Ian Tobin

I'm Ian M. Tobin and I am an urban planner that specializes in providing advice to elected officials on issues related to affordable housing, neighborhood development and economic development. I currently live and work in Chicago, IL.

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My name is Ian M. Tobin and I am an aspiring policy strategiest and adviser who has several years of experience in conducting research, planning and policy writing experience. Much of my interests lie within municipal and regional government. My career goal is to utilize my skills and experience to advise elected officials in making policy decisions that will make Chicago a vibrant and dynamic city. I bring six years of policy and research experience both in the non-profit sector and in government (City of Chicago, CMAP, IHDA, and the Irish Parliament)

Housing Planning Intern at Illinois Housing Development Authority

October 2011 - May 2012

-Assist in carrying out research and analysis of housing foreclosure prevention and mitigation strategies, inventory of programs and resources, and related areas. -Respond to information requests as assigned (e.g. letters from the Governor’s Office of Citizens Assistance, OHCS housing information clearinghouse, and legislative impact notes). -Staff the Illinois Housing Taskforce by preparing for meetings and workshops.

Full Circle Intern at Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)

May 2011 - May 2012

-Training community organizations on data collection through asset mapping and occupant surveys to inform future planning -Compiling and Synthesizing relevant planning literature to prepare background information for neighborhood and sub area plans. -Analyze data, create maps and prepare project summary reports

Research Assistant at DePaul University

September 2009 - May 2011

-Appended data from various sources to relevant geographic data and boundaries -Generated maps related to housing, crime, demographics, green retrofitting, etc. -Created a method for determining urban decay using a time series of satellite images. -Conducted a population density analysis of Chicagoland

Student Researcher at Institute for Housing Studies

January 2008 - December 2009

-Managed a nine person team while conducting an audit of multi-unit buildings in four of Chicago's Neighborhoods. This included managing data collection in the field and cleaning data and forming it into a building inventory. I then used the inventory to co-authoring a report summarizing the data and resulting in several policy suggestions. -Collected property data from Cook County Assessor's Office, prepared an Affordability Index of Cook County and created a library of GIS mapping files that were used for all future spatial analysis.

Research Intern-- Dr. Leo Varadkar, TD at Irish Parliament

September 2007 - December 2007

Assisted the TD in Parliamentary business and constituency relations. Additionally, I conducted a longitudinal analysis of ministry expenditures, which resulted in a White Paper.

Mayoral Fellow at City of Chicago

June 2012

-Conducting policy analysis for the Mayor's senior staff.

University of Illinois at Chicago

2010 – 2013

Master of Science

DePaul University

2005 – 2009

B.A

Concentration: Geography, Minor: Public Policy Studies, GIS Certification

traveling, biking, cooking at home/entertaining, wandering the city and wine tasting