The Community Wildfire Planning Center (CWPC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to leading the strategic connections between land use planning, building and development practices, and wildfire risk. Since its founding in 2017, CWPC’s specialized expertise has provided communities across the U.S. with unparalleled services and tools to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from wildfires. CWPC is funded through a combination of grants, contributions, and fee-for-service work.
CWPC Staff and Directors
Molly Mowery, AICP
Executive Director
Molly Mowery, AICP is a trained and certified land use planner with 20 years of planning experience. She has been a pioneer in integrating land use planning with wildfire mitigation and adaptation strategies for communities across the U.S. and Canada. Molly serves as Executive Director of the Community Wildfire Planning Center (CWPC) and is founder of Wildfire Planning International, an international consulting firm. In addition to providing technical assistance to communities, she frequently teaches, speaks, and writes on the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Her professional highlights include creating the first WUI planning course for FEMA, co-authoring APA’s PAS Report: Planning the Wildland-Urban
Interface, drafting land use planning guidance for the Canada’s National Guide for Wildland-Urban interface Fires, and providing the Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and Law for the Vermont Law School. She currently serves as chair of the
American Planning Association’s Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Division. Molly earned a bachelor of arts from Naropa University and a master in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Deanne Suddaby
Office Manager
Deanne Suddaby has spent most of her career developing her expertise in office administration and accounting. Deanne’s previous work experience includes serving as the Business Administrator and FireSmart Program Coordinator with FireSmart Canada—the country’s premier national wildfire resiliency program. Specifically, Deanne provided significant contributions to the development of the FireSmart Neighbourhood Recognition Program, the FireSmart Home Partners program, and the National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day initiative. Deanne continues to work with FireSmart Alberta and FireSmart BC and also provides professional business services to firms and non-profit organizations, including CWPC, to assist in contract administration, grant reporting, and office management tasks.
Donald L. Elliott, FAICP
Director
Donald L. Elliott, FAICP, is a Director with Clarion Associates, LLC, a national land use consulting firm. Don’s practice focuses on land development regulation, fair housing, reasonable accommodation, and affordable housing. Don has assisted over 40 U.S. communities to update plans and regulations related to housing, zoning, subdivision, and land development. He is the author of A Better Way to Zone (Island Press 2008), co-author of The Rules that Shape Urban Form (APA 2012) and The Citizen’s Guide to Planning (APA 2009) and has served as the editor of Colorado Land Planning and Development Law for over 25 years. Don teaches a graduate level course on Land Use Regulation at the University of Colorado at Denver School of Architecture and Planning and is a member of the Denver Planning Board. Don has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy Analysis from Yale University, a law degree from Harvard Law School, and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
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Kelly Johnston, RPF, FBAN
Operations Director
Kelly Johnston is a Chief Fire Officer, Registered Professional Forester, and Fire Behavior Analyst with more than 34 years of experience in wildfire management locally, nationally, and internationally. Kelly serves as the Operations Director of the Community Wildfire Planning Center (CWPC). Kelly led the concurrent development and implementation of the REALFire (U.S.) and FireSmart Home Partners (Canada) Home Ignition Zone assessment programs. He developed the first wildland-urban interface regulation course for FEMA, co-authored APA’s PAS report: Planning the Wildland-Urban Interface and served as the WUI subject matter expert and task group lead in the development of Canada’s first National Guide for Wildland-Urban interface Fires. He remains active operational WUI response and planning in national and international initiatives, including appointments as an NFPA Wildland and Rural Fire Protection Technical Committee member, and CAFC Climate Adaption Committee member.
Cynthia Thrall
Director
Cynthia Thrall is a Keller Williams REALTOR® in Vail Valley, Colorado. She is also a Neighborhood Ambassador and the Eagle County REALFire® Liaison for the Vail Board of Realtors. REALFire® is a wildfire risk reduction program that provides homeowners with an opportunity to take action on their property. The program provides free property assessments to educate residents on how their home and landscaping may be susceptible to wildfire and specific ways to reduce wildfire threat. The program is locally managed by Eagle County in collaboration with the Vail Board of REALTORS®. Before becoming a REALTOR® Cynthia was a Vice President at Chase Bank in Chicago for 23 years and managed operations, security, loan accounting, ATM Deposit Processing, and was a conversion coordinator for 14 branches. Cynthia’s next endeavor was to become President of eight car dealerships in the Chicago area. She was also President of Jacobs Part Center LLC. In addition she was Executive Manager of: Chevrolet, Cadillac, and the Subaru franchises. Once Cynthia and her husband moved to Colorado permanently she added volunteering to her schedule and became Chairwoman on the VBR Foundation. She was also earned her certification in Suicide first aid and Adult Mental Health first aid. For fun Cynthia took up flying Cessna’s, which had been a childhood dream.
Wayne Chen
Director
Wayne Chen is the Assistant Community Development Director in the City of Mountain View, CA. Wayne has worked on a wide array of housing initiatives, such as leading the development of affordable housing projects, developing policy initiatives to respond to tenant displacement, funding non-profit organizations to deliver key public services, and collaborating with foundations and the private sector including global technology companies to create and implement innovative strategies to accelerate the local delivery of affordable housing. The issue of wildfire planning and resilient communities is of personal interest to Wayne. Over the past few years, in particular the last two years, Wayne witnessed the severe drought conditions in California that led to the extreme fires throughout the State, especially in the Central Valley and in Northern California. Not only did this destroy homes and directly affect the lives of so many families, it caused severe air quality issues that indirectly impacted the health of millions of households and caused billions of dollars of damage to the natural and built environment. Wayne has a masters in public policy from UC Berkeley and a masters in urban planning from Harvard University.