Elected to the Board in 2021, Megan has served on the Executive Committee as Deputy Chair and as co- chair of the Resource Management Advisory Group. In these roles she has had the opportunity to represent members and the profession in front of Select Committee and to the media, and is keen to bring her energy and enthusiasm, fresh, innovating thinking, and a passion for the profession to a second term.
As a board member, Megan co-authored “Racism in Planning in Aotearoa New Zealand” with Jade Wikaira (formerly of Papa Pounamu), exploring racism in the planning profession and how the profession might move successfully towards a bi-cultural planning framework. She is presently working on a follow up piece detailing actions the Institute can take towards achieving this, and is also leading the development of thought-piece on advocacy in the profession.
As part of the Executive Committee, Megan also serves on the Financial Audit and Risk Management Committee, Professional Standards Committee, and chairs the Annual Awards Review Committee.
A planner with over thirteen years’ experience working in the public and private sectors here in New Zealand and abroad, 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 came 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 has been a Full Member of Te Kokiringa Taumata | New Zealand Planning Institute since 2017. She has been involved in Institute affairs since university, serving on the Emerging Planners Committee from 2014 to 2016, and the Auckland Branch Committee from 2016 to 2021. 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).
