Tricia Kessler, AICP

Chief Strategic Officer + Senior Planner

Tricia Kessler is the Chief Strategic Officer and Senior Master Planner at The Urban Collaborative, where she has been a foundational member since its inception in 2006. With over 30 years of military planning experience, Tricia brings unparalleled expertise to her role. A retired U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer officer, she served on active duty for eight years and in the Reserves for 12 more. During her time as an assistant professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology, she taught architecture, planning, and combat engineering while contributing to Air Force planning assistance teams, developing planning documents for installations worldwide.

Tricia has been a planner, facilitator, or project manager for over 125 planning charrettes globally. Since 2019, she has managed 20 projects at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, receiving seven national awards. Her five-year effort at Fort Hood resulted in an award-winning comprehensive planning package, including a Vision Plan, 11 Area Development Plans, Area Development and Execution Plans, Sustainability Component Plans, and reuse plans for the Carl Darnall Army Medical Center and Post Exchange, as well as a Memorial Park Master Plan.

Her portfolio spans projects for all four military branches and municipal efforts, with expertise in sustainable planning, form-based coding, force protection, and airfield operational planning. Tricia’s contributions have been recognized with over 30 planning and design awards.

She earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and completed Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base. Tricia has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners since 2014. She lives in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where she and her husband raised six children.