A huge congrats goes out to Brooke Thomas (Planning + Economic Development Group) for her work on leading a planning process that received the Silver 2017 National Achievement Award for Best Practices in planning from the American Planning Association (APA). Brooke was co-manager of Plan 2020 while serving as the deputy director of the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC), a private, non-profit organization with a 50-year history of providing a platform for leaders of Indianapolis’ public and private sectors to study, discuss, and address issues of concern and areas of opportunity affecting progress of the city.  GIPC and the City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) partnered to create Plan 2020, which received one of just 12 awards given by APA this year. Plan 2020 redefined planning in Indianapolis, meshing community vision, values, and strategy with an unprecedented, coordinated update to core city government plans. Between March 2014 and December 2015, Plan 2020 reached over 100,000 people using a dozen different community engagement vehicles. The award recognizes GIPC and the City their unique, decentralized approach to planning and its unprecedented degree of coordination and collaboration among public, private, and philanthropic organizations. Brooke and Brad Beaubien, long-range planning administrator for DMD, accepted the award on behalf of the larger Plan 2020 team at a luncheon on May 8 during APA’s National Planning Conference in New York City.