A Message from APA Maryland's President

Michael Bayer, AICP

APA Maryland’s Newest Chapter President

On behalf of the Executive Committee of APA Maryland, I welcome all planners across the state into an exciting and challenging 2026. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your chapter president for the next two years. I look forward to working with each of you to foster collaboration and provide professional development and networking opportunities to all our members across the state.

I want to start this message by thanking our outgoing president, Lynda Eisenberg, who has agreed to continue serving as treasurer. Lynda has taken the lead in sorting out our books so that we can serve our membership effectively. She has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get the chapter back on track post-pandemic, including supporting our highly successful 2024 conference, Two Tracks One Destination.

Speaking of which, the Chapter is making plans for another in-person conference later this year. If you are interested in helping to plan this event, please reach out to me or to April Smith, our business manager. We are in particular need of a Conference Chair, to help us pull off what I know will be an incredible event.

One element of the conference will be an awards program. I have been thrilled by the response to our call for nominations in both 2024 and 2025, as well as the enthusiasm of all our award winners and nominees, who are doing great work across Maryland and deserve our recognition and support. Joe Griffiths of the Maryland Department of Planning has done great work in assembling and coordinating this group, and you also have the opportunity to join them this year.

Every two years brings transition to our board, and I would like to highlight the work and years of service of outgoing members Sarah Diehl, Steve O’Connor, Richard Hall and Alan Feinberg. Sarah did an amazing job of coordinating the 2024 conference (please don’t be intimidated by filling her shoes if you are interested), and Steve spent many hours coordinating our Programming Committee, pulling together a slate of great presentations from the dozens of proposals we received.

Joining the board are new and familiar faces, including Jenny Plummer-Welker, a past president, as well as Tim Boucier, Spencer Shanholz and Gerald (Jay) Cousineau. Olivia Vidotto has moved from Southern Maryland to the Eastern Shore, and Kimberly Gaines remains our Western Maryland rep. And many of you may have already met or been in contact with Andrew Gray, who has done an excellent job as our Professional Development Officer through many study sessions and other professional development opportunities. And I can’t forget to mention April Smith and Andrew Bernish, our webmaster, for the great work they do for us.

We have vacancies for President-Elect and Treasurer and will be soliciting nominations later this year for an online election coordinated with the National APA schedule. More information on this to come.

We have vibrant participation from student, faculty and emerging planners in the Chapter and want to continue building on that, so please support them and their work and participate if you can.

I’ll close with a brief introduction, particularly for those I haven’t met yet. I have been a planner in Maryland for 25 years, both as a consultant (currently at Wallace Montgomery) and in public sector roles at the Maryland Department of Planning and Baltimore and Calvert counties. I also serve on the Smart Growth Network’s Steering Committee, through which I hosted national webinars through MDP and the Smart Growth Information Clearinghouse before joining WM’s planning group.

Please reach out to us if you are interested in being involved in any of the activities I have outlined. We will have more to come. And if you have reached out to us recently, we will be in touch soon.

Looking forward a successful 2026 to all of us individually, and as a Chapter.

Michael Bayer, AICP