Irene Henry AICP Candidate

(she/her)

Irene is a transportation planner with Mead & Hunt, a planning, design and construction firm, and graduated in 2022 from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a Master’s of Urban Planning and Policy. Irene is passionate about getting people out of cars and into the public realm for connection, collaboration, and community. She has a background in music, studying French horn at St. Olaf College and learning how to build bridges across divergent backgrounds and beliefs through shared musical experiences. Irene loves discussing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and cool public spaces and how they’re part of the solution to climate change, systemic inequity, and social isolation.

Fun Facts

• Went to a circus camp every summer for five years and did the flying trapeze.
• Loves photography; recent projects include a 35mm camera and polaroid.
• Helped edit the book “Winning the Green New Deal” with other Sunrise Movement activists (a movement of young people striving to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process).