Gary Mitchell ’88

Gary Mitchell, FAICP, is a foremost practitioner of citywide comprehensive planning, including leading a high-profile comprehensive plan for College Station in 2007-08. About 20 years apart, in 1999 and 2019, Mitchell also led significant annexation planning efforts for the city of Bryan. The latter resulted in the long-term protection of Texas A&M University’s newly established RELLIS Campus through Bryan annexing it and its surroundings.

Mitchell is president of Kendig Keast Collaborative, a niche community planning firm based in Sugar Land that has consulted local governments in 41 states since 1982. His portfolio includes more than 60 plans – in communities ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 people – including Texas towns such as Bastrop, Kerrville and Nacogdoches. His consulting work has taken him to 20 other states in the Desert and Mountain West, Midwest, Great Lakes region, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S.

Mitchell earned a bachelor’s degree in economics with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin before receiving a master’s degree in urban planning from Texas A&M University in 1988. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor society for economics, and Tau Sigma Delta, the honor society for architecture and allied arts. In 2020, Mitchell was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Mitchell has served on the College of Architecture’s Planning Professional Advisory Council since the early 2000s, recently completing a six-year term as chair. He also lectured within the college, co-teaching a plan implementation course for graduate urban planning students.

The American Planning Association (APA) divisions have lauded 14 communities assisted by Mitchell as outstanding examples of urban planning, with awards in Illinois, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming demonstrating his versatility. He has served as a statewide and regional elected leader of APA.