WRA Staff Spotlight: Career Path of a Community Resilience Planner

Recently, WRA Community Resilience Planner Cailin Notch gave presentations to high school students about her job and career path to Youth Employment Partnership (YEP) in East Oakland and as part of YEP’s Stream Team environmental training partnership with Friends of Sausal Creek.

Cailin discussed her work as a community resilience planner at WRA and her journey from academic studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Rennes II University in France to her early career experience including the Center for Cities + Schools, and as a planning professional staff at the City of Petaluma through a planning consultant. She also discussed her prior experience as a CivicSpark Fellow working with Fire Safe Sonoma and the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District.

Some of her career advice to attendees included:

Life and careers aren’t linear.

Lean into your strengths while seeking out people with different strengths than you.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to people to learn more about their jobs. People want to help as long as their time is being respected.

Thank you for sharing your story with the next generation, Cailin!

To learn more about the Youth Employment Partnership and its mission to “improve the employment and education outcomes for Oakland youth and young adults” visit their website. To learn more about WRA’s community resilience team and capabilities, visit our market page.