The Oxford Board of Aldermen hired a new city planner Monday during an executive session at City Hall.

Hired is Judy Daniel, who is the former planning director of Asheville, North Carolina, and has more than 30 years experience in both public and private planning positions.

She was hired in Asheville in 2008. While there, the department developed a network of neighborhood planners to focus on improvising connections and dialog with the community, according to a story in the Citizen-Times newspaper which credited Daniel for keeping Asheville a thriving community during the recession in 2008-09. Among the positive achievements the city has seen under Daniel’s tenure are Council’s adoption of a new Downtown Master Plan and the incorporation of form-based code principles into the city’s planning process.

Prior to working in Asheville, she was the planning manager with Montgomery County, Maryland; the planning director for Williamson County, Tennessee; a planning consultant for the Island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and a planning coordinator for Elkington and Keltner Developers in Memphis, Tennessee.

She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning and Urban History degree from the University of Memphis.

She has been active in the American Planning Association, serving as president of the National Capital Chapter for four years. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and has been a guest lecturer at several universities.

She lives in Oxford and had been working with the Orion Planning Group, which is spearheading the city’s development of a new Comprehensive Plan, dubbed Vision 2037.

Mayor Pat Patterson said the vote to hire Daniel was unanimous.

“We felt she has an outstanding background being the former head planner in Asheville,” Patterson said. “We’re excited for her to come on board.”

Daniel is expected to begin her new role in the city’s planning department next week.

Daniel is replacing Andrea Correll, who announced her resignation in December.