the SE Group team. Mark is active in the American Planning Association and continues to learn and grow his understanding of how tourism and outdoor recreation influence communities and how they can be empowered to chart a path that fits them.  

As managing director, Mark relishes in his team's power – building deep relationships with them and supporting their professional development and growth. Mark believes that passing on what we learn is the primary role of a good leader, and he works each day to do that.

Mark has a Bachelor of Science from the School of Natural Resources – Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. 

Expertise

• Regional and land use planning
• Tourism and outdoor recreation impacts in rural places
• Land use regulations and development analysis
• Geographic information systems and visualization 

Outside the Office

Despite his advancing age, Mark continues to celebrate his status as a 21st century "nerd"—enjoying all the outdoor splendor (hike, bike, Nordic ski) that New England offers while always being down for a game of Catan, listening to podcasts on quantum entanglement or getting lost in books on artificial intelligence. He loves to garden, particularly vegetables, which, upon harvest, he cooks into something yummy. Mark splits his time between a 1830s restored farmhouse he and his artist wife have spent nearly 30 years fixing up and a recently acquired small seasonal cottage on Lake Champlain where summers are spent enjoying the water, family, and friends.  

Gabby is the Service Area Leader for our Communities market and is the Recreation Planning Service Area leader within the Public Lands market.  Essentially this means she leads the community planning focused projects across the company and manages recreation planning projects on public lands throughout the northeast and mountain west.

She is passionate about helping clients solve complex problems facing their communities. Her approach is to craft strategic and broad-based engagement strategies that bring the right people to the table to work together. She applies technical, analytical, as well as soft and consensus-building skills to all aspects of community planning. Gabby approaches projects with a mind geared toward seeking out innovative and engaging solutions that move communities closer towards their vision and goals. 

Experience

Gabby brings over 10 years of experience working with rural communities in New England and the Mountain West. She has led many award-winning teams on comprehensive and subarea master plans.  She is an expert at helping rural communities face difficult challenges, particularly those related to affordable housing, growth and development, retaining community character, and enhancing outdoor recreation economies.  Her recreation work includes creating trails and open space plans for municipalities, non-profits, and multi-jurisdictional projects on federal and state lands.  She has also contributed to multi-modal transportation and streetscape design projects and helped developers through the permitting process for residential and mixed-use projects in mountain and resort communities.  

Gabby is AICP certified and has a Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Bates College. 

Expertise

• Community Planning
• Affordable Housing
• Zoning and Permitting
• Trails and Recreation Planning
• Transportation Planning
• Spatial Analysis + Land Use Modeling
• Community and Stakeholder Engagement 

Outside the Office

Gabby likes to spend her free time with her family skiing, running, and biking the trails and mountains surrounding Leadville. Inspired by her young daughters, she recently completed the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. She is the chair of the City of Leadville Planning Commission and on the Leadville-Lake County Tourism Panel. She has an old hound dog and an even older 1880s Victorian house.    

With a sensitivity to the uniqueness of place, Patrick seeks to create spaces that are both functional and aesthetically inspiring. He has a strong artistic sensibility for materials and forms that are expressed through custom design details. Additionally, as a LEED accredited professional, Patrick finds opportunities to integrate ecological and low-impact design strategies into each project’s aesthetic. With his affable demeanor, he easily develops strong client relationships that are enriched through collaboration—knowing that the best project outcomes come about when multiple perspectives are incorporated into the design and planning process.

Experience

Patrick is a licensed landscape architect with over 20 years of experience with a variety of project types spanning multiple scales. He has demonstrated success leading multi-disciplinary project teams from the conceptual design stage through permitting to construction with a great attention to detail.

Patrick has a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (Magna cum laude) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and spent a formative year abroad studying landscape architecture at the Agricultural University of Norway. Patrick’s work has received recognition through multiple awards, and he has been a featured speaker for the Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Tree Stewards Conference.

Expertise

Master planning
Site planning and design
Public process
Aesthetic analysis

Outside the Office

Patrick grew up in California, and some of his best memories are from visits to his family’s cabin near Lake Tahoe where he first developed a passion for outdoor recreation. An avid mountain biker, he seeks out technical single track and enjoys building trails for his two young boys on their property in the Green Mountains of central Vermont. When seeking a break from rural living, Patrick and his wife enjoy retreats to nearby Montreal to explore the city by bike, soak up the local culture, and discover new foods.

Dayton is a creative and strategic planner. He leads multidisciplinary teams to build plans that illustrate and articulate community and client visions. As a visual thinker, Dayton constantly strives to make the complex clear, and develop plans that foster collaboration and guide implementation. 

Experience

Trained as a landscape architect and practicing as a planner, Dayton brings multidisciplinary thinking to all his projects. This has resulted in physical trail networks and nationally recognized plans alike. His experience overseeing the development of community bike parks, designing trail systems at ski resorts, and building better streets for human scale transportation make him feel lucky to have the career he does.

Dayton is a certified planner by the American Planning Association. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning degree from Utah State University. His official undergraduate degree is in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz, but his unofficial degree was in mountain biking. 

Expertise

• Urban Design
• Active Transportation Planning
• Trails Planning
• GIS Analysis & Cartography
• Community Master Planning 

Outside the Office

Dayton grew up between California, Texas, and Utah, and chose to relocate his family to Vermont in 2019. You can find him throughout the Green Mountains stringing together lost roads and flow trails into all day adventures on his bike or teaching his children to ski the east. A passionate believer in outdoor spaces, he’s always looking for an opportunity to be inspired and share that inspiration with others. 

Intent on revealing each site’s intrinsic qualities, Hannah enjoys translating site-specific challenges into design solutions and observing how spaces evolve over time. Her nimble graphics and technical knowledge bring her projects to life, whether in public outreach, concept and detailed documentation, or implementation.  Hannah often communicates with a sketch and a smile – and an exclamation point!  Her ideal project is built work that forges an emotional connection between people and places.

Experience

An experienced designer and project manager, Hannah has worked on a wide range of project types - ranging from urban riverfronts to riparian restoration projects.  She is dedicated to designing for ecological diversity, community resiliency and creating inclusive spaces for all.

Hannah holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Nebraska.  She practiced landscape architecture in Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Vermont prior to her work at SE Group. 

Expertise

• Site Planning & Design
• Construction Documentation & Administration
• Graphic Representation
• Recreation Planning, Design & Management

Outside the Office

Whether it’s returning to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, camping or canoeing in the East, or traveling to new cities, Hannah seeks out places to absorb the colors and sounds of the landscapes she inhabits.  In her free time, you can find her paddling on the Winooski River with her husband and young kids, biking, gardening, and cooking with whatever ingredients she can forage. 

Alex works with communities, regions, and land managers to deliver excellent outdoor recreation experiences, promote equitable community development, and find a sustainable balance between the two. An interdisciplinary planner, he offers a blend of creative and analytical abilities to each planning project. Alex continually challenges himself and those around him to think beyond “business as usual” when working to develop plans that are actionable and effective.

Experience

Alex joined SE Group in 2022 and brings a unique blend of planning experience. He spent five years as a regional planner in northern New Hampshire and has worked with public land managers across the country on issues of recreation, transportation, and visitor use management.
 

Alex has a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from SUNY Geneseo.

Expertise

• Outdoor Recreation Planning
• Community Engagement
• Transportation Planning
• GIS Analysis

Outside the Office

Alex takes any opportunity he can to romp around the Upper Valley region of Vermont on foot, bike, or skis. He knows little about gardening but enjoys helping his more knowledgeable partner tend to their ever-expanding vegetable patch. Alex also enjoys making pizza from scratch, hanging out by rivers and ponds with his partner and their dog, and planning his next ill-advised bike adventure. He is also involved in his community, having served on local committees and volunteering with a local bicycle collective.

Dillon is an ever-curious planner and problem solver who is driven by the values of social inclusion, access to nature, and thriving people and places. Throughout Dillon’s personal and professional life, he has developed a keen interest in how people access nature and recreational amenities and how communities are set up to support the livelihood of residents. Half analyst and half diplomat, Dillon enjoys thinking through the technical components of complex projects and working with a diverse array of people to reach practical, actionable solutions that cross-cut competing interests. 

Experience

Dillon joined SE Group in 2024, bringing a wide variety of public sector planning experience. While with the Colorado Center for Community Development, Dillon worked with rural communities around Colorado planning high-quality, practical public spaces. Dillon spent four years working in open space, parks, and trails planning between Denver Parks and Recreation and Jefferson County Open Space. Dillon’s experience in park planning led him to teach the Parks and Public Spaces elective course for the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of Colorado (Denver). Dillon has also gained experience working in regional planning at the Denver Regional Council of Governments, where he worked with local governments and regional partners to advance coordinated efforts around growth and development priorities. 

Dillon has a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver and is a certified planner through the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Expertise 

• Public Space Planning
• Parks, Open Space, and Trails
• Urban Design
• Data Analysis & Data Visualization
• Regional Planning

Outside the Office

When not working, Dillon can often be found recreating in the outdoors of Colorado. Dillon loves skiing, mountain biking, road biking, kayaking, trail running, and finding small rivers and streams to explore with a fly rod. Dillon also loves exploring cities and compact urban environments by foot or bike, listening to and playing music, and finding ways to keep his curious and energetic dog active. Dillon grew up in the Southeast (North Carolina, Florida, Georgia) and is currently living in Denver, CO.

Ayden provides support to a wide variety of recreation and community planning projects. She enjoys navigating complex project processes in coordination with the client and planning team, ensuring that all parties are able to contribute effectively to project outcomes. Core to her work ethic is a commitment to distilling information into concise and helpful formats with an eye towards context and clarity. 

Experience

Ayden joined SE Group in 2019 with an academic background in Environmental Studies, Politics, and Earth Science. As a student, Ayden was particularly interested in the complex communication needs surrounding environmental risks and hazards, which translated well to her work researching and implementing municipal environmental and fiscal policies. Ayden brings strong engagement, communication, and analysis capabilities to all aspects of SE Group projects.

Ayden has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Bates College. 

Expertise

• Project Management
• Community Engagement and Facilitation
• Recreation Planning
• Design & Communication

Outside the Office

Ayden enjoys exploring the endless trails and unique landscapes of Colorado on skis, foot, and bike. She is also a spirited trivia-goer who tries never to miss an opportunity to learn new fun facts! 

Brad is an experienced and passionate community and outdoor recreation planner, dedicated to creating vibrant, well-designed public spaces that enrich lives and foster a sense of belonging within communities and the natural environment. With a diverse background in planning and a deep appreciation for the outdoors, his commitment to promoting recreation, wellness, and social cohesion is evident. Brad’s enduring passion lies in protecting and enhancing the unique qualities of regions for future generations.

Experience

Brad joined the SE team in the summer of 2023, bringing with him a strong background in the public sector as a planner and GIS analyst for parks and open spaces departments around the four-corners region. During this time, he specialized the conservation of ecological systems and urban spaces, striking a balance between developing recreational opportunities and safeguarding the environment.

Brad earned a Master’s in City & Metropolitan Planning from the University of Utah, along with a BA degree in Environmental Studies and a GIS Certificate from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

Expertise

• Park & Open Space Planning
• Recreation Planning & Management
• GIS & Spatial Analysis
• Community Engagement

Outside the Office

Brad spends his free time mountain biking, backcountry skiing, climbing, and intentionally getting lost in the wilderness. It’s no surprise that Brad is an avid collector of maps, as they are displayed across his walls as one-of-a-kind art. When Brad is not adventuring outside with his trusty four-legged companion, Mesa, he is tending to his worm compost and many house plants. The outdoors is Brad’s safe haven, and he loves sharing his genuine curiosity and passion on the open trail.

Jake is an easy-going collaborator with a love for visual communication. His work is based in a passion for crafting experiences that bring people and nature closer together, and telling the stories needed to get them built. He brings a thoughtful approach to site design and planning and has an intimate understanding of recreation and tourism communities.  

Experience

Jake has worked on an array of project types and scales, ranging from large scale Transit-Oriented Developments to residential green roofs. This experience allows him to see a project's bigger picture and its details simultaneously, all-the-while keeping “fun” as a key element in any project he works on. Jake has worked as an adjunct instructor at Boston Architectural College teaching the Ecological Analysis and Conceptual Frameworks Studio and working in the Digital Fabrication lab. Additionally, he serves on the Waterbury, VT Recreation Committee and the Waterbury Skatepark Coalition.

Jake holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Planning and Policy from the University of Southern Maine and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Boston Architectural College. He was a 2017 Olmsted Scholar Nominee.

Expertise

• Site Planning and Design
• Master Planning  
• Construction Documentation
• 3D Visualization and Graphic Representation 

Outside of the Office

Winter, summer, spring, or fall – Jake is a lover of the seasons and all that they bring. Snowboarding, skateboarding, and biking are his primary out of office activities, closely followed by grilling, camping, fishing, and hiking. He is a lover of food, culture, and music, and when not on the go, you can find him taking photos on his 35mm Pentax Spotmatic, hanging in the garden, or playing with his cats Rosa and Jack.  

Idalina Williams, an Outdoor Recreation Planner, brings expertise in community development, tourism, natural resource management, and environmental education. Celebrated for her ability to foster effective partnerships and drive economic growth, Idalina integrates outdoor recreation with community prosperity. With a commitment to pragmatism she consistently delivers tangible improvements for both people and places.

Experience

Experience supporting projects from concept through implementation, serving as a project manager and building capacity at various scales, including town, county, city, and regional levels in Southwest Virginia. Serving as a Naturalist at the Walker Nature Center in Reston VA, as an Interpretive Ranger at Natural Tunnel State Park and even chief shovel operator as a kid for her family’s site planning firm. All these experiences have at their core service to people and place. 

Expertise

• Facilitates effective partnerships to drive economic development
• Develop forward-thinking inclusive outdoor recreational spaces
• Brings a multi-dimensional perspective to project management
• Boots on the ground partnership development experience making connections across divers sectors

Outside of work 

Depending on the season you can find Idalina exploring the Clinch River, playing volleyball or working on her Virginia homestead and tending to goats, chickens, and flower and vegetable gardens with her husband. 

Full of curiosity, Julia loves getting to know the communities she works in and enjoys the challenge of building consensus among stakeholder groups. With every project, Julia seeks to develop innovative land use and policy solutions that reflect a community’s values, build resiliency, and improve overall quality of life. Julia’s considerable skill as a writer and passion for sustainable, inclusive recreation make her an asset to any project team.

Experience

Julia joined the SE Group team in 2020 after working for two environmental advocacy organizations focused on conservation and water quality in her home region of upstate New York. Her interest in planning and in rural communities began in the Adirondack Park, a six-million-acre patchwork of public and private lands protected by New York State’s constitution. Prior to joining SE Group, Julia studied recreation and tourism internationally and close to home – she completed a research fellowship on ecotourism in Thailand, and she has produced two reports analyzing visitor use management in the Adirondack High Peaks. Julia currently serves on the City of Burlington Planning Commission.
Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Williams College.

Expertise

• Technical Writing & Research
• Community Engagement & Visioning
• Policy Analysis

Outside the Office

The classic divide between urban and rural life has always been captivating and confounding to Julia, who loves both the vibrancy of cities and the stillness of the woods. She is delighted that her life in Vermont — and her work as a community planner — allows her to enjoy both landscapes and ways of life. Outside the office, Julia can usually be found exploring Burlington’s waterfront and urban reserves or writing music that approximately three people will ever hear.

As a landscape designer, Elena works on a wide range of projects, from site-responsive planting plans and construction details to helping communities understand and visualize the potential of places. Passionate about connecting people to the natural world in balanced and meaningful ways, Elena brings her creative and detail-oriented problem solving to every project.

Experience

Elena’s background includes ecological inventory and design, working in design-build creating intimate spaces, and community engagement in design-thinking. This interdisciplinary expertise allows Elena to make thoughtful contributions across project scales and phases.

Elena holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Art from Allegheny College and a Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She is active in the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Expertise

• Site Planning and Design
• Graphic Representation
• Ecological Design
• Community Visioning

Outside the Office

A plant enthusiast, Elena can be found tending her small garden, identifying trees, or snacking on berries along the side of the trail. Elena is always seeking to learn more, so she loves dabbling in new crafts (recently printmaking), instruments (accordion) and finding ways to connect with her community.

Margaret is passionate about designing and developing shared spaces that anchor communities. This was instilled during her upbringing in Alabama, where she witnessed just how important these places were to people’s mental and physical health (no matter their background). On projects, Margaret is dedicated to helping her team succeed – and she is equally happy to jump into hyper-technical problem solving or step back to wrestle with big, conceptual questions. 

Experience

Margaret joined SE Group in 2022 with experience in solving social and environmental problems through design.  Margaret has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design with a minor in Philanthropy and Non-Profit Studies and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Auburn University. During her capstone at Auburn, Margaret led a design process that reimagined an old mill site outside of Auburn as a multi-use recreational and camping facility. 

Expertise 

• Site Planning and Design
• 3D Visualization and Graphic Representation
• Community Engagement 

Outside the office

Margaret grew up on the Alabama coast, where she spent summers on the water, fishing and making the most of the coastline. Family is a big part of her life and she relishes any time with them, whether that is taking in Mardi Gras or cheering on Auburn football! Margaret recently moved to Burlington, Vermont and she is excited to enjoy all that winter has to offer (or, to keep learning to crochet while it’s below freezing). 

Austin is a natural spatial thinker and strong visual communicator. He brings a unique element of expertise to every project and provides detailed support for cross-company mapping. Leveraging his understanding of aesthetics and skill for creative design, he offers a user-oriented approach to a diverse range of spatial products, often helping to streamline and elevate the mapping done by many of his colleagues.

Experience

Austin creates compelling visual stories, transforming data and narratives into inspiring designs that are both meaningful and purposeful. His work focuses on the intersection between people and nature. He partners with our team on outdoor recreation, community planning, environmental, and landscape design projects, bringing his expertise and thoughtfulness to every step in the planning and design process. Austin has a Bachelor of Science in Cartography and GIS, as well as People-Environment Geography, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Expertise

• Cartographic Design
• Visual Storytelling and Graphics
• Interactive Mapping
• GIS Analysis

Outside the Office

A creative minded and easy-going type, Austin finds joy in many artistic ventures, including painting, film photography, and making music with his guitar. He loves a hot cup of tea and finds peace relaxing among plants, both in the garden and inside his cozily decorated houseplant haven. After earning his sea-legs on the lakes of Wisconsin, Austin enjoys getting out on sailboats and convincing his crew to passionately sing sea shanties.

Driven by the core value of community, Caleb approaches planning as an opportunity to develop places that reflect the aspirational values of togetherness, access to nature, and social inclusion. Half designer and half analyst, he is a ‘place-maker’ dedicated to the informed and artful creation of unique settings that bring people together and contribute to human health and happiness. Always on the cutting edge of new technology, Caleb brings a background in design and spatial analytics that helps him deliver data-driven and beautiful results to clients on a variety of community planning projects.

Experience

Caleb joined SE Group in 2023, bringing a background in hazard resilience planning after working with the Colorado Department of Transportation and conducting research in partnership with the University of Colorado’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

With a bachelor’s degree in sustainable planning and urban design, and a certificate in GIS and computational science, Caleb’s background as a planner is diverse and interdisciplinary. Having held several leadership positions in the College of Environmental Design at CU Boulder, Caleb has experience being a compassionate leader and clear communicator while working with different people coming from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Expertise

• Comprehensive Planning
• Urban Design
• Spatial Analysis & Data Visualization
• Resilience Planning
• Community Engagement

Outside the Office

Caleb spends most of his spare time with friends and family enjoying all the benefits of living in Colorado, whether it be hiking, skiing, mountain biking, camping, or going to concerts at Red Rocks. He also appreciates the virtues of more urban environments and loves to travel, go to shows, try new foods, and walk around exploring new cities and cultures. From time to time, you might see Caleb working on murals around town or painting in his art studio, where he finds another creative outlet away from the world of urban planning and design.

Riley is passionate about designing outdoor recreation spaces that bring people together – he believes there is something unique about how outdoor spaces create a space for developing special connections. Riley brings this enthusiasm to the Design team, where he takes pride in producing high quality graphics and developing site planning strategies that encourage people to find their place in the balance between nature and the built environment. 

Experience

Riley joined SE Group in 2024 with previous experience in public park design in Colorado. He strives to incorporate what he learned in urban planning, as well as his upbringing in Chicago, and to his team’s diverse skill set.
Riley received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Degree with a Minor in Sustainability from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. 

Expertise

• Site Planning and Design
• Conceptual Thinking and Collaboration
• Construction Documentation
• 3D Visualization and Graphic Representation

Outside the Office

Riley grew up learning to mountain bike and ski with his dad in the Midwest, having hopes that one day he would make it out to the Rocky Mountains to put these skills to the test. Now that he is living that dream and settled in Colorado, Riley spends most of his free time outdoors skiing, biking, camping, hiking, climbing - and of course fishing when he needs to ‘slow’ things down. When he isn’t outside, Riley loves to create memories with his friends and continue to develop his skills in the kitchen.