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Susan Harden is the national planning and architecture practice lead at Michael Baker International, charged with expanding planning throughout the organization and ensuring quality, innovation, and sustainability are always at the forefront. For nearly twenty years, she has built her career around community-based planning and visioning. Her core service areas include public involvement, community revitalization, comprehensive land use planning, healthy communities, and active transportation planning. As an educator, author, and presenter, she is committed to empowering communities to create positive and meaningful change.
Harden co-authored a national APA Planners Advisory Service report entitled Placemaking on a Budget and has presented at numerous conferences, including the American Planning Association National Conference, National Town Meeting on Main Street, New Partners for Smart Growth, and Neighborhoods USA. She was appointed to the California Planning Roundtable in 2012, an organization of experienced planning professionals whose mission is to provide a forum for prominent planners to exercise creativity and leadership in promoting understanding of California's critical public policy issues, and recommending action. She has taught urban planning courses at CalPoly Pomona University, CalState Fullerton University Extension Education program and University California Irvine, where she developed and continues to teach a healthy neighborhoods practicum course in the graduate planning program. She is also a member of the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) Site visitor pool where she provides professional review and evaluation of universities seeking planning accreditation or re-accreditation. She recently served on the Social Equity Technical Advisory Committee for the development of ICLEI’s STAR Community Index, a community-wide sustainability rating system. Currently, she serves as the secretary of the board of directors for Jamboree Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer in California.
Previously, Harden volunteered with the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and with the AmeriCorps National Service Program in Kansas City. Additionally, she worked for the Metropolitan Energy Center, a Kansas City-based not-for-profit environmental organization involved in local sustainable development, transportation, and environmental justice. She has also worked with the state of Arizona as a community planning specialist, providing technical planning support and assistance to Arizona’s rural and tribal communities.
