Wardell Named Assistant Director

Erin Wardell has been named Assistant Director of Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation (LUT) effective July 8.

"Erin has been in a series of leadership roles during her 10 years with LUT," said Stephen Roberts, Director, LUT. “She has demonstrated exceptional leadership and organizational skills that are highly valuable to LUT and Washington County as a whole."

Wardell joined PDS as a senior transportation planner in LUT's Planning and Development Services Division in 2014. In 2016 she was promoted to principal planner, leading the PDS Transportation Planning section. She was promoted to PDS manager in 2022.

"Under Erin's leadership, the Planning, Development Review/Current Planning and Building Services teams in PDS have had tremendous successes," Roberts said. "COVID, retirements and unprecedented hiring challenges created unexpected setbacks for some of our work groups. Erin was able to work with her PDS leadership to fill vacancies, develop service-level targets and implement process improvements to address those challenges head on. The PDS team has excelled under her leadership, and I look forward to Erin bringing that experience to support the entire department."

Wardell has a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University. She holds a certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners and is a graduate of both the Women’s Transportation Seminar LEAD Program and the Oregon City/County Management Association’s Northwest Women’s Leadership Academy. Prior to her employment with Washington County, Wardell worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff (now WSP) as a transportation planner.

Washington County is committed to planning and protecting the uses of the land and to building and maintaining the best transportation system--balancing care for the natural environment, economic development, safety, equity, inclusion and community livability. The department is supported by about 330 employees who administer an operating budget of about $150 million.