San Joaquin Council of Governments Executive Director Diane Nguyen this week began a one-year tenure as chair of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Planning Agencies Directors Committee.
The committee is made up of the executive directors of the regional planning agencies in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Kings, Kern, Tulare, and Fresno counties, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. It provides input for elected officials on the San Joaquin Valley Policy Council, which is a forum for elected officials in those counties to consider regional issues such as transportation, air quality, housing and advocacy efforts.
"The executive directors committee is vital for building consensus between the agencies on how to manage important regional issues with a single vision,” Nguyen said. “We can have a greater impact on these important regional issues when we collaborate together on a plan of action.”
Nguyen replaces Kern Council of Governments Executive Director Ahron Hakimi as chair of the directors committee and Theodore Smalley, executive director of the Tulare County Association of Governments, replaces Nguyen as vice chair.
Nguyen became the SJCOG executive director in January 2021 after eight years as the agency’s deputy director of planning, programming, and project delivery. She has over 20 years of public service at the San Joaquin Council of Governments where she began her planning career in 1995. She left the agency in 2005 to serve as the Manager of Capital Programs and Public Policy for a private consulting firm and then returned in 2012.