Please help us welcome to the City two new planners, Michele Morris and Tom Smith, as well as Corinna Sandmeier, who recently transitioned from the role of contract planner to limited term planner. They joined the Planning Division on August 11th and are quickly learning about the City, the Community Development department, and the many ongoing planning projects throughout the community.

		Michele Morris Michele previously worked as a planner at the Permit Center for the City of Alameda. She has a Bachelors in Political Science from UC Berkeley and earned her Masters of Urban Planning & Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to transitioning to the planning field, she worked as a paralegal for the City of Fremont and various Bay Area law firms.  She enjoys Afro-Brazilian dance, wine tasting, going to the movies and travel.
		Tom Smith Tom joins us from Iowa. For the past three and a half years, Tom was a Planner with the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, specializing in historic preservation and planning policy development. He also has transportation planning experience with the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments and Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. He received a bachelor’s degree in Economics-Finance from Olivet Nazarene University and a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Cincinnati. Tom is thrilled to be joining the Menlo Park team and looks forward to new opportunities and challenges in planning for a different region of the country. (He is also excited to experience milder West Coast winters.) Outside of work, he enjoys running and fitness, classical music, travel, and collecting more books than he has time to read.
		Corinna Sandmeier Corinna is a former contract planner with the Metropolitan Planning Group and has joined the Planning Division as one of the limited term planners. She has a Bachelors degree in Political Science from UC San Diego and a Masters degree in Community Development from UC Davis.  Prior to her contract position in Menlo Park, Corinna worked for the Sacramento County Community Development Department (nine years as a planner and one year as an intern). Corinna is very excited to join the team here in Menlo Park. In her spare time, Corinna enjoys going to the beach, baking and bowling.