Shelley Poticha

Shelley Poticha is the managing director of Healthy People & Thriving Communities, one of the four cornerstone programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading nonprofit group that fosters vibrant communities, protects people’s health, and preserves wild places. HP&TC leaders and staff are environmental advocates and partners in the places where we live, play, learn and work, putting people at the center of their work. They use policy, science, the law, finance, and public engagement to change systems, build agency, and secure more equitable and sustainable access to resources so that all can thrive.

Shelley is a longtime partner of NRDC in multiple initiatives including transportation policy reform, LEED-ND, and the creation of Smart Growth America, a non-profit coalition. Prior to joining NRDC, Shelley was a senior adviser and director of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Before joining HUD, she served as President and CEO of Reconnecting America, where she became a national leader for the reform of land use and transportation planning and policy with the goal of creating more sustainable and equitable development, particularly around transit stations. She also previously served as Executive Director of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Shelley holds a Master of City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is based in NRDC’s Washington, D.C., office.