About the Orlando Metro Section
Welcome to the Orlando Metro Area!
The Orlando Metro section is in Central Florida, and includes five counties: Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Sumter.
The Orlando Metro Section of APA Florida is composed of local planners, architects, city and county officials and others interested in the planning profession. We encourage to you to join our section membership if you live or work in the Orlando Metro area. We typically meet over lunch at various times throughout the year. Meetings will be held quarterly, and more often if needed. In addition to the board meetings we coordinate professional development sessions and social gatherings. Sessions include legislative programs in the late fall, and other topics of interest as the membership requests including a “Planning Director’s Forum.” These sessions allow us to get together to talk about projects we have going on in our region, to learn and offer advice to each other with our current projects at hand.
Membership also offers great networking opportunities! I hope that if you are not already a member, you will look to the membership section of this site for more information. Please know we also encourage students and elected or appointed officials to join our organization.
If you have anything to submit to the Orlando Metro Section website, such as upcoming social events or training sessions, etc., please contact us. Here are the section bylaws.
Contact us
Comments or questions are always welcome. Below is a roster of our section leadership. You can fill out this contact form to get a hold of us.
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| President/Chair | Luis Nieves-Ruiz, FAICP |
| 1st Vice President | Emily Hanna, AICP, CPM |
| 2nd Vice President | Roxann Read, AICP, CFM, CSM |
| Secretary | Katie Shannon, AICP, CNU-A, LEED GA |
| Treasurer | Carmen Rasnick, MB, CNU-A |
| Director at Large | Tara Salmieri, AICP |
| Director at Large | Alissa Barber Torres, FAICP, Ph.D., CLTD |
| Lake County Director | Heather Croney, AICP Candidate |
| Seminole County Director | Heather Urwiller, AICP, CFM |
| Osceola Director | Vacant |
| Orange County Director | Nicolas Thalmueller, AICP |
| Sumter County Director | Vacant |
| Immediate Past President | Joshua DeVries, AICP |
| Urban Knights Representative | Aaron Stefano Alvernia |