The Planners

Elsa Johnson, PhD

A former physics and astronomy instructor at the UO for over 10 years, Dr. Johnson, or Elsa as she prefers, researches the history of property creation and development. This is a critical first step for many planning projects as the interpretation of land development laws have grown more complex in recent years.

Elsa also maintains Metro Planning's open source GIS websites. She is proficient in Python, shell scripting, SQL, HTML, Javascript as well as ArcGIS and open source GIS software. Elsa holds a PhD in physics from the University of Oregon and periodically teaches physics workshops and astronomy courses. In her spare time she loves watching history documentaries, hiking and finding the ever-elusive agate.