Two staff members are now Certified Planners after Stacy Griffin passed the American Planning Association's certification test in October.

Griffin joins Planning Director and Acting Town Manager Teresa Piner in earning the national designation.

Griffin has been employed with the Wendell Planning Department since January 2006.

She received her certification as a North Carolina Zoning Official in 2008.

"Teresa was my first exposure to the certification program," Griffin said

"Teresa encourages further education, whether it's personal or professional. I earned a degree in communication from the University of Alabama in 1989.

"I knew if I wanted to continue in planning, I needed my masters and AICP."

For work in planning, employers prefer candidates have a master's degree and American Institute of Certified Planners certification.

Piner has a master's degree in Public Administration specializing in Municipal Government from N.C. State.

Town Planner David Bergmark has a master's degree in City planning from UNC and is working toward his AICP.

While working full time for the town, Griffin earned her master's degree online through American Public University.

"For my thesis, I updated Wendell's hazard mitigation plan. It must be updated every five years," Griffin said.

"The previous plan, the town hired a consultant. I talked to the town manager and Teresa about updating it and how it would be a benefit to me and the town.

"The town was able to save quite a bit of money doing it in-house."

The American Institute of Certified Planners is the American Planning Association's professional institute, which provides leadership nationwide in the certification of professional planners, ethics, professional development, planning education and the standards of planning practice.

Griffin said pursuing the certification is a recognition of professionalism and sets the standard a planner has to live up to.

"The certification is recognition of a professional planner and has a strict code of ethics and a continuing education requirement," Griffin said.

Certified Planners must complete 32 hours of professional development courses every two years.

"It will help in my work because it lends credibility to me and the department," Griffin said.

"The continuing education aspect is good because it keeps you current with planning related theory and practice."

The AICP exam is a 150-question computerized test covering areas of concentration including history, theory and law; quantitative and qualitative research methods; environmental analysis; community development; planning at the town, city, county, state and national level; public participation techniques; and the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

The APA recommends at least 100 hours of study time prior to taking the exam. The national passage rate for the 2010 exam was just 62 percent.

Wendell has an education reimbursement policy that provides assistance for employees.

The Tuition Assistance Policy allows full-time employees who have completed initial probation to apply for tuition reimbursement for courses taken on their own time which will improve their skills for their current job or prepare them for promotional opportunities with the town.

Employees may be reimbursed eligible expenses up to a total of $750 per fiscal year.

Satisfactory completion of the courses with at least a C in graded courses will be required for reimbursement.

Griffin said the town covered the $100 cost of a review course and the $400 certification test fee.

"We do goals every year. One of my goals was to get my (planning certification)," Griffin said.

"I was able to use the continuing education fund two times. It's nice to know the town values employees continuing their education."