Heather Brandon is a writer, illustrator and photographer based in New England, where she raises three kids with her husband, a Web designer. Her photos and illustrations can be found at flickr. Her city blog, Urban Compass, can be found at urbancompass.net.

Heather is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Policy Studies from Trinity College.

Born in Phoenix, and raised in Pittsburgh, Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College in eastern Pennsylvania, where she minored in Fine Arts. She received the Cities department’s Bolton Award upon graduating for her thesis work on downtown Pittsburgh’s PPG Place.

She enjoys creative brainstorming, hiking, vigorous late-night Twittering, adventuresome margin-doodling, good jokes, word puzzles, strong coffee, policy arguments, and unrestricted use of a thesaurus whenever possible.

Pictured: Heather at her sister Kate’s wedding in Brookline, Massachusetts.