Colleen McHugh is an urban planner with fifteen years of experience supporting climate and resilience planning and implementation at the local, state, and federal level.

Colleen leads much of The Water Institute’s resilience planning practice, including managing the development of comprehensive city resilience strategies for Houston, Jacksonville, and Mobile. Colleen has helped to lead several other long-range water resources, climate mitigation, and adaptation plans for the Institute, including the Louisiana Climate Action Plan and civil works and R&D strategic plans for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Colleen has extensive experience advising public sector partners, translating science to support decision making, managing ambitious and inclusive planning processes, facilitating interdisciplinary workshops, designing projects and policies, providing technical and programmatic support through implementation, and communicating complex issues through clear visuals and language.

Prior to joining the Institute, Colleen spent five years working in the public sector in New Orleans, advancing resilience and sustainability projects and programs that have become national best practices. She was instrumental in the development of the city’s award-winning resilience strategy and first climate action plan, the design and implementation of FEMA- and HUD-funded neighborhood-scale green infrastructure projects, and the customization of climate adaptation decision support tools. She focused on long-term visioning, strategy, and integrated planning, and successfully translated those efforts into proven implementation and cross-departmental collaboration.