Alexis Wheeler Named Assistant Planning Director

Town Manager Paul Bockelman announced at the July 20 Town Council meeting that the town has hired a new assistant planning director to replace Nate Malloy, who left in May to become the town administrator in Hadley. According to her LinkedIn profile, Alexis Wheeler has spent the past eight years in the New York City planning department, serving as director of the Queens office of the New York City Department of City Planning during that time. She began her work in Amherst in July.

Wheeler has two master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: one in City Planning, Urban Design, and Planning and another in Real Estate Development. Her undergraduate degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is in architecture and building sciences.

Bockelman said that Wheeler was attracted to the Amherst job because of the upcoming challenges around the future uses of the Hampshire College campus and the Wildwood Elementary School.