Anna Leisher

Anna Withrow Leisher recently joined the SGA team as a Project Planner. Formally trained as an educator and landscape architect, Anna brings nearly a decade of experience in brownfield, river, and trail-focused planning and design. Anna is passionate about implementing inclusive participatory design processes and asset mapping to inform planning and design. She loves engaging with communities to take a close look at sites that are no longer benefiting them and to explore the possibilities for reuse.

Anna earned her master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design at West Virginia University and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education. Prior to joining the SGA team, Anna worked for over seven years at the Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center where she played a role in over thirty brownfield redevelopment projects and related programs, including several US EPA Brownfield projects, the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition, the WV Mon River Towns Program and the WV Brownfields Grant Training Series. Anna also has nearly two years’ experience working as Planning and Project Manager at Riverlife, where she played a role in large-scale planning projects, including the Completing the Loop Plan, as well as smaller-scale capital improvement projects.

Having spent free time through her young adult life as a whitewater adventure guide and mountain biker, Anna currently resides with her young family on a homestead in Western Pennsylvania. When she is not keeping up with the demands of work and family life, Anna thoroughly enjoys hiking, biking, paddling, and cross-country skiing.