Work Anniversary Spotlight: Carlisle Dockery
How many years have your worked for Circulate and what is your title?
I have worked at Circulate for a little over 3 years, and I am the Director of Planning and Community Engagement.
Which role did you start out as and which role are you in now? Describe the different type of tasks you perform.
I joined Circulate in October 2021 as an Associate Planner and Community Engagement Specialist. After spending a little time in the Senior Planner role as well, I became the Director of Planning and Community Engagement in April 2023. The day-to-day of the job is definitely pretty different now, and I have to think about budgets, proposals, and program development far more than I could have anticipated, but I still get to spend about 40% of my time on the project-related work that I love the most! My favorite activities that Circulate’s planning team does are our walk audits, transit field trips, neighborhood bike rides, and GIS visualizations.
What are you excited for about the future?
All of the new bike projects coming to the San Diego region! I’m especially looking forward to the Imperial Avenue Bikeway and the Border to Bayshore Bikeway. I’ve loved riding the Pershing Bikeway since it opened earlier this year and can’t wait to have even more protected facilites for everyone to use.
During this time, what’s your most memorable face palm moment? Or what is your biggest achievement to date? Choose one.
This may be recency bias, but I loved getting to install a creative crosswalk on San Diego State University’s campus this fall. Studies have shown that these kinds of artistic quick-build solutions can reduce crashes, increase the likelihood drivers will yield to pedestrians’ right-of-way, and reduce driving speeds. As a planning team a lot of the work we do requires us to think about long-term goals and large-scale projects, so it’s always fun when we get to augment that with near-term action as well. Plus, I can’t think of a better way to spend a work day than being outside painting in the sun with my coworkers!
