Principal

Heather Worthington is an effective and powerful communicator built on 25 years of leadership experience in local government organizations. She connects with decision makers using her insightful analysis of each community, centers the problems in plain language, and offers effective next steps for city and county policy. 

Heather most recently served as Director of Long Range Planning in Minneapolis, where her team led the creation, engagement, and policy adoption of the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan. She has been a proponent of fiscal transparency and visualization of municipal finance since her work in Ramsey County, but brought Urban3 to Minneapolis to provide data visualization in conjunction with the Minneapolis 2040 planning process, and to address deep historic disparities caused by redlining, zoning, and land use policies through data visualization of municipal finance and planning.

Heather was the first Deputy County Manager appointed in Ramsey County, Minnesota, where she led the Economic Growth and Community Investment service team and led the restructuring of the County into service teams. She led the cleanup and redevelopment of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP), the state’s largest Superfund site. Heather served as the City Administrator of Falcon Heights, MN and Assistant City Manager of Edina, MN, where she worked on a broad range of policy issues including economic development, human resources, and organizational development. She teaches in the Hamline Center for Public Administration and Leadership program and also teaches Administrative Law in the Master’s in Public Administration program. 

Heather is committed to seeking authentic community engagement and leading efforts to strengthen communities that are experiencing change related to population shifts, racial disparities, displacement, and disinvestment.