Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Dr. Szibbo has over 10 years of experience in sustainable city planning and design. She is currently a practicing urban and regional planner at the City and County of Honolulu, Adjunct Professor in the Global Leadership and Sustainable Development (GLSD) program at Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU) and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Dr. Szibbo obtained both her Master of City Planning and PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California—Berkeley, and her undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of British Columbia (UBC).
While at UC Berkeley, Nicola worked for the Center for Resource Efficient Communities (CREC), the Urban Analytics Lab (UAL), and Global Metropolitan Studies (GMS) researching sustainable community strategies. Her professional planning experience includes planning and design work at both the Port of San Francisco and the City of Surrey in British Columbia. Her current research focus is on sustainable development, sustainable urban design and metropolitan resilience planning.