Vivian Kahn, FAICP,  has more than 35 years of planning experience in the public and private sectors including serving for more than a decade as Acting Deputy Director  and Manager of Current Planning and Zoning for the City of Berkeley's Planning and Development Department.  Before co-founding K/M/A in Seattle in 1979, she was Chief of the Community Assistance Division of the California State Office of Planning Research and a Senior Planner with the Association of Bay Area Governments.

Ms. Kahn has particular expertise in the development and administration of land use regulations, environmental review requirements, historic preservation, telecommunications, and live-work development.   She also manages K/M/A's work on general plans and plan elements, environmental assessment documents, and legislative and policy analysis.   Ms. Kahn has served as an expert witness and litigation consultant on planning and zoning issues. She teaches classes on land use planning and regulation and environmental review for University of California Extension at Berkeley, Davis, and Los Angeles and was Planner-in-Residence for the Sonoma State Department of Environment and Planning for the 2005 academic year.  She is a frequent speaker on planning and land use regulation at seminars and conferences for the American Planning Association, its California Chapter, and other groups.  Ms. Kahn is a co-author of the California Continuing Education of the Bar’s new publication California Land Use Practice and has written for publications including Land Use & Environment Forum and Planning. http://www.cproundtable.org/cprwww/docs/equity/08zone.htm

A former member of the National Board of the American Planning Association  http://www.planning.org, Ms. Kahn was chair of the Board's Legislative and Policy Committee http://www.planning.org/legislation/, on which she continues to serve, and is a  member of the American Planning Association’s Amicus Curiae Committee http://www.planning.org/amicusbriefs/.  She is a charter member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and was inducted into the Institute's College of Fellows in 2000 http://www.planning.org/faicp/faicp.htm.   She is also a long-time member of the California Planning Roundtable http://www.cproundtable.org/.

Ms. Kahn is a cum laude graduate Phi Beta Kappa of the City College of New York.  She studied  at the Pratt Institute, School of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning, Brooklyn, N.Y.  and also attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.