Infrastructure Planning and Asset Management
Mode Collective helps cities, utilities, and nonprofits plan, fund, and deliver adaptable infrastructure solutions—from concept through construction and sustainable operations guided by asset management principles.
Oakman Boulevard green stormwater infrastructure · WXYZ Detroit
Two decades leading public infrastructure
Capabilities
Resilient engineering, full-lifecycle asset management, and the public, federal, and philanthropic funding strategy that pays for the work — held together by people who have done it inside a city.
Turning hazard and flood data into buildable, cost-aware standards — so what gets built holds up to the climate that’s coming, not the one that’s past.
Knowing what you own, what condition it’s in, and what to fund first. Risk-based, neighborhood-level lifecycle thinking that keeps systems renewing instead of failing.
Identifying funding sources, developing and administering grants, and aligning strategy to the money that exists — federal, state, disaster-recovery, and philanthropic.
Standing up the structures, schedules, and protocols that move complex public programs from approval to delivery.
Bringing residents, agencies, and partners to the table so plans reflect the neighborhoods they serve and actually get built.
Strategy, negotiation, and operations work for cities, utilities, and nonprofits, informed by having sat on that side of the table.
Community development & funding
Mode Collective works with municipalities and nonprofits to turn community priorities into funded, deliverable programs. That means finding the right funding sources, developing and administering grants, engaging stakeholders, and managing programs through to results — with a focus on the neighborhoods that have waited longest for investment.
The throughline of Palencia’s public work — from a risk-based, neighborhood-level condition-assessment program at DWSD to green stormwater infrastructure on once-vacant land — is that the systems beneath a community are also a tool for rebuilding it.
Selected engagements
Contract work supporting the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Distressed Cities program, which builds capacity in small and under-resourced local governments — helping them strengthen operations, access funding, and deliver for their residents.
Partnership with the U-M Water Center, housed in the Graham Sustainability Institute, studying resilience in Southeast Michigan — including the role of green stormwater infrastructure in reducing flooding and combined sewer overflows. Funded by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation.
Approach
An asset-management mindset applied to whatever the problem is — a pipe network, a housing stock, or a strategy.
Understand the system as it is — condition, exposure, capacity, and the people it serves — before recommending a thing.
Prioritize where dollars do the most good, and line up the funding sources that make the priority list real.
Build the standards, ownership, and maintenance logic that keep the result resilient long after the engagement ends.
Leadership
Palencia Mobley founded Mode Collective in 2022 after more than two decades planning, designing, and managing water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. As Deputy Director and Chief Engineer of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, she led the capital program, engineering, and regulatory affairs for one of the largest water systems in the country — standing up a risk-based asset-management program, delivering $20M in green stormwater infrastructure, and increasing infrastructure renewal fivefold.
Earlier, she managed the bifurcation of DWSD and helped negotiate the Great Lakes Water Authority during Detroit’s bankruptcy. She chairs the Michigan Infrastructure Council and co-chaired SEMCOG’s Water Infrastructure Task Force, and she advises on how infrastructure dollars can create lasting opportunity in the communities that need them most.
Media & recognition
Contact
Working on resilient infrastructure, capital strategy, community development, or a project that needs the funding figured out? Start the conversation.
palencia@modecollective.co →