Planning for Chicagoland’s future.  Will we shape our future or let it shape us?

Erin Aleman (Al-le-mahn) is a planning and public policy expert, accomplished leader, and a positive change agent. 

She leads the award-winning Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) — the regional planning agency for 7 counties, 284 municipalities, and 8.6 million residents in northeastern Illinois. 

She is the first woman to serve in this role and the first professional planner to lead the agency. 

The CMAP team is comprised of transportation experts, data analysts, thought leaders, planners, policy influencers, collaborators, and consensus builders. CMAP has earned a revered reputation for advancing sound policy, driving innovative solutions, and leading transformational change. 

From helping to create a first-of-its-kind regional economic partnership, developing solutions to transform the region's transit system, and building consensus among the region's leaders on the highest-priority transportation projects, Erin and CMAP have left their mark on this region since Erin became CMAP's executive director in July 2019. 

The region consistently relies on Erin and her team to share their expertise and knowledge on national, regional, and local conference panels and media interviews. 

Aleman's career journey brought her full circle. Fresh out of graduate school in 2007, she joined CMAP as the agency's Phillip D. Peters Regional Planning fellow. Over the next eight years, she rose through the ranks to become principal planner in 2011 and played key roles in creating the highly successful Technical Assistance program, leading regional outreach for GO TO 2040 — the agency's first long-term comprehensive plan — and completing more than 20 local planning projects. 

She also held leadership positions at the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), first as a bureau chief and then as director of the Office of Planning and Programming. During her IDOT tenure, she provided strategic guidance, implemented performance-based tools, developed the state's first asset management plan, and was responsible for developing multimodal policy initiatives. She currently serves as the Chair of the Coalition for America’s Gateways & Trade Corridors (CAGTC) Board of Directors. Prior to this, she served as vice-chair