Transportation Planner Joins MPC

Elizabeth Watkins joined the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission at the end of June.

She and her husband moved to Knoxville from Washington, D.C. where they moved after graduate school. She worked for more than a year as a Regional Planner for the National Park Service. Before that, Elizabeth spent time with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, focusing on brownfield redevelopment and pesticide regulation.

While she loved her time in D.C., Elizabeth is excited to be working in a region in which communities work so closely together.

She’s soaking up all she can from various boards, committees and organizations, all of which are working to maintain our great quality of life.

At MPC, Elizabeth will focus on both transportation and comprehensive planning. Her primary responsibility is with the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization, managing and updating the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). In addition to maintaining this program, she will assist the update of the Long Range Mobility Plan and take on tasks within comprehensive planning, working across planning perspectives to integrate transportation planning and land use.

"It's an exciting time to join the MPC team and the East Tennessee community. The pride and commitment to our great region is palpable - you can feel the energy downtown, in our parks and greenways, and all the way to the Smokies!

I’m really excited to see my efforts come to fruition locally and regionally while working for MPC."

Elizabeth grew up in Tampa, Florida and earned a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University. She and her husband, Dylan, live in a craftsman style home in the Oakwood-Lincoln Park neighborhood with their two Corgis.