Mid-Atlantic TAB @UD

Jen Reitz is a Policy Scientist with the Institute for Public Administration (IPA) and team lead for Mid-Atlantic TAB at UD. With nearly 20 years of urban planning experience in the public and private sectors, Jen is passionate about assisting local governments and communities develop and implement strategic, resident-driven land use plans and policies. She’s a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and focuses on helping communities address neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment challenges so they may build stronger, more resilient futures. Jen holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Science from Penn State University.  

Zach Hammaker is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Delaware. Zach has been working with communities in the Delaware Valley for nearly a decade on design and adaptation strategies to respond to contemporary challenges of climate change and human impact, particularly in working landscapes. With his background in landscape architecture, environmental design and management, regional planning, and public-private partnership development, he helps communities envision holistic futures that consider their social, economic, ecological, and cultural needs. As the Director of the Coastal Resilience Design Studio and Co-Founder of the Rural Futures Collaborative, he has expertise in participatory design and planning, engaged student scholarship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and project steering and capacity building. 

Matthew Harris is an Associate Policy Scientist and Urban Planner with over 12 years of experience in community planning and development. He has a Master’s in Community and Regional Planning from Temple University. Much of Matt’s career has been spent as a Planner for the City of Wilmington, where he contributed to various community-driven projects, including comprehensive, strategic, and transportation planning. He has coordinated community engagement on multiple topics, recently leading an EPA-funded Area-Wide Planning process and Assessment Grant. Matt designed and implemented the community-driven process in this role, managing community meetings and steering committees. He also led the development of the city’s bike plan, Moving Us Forward: A Plan for Biking in the City of Wilmington, with a strong focus on equitable transportation planning.

Troy Mix is Associate Director of the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration (IPA). Hailing from small farming and mill communities across the northeast, Troy is passionate about helping communities chart successful paths through economic transition, decline, and renaissance. He leads IPA’s Regional Development Team, which works with communities, individuals, and organizations seeking to shape the future of the places they care about. Troy is recognized as a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and his work focuses on delivering data-informed research and analysis, strategic planning, and training services to support the economic and organizational development efforts of governments, business groups, and community stakeholders across Delaware and the mid-Atlantic region.

Martha C. Narvaez is a Policy Scientist and Associate Director at the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center (UDWRC), a unit of the Institute for Public Administration at the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. In this role, Martha is responsible for providing regional watershed technical, policy, and research support to state and local governments, university staff and faculty, and nonprofit organizations in Delaware and the Delaware Valley.

Before her work at the Water Resources Center, Martha worked at the USEPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program (Annapolis, MD); the City of Wilmington Public Works Department (Wilmington, DE); the Conservancy of Southwest Florida (Naples, FL); and Environmental Consulting Services Inc. (ECSI) (Middletown, DE). Martha received her Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biology from Lehigh University and her Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Delaware.

Lori Spagnolo is a Policy Scientist at the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration. With a broad background in environmental policy, she has worked in numerous capacities with non-profits and federal and state government programs.  Most recently, she was the Brownfield Program Coordinator for the State of Delaware, where she supported the revitalization of Delaware communities by helping developers navigate the redevelopment of contaminated sites.  Lori is also the Team Lead for the Grants Assistance Program, which provides free grant writing and technical assistance to Delaware municipalities. Resiliency is one of her primary areas of interest, and she helps to uplift the state's underserved communities through various grant opportunities.