Abby Littman, AICP, is a planner at The Water Institute specializing in resilience planning and policy research. As a former public school teacher, Abby’s interest in planning resulted from her experience in seeing the disparate impacts that existing infrastructure, or lack of infrastructure, had on her students and their neighborhoods.

Focusing on applied research and an intradisciplinary approach, Abby’s experience includes resilience planning at multiple scales, regional transit analyses, community engagement, and hazard mitigation. Abby graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo and with a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans. In addition, Abby earned certificates in GIS, Disaster Management and Community Resilience, and a FEMA certificate in Mitigation Planning for Local and Tribal Communities. Abby is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Before joining the Water Institute, Abby was an independent contractor with RIDE New Orleans where she worked to collect, analyze, and communicate spatial data to support transit accessibility for citywide annual reports, and she was a practicum student working with the Louisiana Watershed Initiative where she developed assessments for Louisiana Community Rating System communities to improve ratings under the National Flood Insurance Program.