General / August 18, 2016

Spotlight on Staff | Cathy Baranger, Principal

By: Anthony Fossi

The following are excerpts from an interview conducted with Cathy Baranger a Principal at WHA with a personality as colorful as her wardrobe and as warm as her smile, and recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award for Great Hair:

Cathy, just wanted to say thank you for meeting today. Let’s dive right in.

So…how do I phrase this…what do you actually do here?

LOL. Well I work with big, thick documents. I write and edit planning documents, entitlement packages, keep us up-to-speed on the latest green standards and programs. I answer questions for a number of designers and teams.

What’s something not a lot of people know about you?

One thing is that I helped organize the OC Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Also, I have had a non-conventional career track. I took a two-year break in my late twenties when my kids were 3, 5 and 7 and then went back part-time until they were in high school. Many things came together and pointed to me taking a break, so I did, and my husband and I watched every penny. I found it very important to spend time with my family; it is still a high priority.

Sounds like it must have been a busy time in your life.

It was. I started pursuing a park ranger career at Humboldt State, but instead followed my husband to his job in Southern California where I continued studying social ecology at UCI. Through school, I interned with the city of Costa Mesa, which led to a job with the city of Garden Grove, where we lived with our three kids and two dogs. Then we moved to Mission Viejo, and I commuted twenty-six miles each way, which eventually wore down more than just the tires.

I can imagine – that’s a marathon of a drive. When you went back to work, what made you want to be a Policy Planner?

I was born with paperwork in hand and loved pushing it around my home from pile to pile. My time in Humboldt resonated with me; I loved the area and I cared about the environment. At UCI, social ecology included a number of subjects, one being planning and I got interested in that because I often wondered why some streets look nice to walk down but others not so much. I worked with planners for many years at SWA Group and AECOM before venturing to WHA.

With all of that training from such a young age, how many specific plan documents can you bench press?

Oh I’d say a least a few dozen.

That’s impressive! How does your experience translate to your work at WHA?

I like to read and I have the patience to read through the long documents. I am good with details and paperwork. At WHA, I work with a lot of designers, but I am not a designer myself; so we work well together because we don’t butt heads. When we make our own specific plans, we have to live within our own rules, so we must make sure we do our homework well. I’m more of a facilitator, working to benefit everyone: the company, the client, the city, and the consumer.

What is one of your favorite things about working at WHA?

Designers are on the front end of a design, unlike working for the city reacting to a design. I am good at organizing and writing and bringing things together. I try to help the vision come to life, which I find rewarding.

Mrs. Baranger, would you say that your skills as a planner are built into your name, in a way destining you to “be” an “arranger?”

Well, it is not my maiden name, so no.

Touché. As a facilitator and planner, would you say you look more at the forest or the trees?

In trying to accomplish the goal of getting a project entitled or a design approved, I definitely look at the broader picture. However, in doing so, I often get down to the details that allow us to move forward. I think most people would correctly say I am more of a detail person, down in the weeds. That said, I never plan my vacations. I just go.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Three things: husband, grandchildren, RV. I’ve been over most of the roads west of the Mississippi, including a drive to Alaska. A trip I would love to do at some point would be a four month RV trip from Maine down to Key Largo.