As a highly accomplished planner with 35 years of management experience, Deborah Schutt's reputation for dynamic leadership is well deserved. She combines excellent communication skills with an outstanding ability to bring people of differing goals and viewpoints together in order to analyze issues and find the solutions that will best serve the community.

Schutt built her career working on behalf of Oakland County. In 1993 she was appointed director of planning for Oakland County. In 1997, Deborah Schutt established Schutt & Company. Schutt & Company is a unique, result oriented community/land use planning consulting firm offering varied services, innovative approaches and a somewhat different company structure. The firm’s strength lies in aligning itself with like-minded experts in landscape architecture, urban design, engineering, marketing, communication, and promotion.

In the thirteen years that Schutt & Company has been established, clients include: the Michigan Department of Transportation (projects include: I-75, M-15, I-375, Detroit Intermodal Freight Terminal); Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (Woodward Avenue); GLS Region V; St t. Clair County; cities of Ann Arbor, Clawson, Imlay City; Eastpointe, Mount Clements, Oak Park, villages of Oxford, Almont, Holly and the Townships of Redford and Clinton; Woodward Avenue Action Association; Improving Michigan’s Access to Geographic Information Networks (IMAGIN), Michigan Society of Planning, Land Information Access Association, Polly Ann Trail Management Authority, Marygrove College along with several private sector clients.

Schutt's accomplishments have been commended through various honors by organizations such as the National Association of Counties for the Transportation Systems Management Plan, National and Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association, Michigan Society of Planning Officials, and the Michigan Chapter off the American Society of Landscape Architects. She was named "Michigan’s Outstanding Professional Planner of the Year" by the Michigan Society of Planning and the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Schutt specializes in downtown, neighborhood and community revitalization and sustainability through a comprehensive approach which combines planning, economic restructuring result orientated strategies, promotion and communication.

She graduated from Valparaiso University and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Wayne State University. Schutt's professional affiliations include membership in the American Institute of Certified Planners, Michigan Professional Community Planner, Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association (Planning Officials Development Officer 1998) and the Michigan Society of Planning (Board of Directors 1989-1995, President 1993-1994). In 2005, she received the highly prestigious Main Street Manager Certification from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1998 Schutt & Company was certified by the Michigan Department of Transportation as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and re-certified in 2002 and 2006.

Schutt & Company is a corporation registered in the State of Michigan.

Personal passion for Deborah Schutt is bringing 21st century planning and practice to Michigan’s Animal Welfare/Control groups. She established in 2003 and chairs the non-profit Michigan Pet Fund Alliance which conducts spay/neuter clinics for pets of low-income families, supports large adoption events, identifies and supports needed legislative changes and provides technical assistance and plans to animal welfare agencies responsible for the deposition of Michigan’s annual 225,000 homeless companion animals (118,000 of which are euthanize) to achieve a “no-kill” status for Michigan.