Julie Tschirhart

Julie is a passionate urban planner and advocate for zoning reform, non-motorized transportation, and sincere community engagement. She has had a wide-ranging planning career with nearly a decade of experience working in communities across the country. Starting her career in Boston doing community development, Julie has worked as a municipal planner in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Royal Oak, Michigan, before joining the Progressive Companies planning team. Julie was instrumental in developing the Michigan Association of Planning’s Zoning Reform Toolkit to address Michigan’s housing shortage, which won the American Planning Association’s Karen B. Smith Chapter Award for Outstanding Achievement. Julie was also awarded the AICP Outstanding Student Award upon graduation from the Master of Urban Planning Program at the University of Michigan in 2017 and served as Vice President on the Transportation Riders United Board of Directors in Detroit from 2017-20. At Progressive, Julie is a member of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

“Growing up in Metro Detroit, I saw the profound impact that place has on identity and access to opportunity,” says Julie. “I became a planner to help address these spatial inequities and create more prosperous communities for all.”