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Women's History Month Highlight: Malee Tobias
Meet Malee Tobias, Principal and Chief Strategist of NewPlace Partners and hear about her diverse career journey.
Women's History Month Highlight: Dahvia Lynch
March 19, 2025
To celebrate Women’s History Month, ULI is highlighting some of our female members who are doing great work in the real estate and development sector.
Dahvia Lynch’s official title is Deputy Chief Administrative Officer at the County of San Diego, but when people ask what she does, she says, “I get to lead the team that paves roads, runs our libraries and parks, makes sure our homes and food are safe and helps create great places to work, live and play! I’m so proud and grateful to be a public servant here in San Diego County.” In her position, she oversees seven different departments and offices that all have to do with land use and the environment in some way.
Dahvia’s career interests have always been led by the goal of making the world a better place. This started as an interest in the natural environment and sustainability, and her formal education background is in planning and sustainability. Although she has moved around quite a bit, trying out different paths largely in the public sector, she has always made career choices based on her “why” of making the world a better place and growing as a professional.
“We will face these external challenges of how others see us, but the best thing we can do is make sure we know ourselves.”
As a woman in the male-dominated field of land use and development, she says she has certainly faced challenges, particularly with being taken seriously with the developers and, at times, community leaders as a young woman. “We will face these external challenges of how others see us, but the best thing we can do is make sure we know ourselves,” Dahvia advises. She notes the importance of having good coaches and mentors who can help you approach how to stand up for yourself and assert your place at table as well as empower you and reinforce your role when appropriate. It’s not a matter of having to prove yourself or “be ten times better” or not say ‘I don’t know’ just because you’re a woman, but rather having the “confidence of knowing that we belong,” she emphasizes. She says that this mindset pushes you to constantly keep working on your professional development while not feeling you have to compensate for others’ biases.
Despite these barriers, Dahvia recognizes the privilege she has had as well, noting that each woman faces unique challenges based on their identity. “Having DEI programs has been helpful to grow and evolve because I may not have been considered for certain positions, even though I was qualified,” she says. “[DEI] is critical to keep barriers down for qualified people and not allow [hiring] to be inhibited by unconscious bias and misperceptions.”
Dahvia joined ULI because she saw it as an organization on “the cutting edge of thought” in this space and valued the “incredible technical guidance” that ULI provides for planning and development professionals. She also appreciates that it brings together folks from across the land use disciplines in multidisciplinary conversation– a unique opportunity where these roles are often isolated in their own professional sphere. Notably, she wants to thank ULI for being “wonderful advocates for women professionals through WLI” and for the “recognition of unique value of those [identity-based] spaces for professionals.”
Dahvia’s advice for young professionals in the field is to “know your why and remember you belong.” She adds that everybody is continuously learning, and it is important to embrace that. “You have something to contribute,” she encourages. “It’s really about believing yourself and ensuring you are supported professionally.” Lastly, she says that if you are looking to find belonging in your professional community, find an identity group that can provide you with support and inspiration, and if you can’t find it, then make it.
Thank you to Dahvia for her involvement with ULI and for sharing about her career with fellow ULI members!