Her prior experience in the public sector in Fairfax County, Virginia and her private sector consulting experience in the Chicago Metropolitan Area include land use planning, redevelopment using tax increment financing, fiscal impact analysis and public private partnerships. She has worked with the countries ofLithuania and Belarus to bring public participation and strategic planning into the mainstream of local government activities.

Garsys is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners; International Association of Facilitators and the Project Management Institute. She currently serves on the Board on Infrastructure and Built Environment of the National Academies, and has served on the Committee on Business Strategies for Public Capital Investment of the Federal Facilities Council. Ms Garsys holds a bachelor's degree in City and Regional Planning from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a master's degree n Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.