Abby Littman, a Planning Associate at The Water Institute of the Gulf, specializes in hazard mitigation and planning and policy research. As a former public school teacher, Littman said her 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, Littman’s experience includes regional transit analyses, community engagement, hazard mitigation, and resiliency planning. Littman 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, Littman earned certificates in GIS, Disaster Management and Community Resilience, and a FEMA certificate in Mitigation Planning for Local and Tribal Communities.

Before joining the Water Institute, Littman was an independent contractor with RIDE New Orleans where she worked to collect and analyze data to support transit accessibility for city-wide annual reports and she was a practicum student working with the Louisiana Watershed Initiative where she created Floodplain Species Assessments for Louisiana Community Rating System communities in order to improve ratings under the National Flood Insurance Program.