Emily Liu is a nationally recognized leader in urban planning with 30 years of experience spanning Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio.  She currently serves as the Director of the Planning & Development Department for the City of Dallas.  Prior to this role, Ms. Liu spent over a decade as the Planning Director for Louisville Metro Government in Kentucky.  

Ms. Liu has extensive expertise in urban planning and development, encompassing long-range planning, zoning, development review, transportation, housing, urban design, and historic preservation.  Notably, she played a key role in leading Louisville’s acclaimed zoning reform initiative, which has been recognized as a model for other cities.

Beyond the local impact of her work, Ms. Liu is deeply involved at the national level in public policies and leadership roles within her profession.  In 2022, she received the planning field’s highest honor, becoming the first woman in Kentucky inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.  Most recently, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Planning Association.

Ms. Liu holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the George Washington University, as well as both a master’s and a bachelor’s degrees from Peking University.

Sam serves as the Deputy Director and Chief Building Official for the Planning & Development Department, overseeing the Permitting Division, which includes Commercial Permitting, Residential Permitting, and Building Inspections. He has been with the department since July 2006, previously serving in the Engineering Division. During his tenure, Sam managed and oversaw the planning, design review, scheduling, and construction of public infrastructure projects—such as streets, storm drainage systems, and platting—associated with private developments.

Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas, is a certified building official, a certified floodplain manager, and is a LEED accredited professional in building design and construction.

Andrea Gilles, AICP joined the City of Dallas in September 2021 and is the Deputy Director for the Planning & Development Department. She is responsible for the long-range planning and community engagement programs, zoning code amendments, city-initiated zonings, and urban design initiatives.  Since joining the City, one of Ms. Gilles’s primary roles has been to spearhead the ForwardDallas 2.0 Comprehensive Land Use Plan Update, a community-driven future land use vision to guide development in Dallas for the coming decades. Ms. Gilles has over fifteen years of community-based planning experience in Texas and the Washington, D.C. region. As an urban planner and advocate, Ms. Gilles has focused her work on inclusive community engagement, plan implementation, neighborhood investment and urban design.

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Andreea Udrea, PhD, AICP serves as Deputy Director of Zoning for the Planning & Development Department which oversees processes and functions of the Dallas Development Code. The team holds the zoning administration functions of the city via rezonings, variances and special exceptions review and all things associated with development code amendments, in addition to the development review via zoning compliance determinations and review, platting, landscaping, and signs. The team is also facilitating and acts as administrator of the City Plan and Zoning Commission and its subcommittees, and the Board of Adjustment. 

Andreea has been working for the City of Dallas for five years and has been serving in a leadership capacity for the past three years. She is also a European planner, moved to the United States from Bucharest, Romania, where she led the Planning Agency for City of Bucharest and was an assistant professor with the University of Architecture and Urban Planning “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest. Andreea learned how to drive and got her driving license upon moving to United States of America, hence she still retains all pedestrian-only instincts when planning and coding cities. 

Andreea holds a Bachelors, Masters, and a European PhD in Planning from the University of Architecture and Urban Planning “Ion Mincu” from Bucharest, Romania. She is a certified American planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners.