Before joining RPA as Vice President and New Jersey Director, Carlos Rodrigues was Director of Planning for the Princeton office of Looney Ricks Kiss Architects, where he managed a large portfolio of private real estate development and redevelopment work, public sector and non-profit community development clients. Previously, he spent 10 years with New Jersey State Government – as Acting Director and Manager of Plan Implementation for the New Jersey Office of Smart Growth – where he was responsible for physical planning and design issues statewide. An architect and a planner, Carlos led a multi-prong effort to elevate the role of physical planning and design in the State through public presentations, educational initiatives (such as the NJ Mayors Institute on Community Design, in partnership with RPA), demonstration projects and both print and virtual publications, such as the award winning Designing New Jersey and Employment and Community. In that role, he provided technical assistance to developers, non-profits, local governments and other State agencies in the implementation of the smart growth objectives of compact, mixed-use, pedestrian and transit-oriented development. He is also the primary author of significant sections of the 2001 New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan.

Earlier in his career, Carlos worked in Europe and Asia, as well as in North America for private, civic and public entities. As an educator, he has taught community design and planning studios at Rutgers University,in the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and in the Department of Landscape Architecture, as well as in the graduate planning program at Columbia University. He teaches community design toNew Jersey housing authority and redevelopment authority officials, as well as Planning and Zoning Board members. He is a frequent speaker at conferences of planning and design professionals. His work has been recognized by the Congress for the New Urbanism, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the New Jersey Planning Officials and other professional organizations. He is President of the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association, a board member of Preservation New Jersey and chair of the Princeton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment. He has testified before the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Legislatures on planning issues.