Our Staff

Mike Basinger serves as the City of Spokane Valley's community and economic development director. He has served in several leadership capacities since joining the City in 2004. Basinger has over 25 years of experience in community development and is responsible for the city's economic development efforts, including developing and implementing strategies to drive economic growth and development and supporting relationships with civic, business, governmental and other economic development stakeholders. He also oversees the city's building division, code enforcement and planning efforts, focusing on ensuring capital investments support economic development initiatives along with balancing growth and livability in the community. Basinger has a Bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning and a Master's degree in Public Administration, both from Eastern Washington University and is also a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners.

An important part of tourism marketing and economic development is community outreach and engagement. After all, a vibrant city should reflect the shared vision and values of its residents. Lesli manages the city's Tourism Promotion Area (TPA) Program, including serving as liaison to the TPA Hotel Commission for tourism initiatives and coordinating with community partners to develop and market annual events. In addition, Lesli manages the marketing programs for CenterPlace Regional Event Center and the Economic Development Department. Lesli joined the City in 2017 and brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications, public affairs, community relations and customer service. Her experience is primarily in the education and government sectors, including previous work for state governments in Montana and Oregon. She holds a Bachelor's in journalism and a Master's in public administration. When the work day ends, Lesli enjoys gardening, spending time on the water with her family - either paddleboarding or kayaking - and spoiling her yellow lab, Cricket.

Teri Stripes, the city's Economic development Specialist, is the first point of contact for our industry partners. Teri has previous experience at the City of Spokane where she served as an Economic Development/Principal Planner.  She has extensive knowledge and experience relating to the profession of planning and economic development.  In her role at the City of Spokane, she worked on a variety of development incentive programs such as brownfield redevelopment, tax increment financing districts, public development authorities, and business improvement districts. Please reach out to Teri if you are launching a new  business, or want to expand your existing business, for helpful assistance.

Matt has an extensive background in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with 14 years of progressive experience in the field. He is responsible for the administration of the city GIS system. Matt specializes in the development of customized GIS solutions to streamline city workflows. He has a diverse background in providing effective decision-making tools to support city initiatives. He also performs complex spatial analysis simulating scenarios to determine the availability of land to support projected population and employment growth.

Matt has degrees in Management of Information Systems and Geography, with a Certificate in Geographic Information Systems from Eastern Washington University. He looks forward to applying his diverse GIS background towards making the City of Spokane Valley a great place to live and work. In his downtime, he enjoys going to the lake and ocean, taking hikes in the rainforest, sledding and traveling to warm places.

Robin is a native to the area and has worked in local government for over 25 years. Her professional life has been wide-ranging in both title and logistics. She has worked as a code enforcement officer, 911 dispatcher, evidence technician, public records officer and financial analyst - by way of Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and Washington. Throughout her career, Robin has perfected her ability in nurturing collaborative relationships with community members, government agencies, nonprofits, community-based organizations, and business owners. Robin has always taken pride in working for entities that give back to the community and this position is no different. She serves as the city's business licensing specialist and is the primary contact for business owners navigating the sometimes-complex world of licensing requirements. Robin also works closely with the economic development director and staff to provide administrative support. When she's not at work, Robin enjoys spending time with her husband and their two English bulldogs, Maple and Morty, and exploring the world (34 countries and counting) and all things outdoors. She is also an athlete and enjoys playing ice hockey.