Crane Associates : Our Staff :

Our Staff

Michael D. Crane AICP has over 18 years of domestic and international experience in community development. He has devoted his personal life, education, and professional career to finding the correct balance between environmental protection and community development. His areas of expertise include land-use planning, river-based planning, economic development, affordable housing, and recreation planning. The common thread through all of his experiences is the application of a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach. Michael led Vermont's largest regional planning commission, served the Governor of Utah as Land Planner and helped managed over 90 miles of wilderness river in Desolation Canyon, Utah. He has orchestrated extensive statewide public involvement processes, and coordinated local community groups to articulate goals. His sharp analytical skills have allowed communities to reach their goals without over extending their resources. He spent 4 years implementing community development projects in Africa including sustainable wildlife tourism in Zimbabwe and construction education in Gabon. He has a BA in International Studies from Marlboro College and the School for International Training and an MS in Natural Resources Planning from the University of Vermont. He has been an AICP certified planner since 1998 and holds certifications in wilderness medicine, swift water rescue, and canoe instruction. When not working you'll find him on a river or in the mountains.

Rebecca Pawling Kaplan R.A. is a registered licensed architect in Vermont and Colorado with over 15 years experience in urban planning and commercial and residential architecture. Her passion is sustainable construction practices. She was a member of the AIA Committee on the Environment where she co-authored 'The Sustainable Resource Guide', a resource book of environmentally friendly building materials. Her area of expertise includes affordable housing, passive solar design, urban design, commercial public spaces, and interior space planning. Rebecca started her career with in the internationally famous architectural firm Moore Ruble Yudell where she worked on designing civic centers, theaters, and outdoor public spaces. She has designed art galleries in Arizona, high schools and higher education buildings in Colorado, a heath center in Celebration Florida, libraries and affordable housing throughout the country. She was the job captain for the Jackson Hole High School, which won two outstanding design awards. Rebecca earned her BA in Cultural History from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters in Architecture from UCLA.

Alan Aaron has over 15 years of experience in GIS. He graduated from Antioch Graduate School with a Masters degree in Environmental Studies majoring in Natural Resource Management. Alan's Masters Thesis examined how to use GIS technologies to integrate locally based environmental knowledge into the mitigation process related to environmental impact assessments. He continued this work after graduating by creating his own consulting firm, Geographic Resources. For the next 8 years Alan contracted with a variety of environmental groups from the non- profit and government sectors (municipal, state and federal agencies), focusing on creating GIS tools that provided these organizations with the ability to integrate environmental monitoring and assessment into environmental protection programs, generally focused on the use and preservation of watersheds. For the next 6 years Alan worked in the corporate sector where he created GIS based information tools to help Project Managers and Analysts better understand and integrate consumer behavior and demographics into marketing strategies. Currently, Alan provides Crane Associates with GIS mapping and data interpretation related to local community and economic development projects.

Jeffrey Carr has 22 years of experience as an economist with particular expertise in macroeconomics, economic forecasting, economic impact analysis, and fiscal policy analysis for federal, state, and local governments. Jeffrey has served as the Vermont State Economist and Principal Revenues Analyst as a consultant for over 14 years. He also serves as consulting economist to the Vermont Department of Economic Development and a number of businesses, and communities in northern New England. Jeffrey served as Legislative Director and Economist for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in the Executive Branch of Vermont government, and as Director of Research for a national education organization specializing in federal fiscal policy analysis. He has been the Econometric Model Manager for the New England Economic Project for the past 14 years. He taught economics in the Graduate School at St. Michael's College in Winooski, VT. He has been the keynote speaker at numerous conferences and has written extensively on the subject of economic policy. Jeffrey holds an M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics and a B.S. Degree in Animal Sciences from the University of Vermont. He is a member of the National Association of Business Economists and currently serves on the Essex Town Selectboard as Vice Chair. Jeffrey works with Crane Associates on housing, economic development and fiscal impact projects.

Nat Goodhue ASLA has over 30 years experience in park planning. For 22 years he was the Statewide Outdoor Recreation Planner for the State of Alaska where he designed and built parks, outdoor recreation facilities, and trails. He knows first hand how the design of the park determines cost, effects use, and the implications for long-term maintenance. Nat has been the Principal/Owner of Goodhue Land Designs for the past 11 years. He has designed numerous parks and public recreation spaces in New England. Nat's training includes: Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alaska; rural community development training at Michigan State University; a Master of Arts in Landscape Design at the Conway School of Landscape Design; and additional courses at the New York Botanical Garden and the Mike Linn Graphic Workshop in Manhattan Kansas. Respected by his peers, Nat was elected President of the American Society of Landscape Architects in Vermont and has served on the board for many years. Nat provides Crane Associates with landscape architecture and recreation planning services.

Gary Smith has over 30 years experience in GIS and remote sensing. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Masters degree in Remote Sensing. Gary worked for 14 years at the University of Vermont as a researcher and lecturer. While at UVM, he and two colleagues designed and assembled the first GIS database in the State of Vermont, which is now protected and maintained by the Vermont Center for Geographic Information and used by hundreds of public and private entities on a daily basis. Gary founded and became the President of Green Mountain GeoGraphics in 1988 and continues in this position today. Gary provides Crane Associates with all necessary GIS mapping and data interpretation.