Catherine Ratté

former Deputy Director at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission

Catherine Ratté retired from 27+ years of planning in January 2026 as the Deputy Director at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Most of her professional planning work was as the Land Use & Environment department director at PVPC, the regional planning agency serving the 43 cities and towns in Hampden and Hampshire counties, where she established connections and collaborations across disciplines with a focus on sustainability, climate action and advancing equitable access to opportunity. Catherine is grateful to the MA chapter of the APA for naming her "Massachusetts Planner of the Year” in 2025. Previously she worked for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the United States Peace Corps in Cameroon and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Catherine has two master's degrees, Urban and Regional Planning and Social Work, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an undergraduate degree in Literature and Society from Brown University.