Dede Smullen

Background

About Dede Smullen

Dede (Dorothea) Smullen is an urban and environmental planner with a commitment to creating sustainable communities by addressing the causes and impacts of climate change through innovation, collaboration, and action. She recently co-founded Earth Foundries, Inc. to address California’s wildfire threat and global warming. She is also Chair and long time Board Member of the Santa Clara County Firesafe Council, working to prepare the citizens of Santa Clara County for the increasing risk of wildfire in our urban/rural interface. She received her B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from U.C. Davis and and AA in Business Administration/Entrepreneurship from West Valley College. She has twelve years of diverse planning experience working in dense urban centers, historical areas, new suburban subdivisions, and rural communities and 18 additional years working as a freelance planning consultant, community volunteer and Planning Commissioner. She has experience with CEQA and NEPA compliance, architectural design review, historic preservation, planned community developments, housing policy, transportation planning, flood-management, agriculture policy, and land-use policy. Major employers and clients have included: the Cities of San Francisco, Petaluma, Emeryville, Vallejo, and Alameda; the Counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara, Caltrans, and ABAG. Significant transferable professional skills include: Small Business Management Non-Profit Management Project Management Public Involvement Consensus Building Volunteer Management Inter-Jurisdictional Cooperation Grant Writing Large Event Planning Technical Writing Fund Raising Dede lives in Saratoga CA with her husband Roger and two of her three children Eliot (25), Gabby (23) and Thomas (20). In her free time she likes to travel and show her children the world, hike, camp, canoe, ski and row with the Los Gatos Rowing Club Novice Masters team. She has competed in triathlons and enjoys road biking, swimming and volleyball.