BUILT ENVIRONMENT EXPERT
- Principal at Vitruvian Planning
- Experienced planning professional with a career emphasis on active transportation, public transit, health, and housing
- Award-winning planner, recognized by honors from the American Planning Association, Transportation Research Board, and AARP
Award-winning planning professional with a career emphasis on active transportation, public transit, health, and housing
Don Kostelec is a Blue Zones Built Environment Subject Matter Expert and principal of Vitruvian Planning. Don has worked in the public and private sector with a career emphasis on active transportation, public transit, health, and housing. He has been in the private sector since 2008, working for world-renowned consulting firms prior to starting his own company in 2011 and merging with Vitruvian Planning in 2017. Don’s specialty areas include public policy and governance, health and the built environment, age-friendly communities, housing policy, safe systems street design, wayfinding, and ADA compliance.
Don began his career with the Chicago Transit Authority before leading a variety of planning efforts with the Ada County Highway District in Boise, Idaho. Having grown up in southern Appalachia, he has a passion for developing solutions for small and medium-sized cities and towns, as well as rural communities, and helps these places translate ideas into tangible actions for smaller populations. Don’s work has been recognized with awards and accolades from the American Planning Association, Transportation Research Board, and AARP. He has a Master of Urban Planning and Policy degree from the University of Illinois Chicago and undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Journalism from Western Carolina University. When he’s not working, Don spends time outdoors—bicycling, hiking, and camping—and loving life with his partner Melissa and teenage kid.
