Pashek+MTR Reflections on 2025
Intern Experience: Lola Hodgins
Over the past few months we have been pleased to have a new addition to our planning team, intern Lola Hodgins. A 2025 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Lola has taken on various roles during her time at Pashek + MTR. We sat down with Lola to find out how her internship was going so far.
Kara: We try to have our interns work on a variety of projects and activities at Pashek + MTR. What kinds of things have you been involved in so far?
Lola: As a Planning Intern, I have worked on a variety of projects, namely Implementable Comprehensive Plans for municipalities in both Southwestern P
ennsylvania and Western New York State. Since Planning is such an interdisciplinary field, I get to do many fun tasks (fun to me anyway!), such as designing branding and websites, research, using different ESRI tools, interviewing stakeholders, and more. Besides that, I have been helping with branding and mapping for various active and public transportation plans around Allegheny County. This has been especially exciting to me because in college, my friends and I had a group chat called “Future Transportation Planners of America.” Now, that is true!
Kara: Has anything surprised you or been different than what you expected?
Lola: One thing that surprised me was how writing style is a key part of our planning work. In our Implementable Comprehensive Plans framework, we try to convey the information in a way that tells a story and that is easy to digest, using plain language, not technical jargon. This is so that every person reading the Plan can understand it, not just planners or politicians. In college, I was taught technical writing for Fancy Official Planning Documents, so it has been different from what I expected in school, but much more fun.
Kara: What are the aspects of the job that you find most interesting and rewarding?
Lola: The part of my job that is the most rewarding is going to public meetings and engaging with people. I love meeting new people and making their voices heard. To me, that is the most essential part of equitable planning, and being able to do it on a regular basis is a huge privilege. I always leave events and one-on-one interviews knowing I made an impact on not only the plan we are working on, but the people themselves.
Kara: What do yo
u see yourself doing five years from now?
Lola: What I would most love to do five years from now is very similar to what I do now! I would love to be a consulting Community Planner. I find it so fun, interesting, and rewarding. It is what I’ve wanted to do since my first year of college, and I’m so grateful to have a taste of it now.
Sarah Rizk passes AICP Exam!
Congrats to Sarah Rizk for passing the AICP exam! (She didn’t tell us about taking the exam so we didn’t tell her about decorating her desk after she casually mentioned that she passed.)
Sarah joined Pashek+MTR’s community planning studio in 2023. Her contributions to Pashek+MTR have included working with Mt. Lebanon, Pleasant Hills, and Brentwood on their implementable comprehensive plans. As an urban planner focused on resiliency planning and sustainable transportation in communities, Sarah is passionate about finding the intersections between science, planning, and equity.
Welcome Christine and Amelia!
We are excited to announce that Christine Dunn will be joining us as a landscape designer and planner. Amelia Gority will also be joining us as an intern for the summer.
Christine is passionate about designing places with a commitment to social and environmental sustainability. She believes that successful places are created through thoughtful collaboration and celebration of the community’s voice through design.
Christine has a Bachelor in studio arts from the University of Texas at Austin where she worked as a botanical designer for several years. It was during this time that she fell in love with designing vibrant outdoor spaces and made the decision to pursue a Master in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning in 2020. Her education has equipped her with a strong foundation in design theory, history, and technical skills that she brings to her projects. She has worked in multidisciplinary environments as a Landscape Designer on a variety of projects including parks, outdoor learning environments, street improvements, commercial campuses, and residential developments.
Amelia will be completing her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at Pennsylvania State University’s Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in December. She focuses on learning about ecological processes in relation to advocating for greener public space and how we can work towards creating sustainable green infrastructure. She has studied abroad in Bonn, Germany and Venice, Italy. Amelia has experience with the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, AutoCAD, Civil3D, and hand drawing.
Welcome Sarah Rizk!
Welcome Sarah Rizk to the Pashek+MTR planning team!
Sarah is an urban planner focused on resiliency planning and sustainable transportation in communities. She is passionate about finding the intersections between science, planning, and equity. She believes in the power of building local capacities through local knowledge and collaboration. Sarah has experience in the areas of GIS, climate resiliency, and consensus building. Her equity and climate focused work has greatly impacted the way she believes planning should be integrated into communities. She uses mapping and data-informed processes and thoughtful community engagement to influence her work.
Her educational background consists of an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and a graduate degree in Urban and Environmental Planning. Prior to joining the team at Pashek+MTR, Sarah worked in environmental education and in the planning department at Pittsburgh Regional Transit. She has worked on a wide variety of projects including natural resource management, urban and community forestry communications, and transit-oriented development.
Congrats to Heather Fuller for passing the LARE!
Congrats to Heather Fuller for passing the Landscape Architecture Registration Exam! Heather is now a Registered Landscape Architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Proclamation Honors Jim Pashek for Work in Fox Chapel
On August 15th Jim Pashek was asked to provide Fox Chapel Borough council with an update on the Comprehensive Plan that we are preparing for the Borough. Little did he know it was a ruse so Council could present him with a Proclamation honoring his many years of dedicated service to the Borough.
Jim served on the Fox Chapel Park Commission for 14 years and volunteered for numerous activities from planting trees and picking up trash, to creating video grants to help fund new pedestrian-bicycle bridges, and writing grants for park improvements. He also donated his time as a planner and landscape architect to Pashek + MTR projects serving the Borough, such as the Hardie Valley Master Plan, the Joint Comprehensive Plan with O’Hara Township, and the McCahill Park Improvements.
The Park Commission members know him as a steady, dependable community service volunteer and friend who takes pride in his work and this community, and who is always ready to lend moral support or a helping hand when needed. Jim continues to make a significant positive contribution to bettering the environmental and community conditions of the Borough.
Congrats Jim for being honored for all your hard work to help make the Borough of Fox Chapel a better place to live! We at Pashek + MTR feel privileged to have the founder of our company be such an important role model, community volunteer, and leader.
Congrats to Max for Passing LARE
Congratulations to Max Geise for passing all of his Landscape Architecture Registration Exam! Max joined Pashek + MTR in 2017 and has since worked on numerous park, trail, and national cemetery projects as well as contributed his knowledge of GIS.