Administration
Wren G. Krahl serves as the Interim Executive Director for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Through her duties she works closely with the TBRPC Chair and Council Members in the overall administration of the Council’s mission. As a SHRM certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and a HRCI Certified Professional (CP), her other duties include serving as the Human Resources Officer for the organization as well as overseeing Florida State Record Management requirements. She is also responsible for the planning, coordination and implementation of Council related conferences, events and meetings as well as Council publications.
Wren has been a resident of the St. Petersburg area for 44 years, is an Honors graduate of Eckerd College in American Studies, and has been with the Council since 1998.
Sarah Vitale, AICP serves as the Planning Director for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. She specializes in urban design visualization, GIS mapping, and 3D modeling, and provides planning and technical support across the Council’s projects and programs.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Social Science and a Master of Science in Planning, both from Florida State University. She is a member of the American Planning Association’s American Institute of Certified Planners and the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Cara Woods Serra, AICP, CFM serves as the Director of Resiliency for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Her current role with the Council involves disaster preparedness, hazard mitigation planning, and resiliency policy. She has a land use planning background and previously worked on special area plans, long range plans, development review and floodplain management at the local government level. Cara supports the work of hazard mitigation professionals throughout the Tampa Bay region in an effort to facilitate knowledge sharing and regional consistency.
Cara has a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from the University of South Florida and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Maria Robles serves as the Manager of Administration/Public Information and Board Liaison for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. She is trilingual (Spanish, English, and French) and specializes in graphic and website communications. Maria manages the English to Spanish translations for the annual Disaster Planning Guide publication. She also serves as staff for the Courtney Campbell Causeway Scenic Highway.
Maria holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminology, a minor in French, an Associate of Arts degree in Graphic Design, and a Certificate of International Studies. She graduated from the University of Tampa with Cum Laude Honors distinction. She was born in Mexico City and now lives in Tampa with her beagle Aqua and hedgehog Redgie.
Staff & Fellows
Amy Bidwell serves as a Senior Planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Her role with the Council involves hazard mitigation planning, vulnerability assessments, and the Regional Local Mitigation Strategy Working Group. She has an emergency management, hazard mitigation planning, and floodplain management background at the local government level leading large planning efforts and projects in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Notable projects include the most recent Coastal Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) updates, Community Rating System re-verifications, Local Mitigation Strategy Plan development, review and updates, and deployment to Tallahassee during times of disaster to serve as a Disaster Recovery Center Coordinator.
A New Jersey native and longtime Florida resident of 41 years, Amy has a Master of Geography degree from the University of South Florida.
Brian Ellis serves as the Emergency Management Planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. He manages the Tampa Bay Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Subcommittee of the LEPC. Additionally, Brian supports facility management for the Council’s 25,000 sq. ft. commercial building.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and has been with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council since 2016. He is a native Floridian growing up in Seminole, Florida. He is a member of the American Planning Association and Forward Pinellas Technical Coordinating Committee.
Ashley Mott serves as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Manager for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. She coordinates geographic activities for the Council and supports planning efforts through GIS data management, analysis, modeling, and cartography.
A native Floridian, but longtime Colorado resident, Ashley earned a Bachelor of Science in Land Use from the Metropolitan State University of Denver and a Master of Science in Geographic Information Science from the University of Denver. She is a member of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association and volunteers for its GIS Corps program.
Jamie Neville is the Disaster Recovery Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Jamie works to support economic recovery efforts in Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ian. She coordinates the efforts of local governments, economic development organizations, and individual businesses by providing direct assistance in identifying vulnerabilities between agencies, navigating and accessing resources, and aiding in implementing economic recovery and resilience initiatives. Additionally, in this role, she performs economic impact analysis on behalf of, and in partnership with, regional entities and facilitates grant proposals to the Economic Development Administration. Previously, her focus was the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy of the nine participating Regional Planning Councils.
Jamie holds a dual bachelor’s degree in economics and political science with a concentration in international relations, international economies, and terrorism from the University of Tennessee. She has 6+ years of experience in modeling economic issues and contributing to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data on topics spanning environmental policy, energy, resiliency planning, fiscal policy, economic development, and healthcare policy.
Gillian Palino serves as a Fellow through the Gulf Research Program and was matched with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. She brings expertise in hydrology, urban stormwater management, and green infrastructure.
Gillian holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Soil and Water Sciences from the University of Florida. She currently is pursuing a doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee with a concentration in Water Resources Engineering. She is also a student member in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Alana Todd serves as the Principal Environmental Planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Alana supports the Council’s work on regional environmental management and resilience-related activities, including the Agency on Bay Management (ABM). She also serves as staff for the TBRPC environmental journal Bay Soundings (now in its 20th Year), the Florida Department of Transportation’s Stormwater Grant Education Funding, and the Stormwater Management Committee.
Alana holds a BS in Environmental Science and Policy and BA in Anthropology from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, as well as a Master of Science in Marine-Estuarine and Environmental Science with a concentration in Environment and Society from the University of Maryland. She represents the Council on various environmental committees and agencies within the six-county region.
Harry Walsh serves as the Senior Economic Development Planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Harry performs economic and fiscal impacts analyses on behalf of, and in partnership with, regional entities, maintains the Tampa Bay Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, and facilitates grant proposals to the Economic Development Administration. Harry has six-plus years of experience using economic modeling tools such as REMI PI+, IMPLAN, Esri, and RStudio.
Harry has a degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Courtney Wright, LEED GA serves as a Senior Planner for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. She is the Program Manager for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program. Courtney assists in the planning and technical support for the Resiliency Coalition through the Regional Resiliency Action Plan and also supports staff with environmental planning and energy-related initiatives.
Courtney holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of South Florida. She also holds a Master of Arts in Global Sustainability with a concentration in Sustainability Policy, and a graduate certificate in Climate Change and Sustainability from the University of South Florida. She holds a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Green Associate (LEED GA) accreditation and is also a member of U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Florida and USGBC Tampa Bay chapter.
