Alicia John-Baptiste, a veteran of transportation and planning agencies in San Francisco will take the helm of the influential planning and urbanism think thank.
"The board of directors of the urban think tank SPUR has appointed Alicia John-Baptiste as its new president and executive director," reports J.K. Dineen.
John-Baptiste is a former chief of staff for both the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the San Francisco Planning Department, and has been working at SPUR as deputy director since 2015.
John-Baptiste will be the first female president of the influential organization in its 112-year history, replacing Gabriel Metcalf, who led SPUR from 2005 to 2018 and left last year to lead an urban planning organization in Sydney, according to Dineen.
Metcalfe's tenure was one of rapid growth, as the organization grew from four to 40 employees and opened offices in San Jose and Oakland. "The nonprofit, which has a $7.5 million annual budget, also built a new headquarters on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco, where it hosts a full calendar of lectures and panel discussions," according to Dineen.
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