CNU 24 Speakers
New speakers will be added as they are confirmed. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A  Kevin Alexander Senior Planner, City of Windsor Planning Department Kevin Alexander is a Senior Planner with the City of Windsor Planning Department in Windsor Ontario. Kevin has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Windsor and Masters in Urban
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Marianne Cusato is an expert in the fields of real estate trends and housing. Her messages speak to the ever-changing needs of homeowners striving to balance the practical requirements of economy and durability with the desire to love where we live. Cusato is renowned for her work on innovative housing solutions for disaster recovery. Her 308 s.f. Katrina Cottage design won the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2006 "People's Design Award." She has been ranked the No. 4 most influential person in the home building industry by Builder Magazine, voted one of the 30 Most Influential Women in the Housing Economy by HousingWire Magazine and selected by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top Women in Real Estate.

A spokesperson and housing expert for IAC’s HomeAdvisor (NASDAQ: IAC), Cusato leads the HomeAdvisor Insights Forums, a series of events exploring important issues affecting the homebuilding industry such as aging-in-place and residential construction labor shortages. Cusato is the author of two books: The Just Right Home: Buying, Renting, Moving...or Just Dreaming--Find Your Perfect Match! with Daniel DiClerico (April 2013, Workman Publishing) and Get Your House Right, Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid, with Ben Pentreath, Richard Sammons and Leon Krier, foreword by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales (January 2008, Sterling Publishing).

Sonya S. Mays is the President and CEO of Develop Detroit – a real estate and housing development firm focused on improving housing stability and creating economic opportunities across Detroit. She previously served as Senior Advisor to the Emergency Manager of Detroit. Prior to working on Detroit’s historic bankruptcy, Ms. Mays was a Vice President in Deutsche Bank’s Corporate & Investment Bank Division in New York City. Before becoming an investment banker, Ms. Mays spent several years as a non-profit management professional. She began her professional career as a middle- school mathematics teacher in Detroit. Ms. Mays holds a Bachelor of Science, a Juris Doctor and a Masters in Business Administration, all from the University of Michigan. She is admitted to practice law in New York.

Neil McEachern

Retired Teacher and Principal, Detroit Public Schools

Neil McEachern retired from the Detroit Public Schools after a long career as a teacher and principal. While not an architect, he is both an architecture and local history enthusiast. He has lived in Lafayette Park for 25 years and is very familiar with the area.

Marcy McInelly, AIA

President, Urbsworks, Inc

Marcy McInelly has practiced architecture and urban design for more than 27 years in New York City and Portland, Oregon. In 1995, she founded Urbsworks, and redirected her expertise to the often-neglected space between buildings. Over time she has sharpened her focus on a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to sustainable urban design and placemaking, with a particular emphasis on smart, safe transportation and innovative codes for the benefit of communities. In 2004, Marcy was appointed to co-chair the CNU Transportation Task Force, which she renamed the Project for Transportation Reform. This is the group that just published the “CNU Sustainable Street Network Principles,” and initiated the joint CNU and ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers) Recommended Practice, “Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach.”

Matthew McNicholas, AIA

Principal, MGLM Architects

Matthew McNicholas is an architect, urbanist, and founding principal of MGLM Architects. For the last 10 years, he has regularly conceived and executed ornamental and decorative programs and designs for all types of buildings, and has served extensively as a thematic, decorative, and ornamental consultant. A published and awarded artist and designer, he currently heads the Preservation Committee of the Auxiliary Board for Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Theatre and sits on the Education Committee for the Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the ICAA. Matthew graduated from the University of Notre Dame where he received his Bachelor’s of Architecture and Master’s of Architectural Design and Urbanism.

Brendan Mehaffy

Executive Director, Office of Strategic Planning, City of Buffalo

Brendan Mehaffy was appointed Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning in March 2010. Mehaffy’s appointment was a central part of the city’s economic development reorganization effort, which Mayor Brown announced during his 2009 State of the City Address. Mehaffy began working as an attorney in the city’s Law Department, where he was the point person on several high profile projects, including negotiating with the county on the return of the operation and management of city parks. Prior to working for the city, he worked in private practice and was focused on land use, environmental and small business development issues. This included working with municipalities across the country to revise and update their zoning codes. He holds a B.A. in economics from SUNY Binghamton, a Masters degree in urban regional planning from the London School of Economics and a J.D. in law from the University at Buffalo.

Michael Mehaffy

Executive Director, Sustasis Foundation

Michael Mehaffy is a consultant, researcher, author and educator, a contributing author to sixteen books, on the editorial boards of three international urban design journals, and a regular contributor to Better Cities and Towns, The Atlantic Cities, Metropolis, Urban Land, Planetizen and others. He is also executive director of the Sustasis Foundation in Portland, where he collaborates with wiki inventor Ward Cunningham, pattern language inventor Christopher Alexander, and other innovators in planning, architecture, software and other fields, developing new neighborhood-scale tools and approaches.

Tom Milano

Director, Jefferson Chalmers Community Food System

As the director of the Jefferson Chalmers Community Food System JCCFS), a Michigan non-profit organization, Tom Milano, his partner Nancy Weigandt and several board members, oversee two projects: The Garden Detroit where they have transformed 23 vacant lots into a beautiful and productive organic urban farm and Detroit Abloom, a new cut-flower business being established on nine vacant lots purchased from the Detroit Land Bank Authority. While the JCCFS is pioneering innovative ways to repurpose vacant land for the betterment of local communities, Tom loves to plant a vision in peoples minds of why Detroit is poised to inspire the world.

Mark Miller

Senior Urban Designer, Nederveld

Mark Miller is an urban designer for Nederveld in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received a Masters of Architecture at the University of Michigan and is a registered architect and a certified planner. Mr. Miller is the past-chairman of the City of Grand Rapids Historic Preservation Commission and past-president of the Grand Rapids Chapter of the AIA. Mark’s award-winning projects include recently completed form-based codes for the Michigan cities of Wyoming, Muskegon, and Traverse City; a parking strategy for downtown Muskegon; the Imagine Hudsonville 2030 Master Plan; GR Forward, a master plan for downtown Grand Rapids; and the East Hills Public Space Strategy, a people-centered guide to build a better neighborhood. Mr. Miller also serves on the City of Grand Rapids Vital Street Oversight Commission and the Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Alliance for Investment.

Rodrick Miller

President & CEO, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation

Currently, Miller is serving as President & CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC). As CEO of DEGC, Miller is firmly committed to enhancing strategies and programs that are aggressive and effective, thoughtful and focused, and that play to the inherent strengths of the local market. Previously, Miller served as the founding president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA), the official economic development organization responsible for ensuring the long-term economic vitality and driving job growth for the City of New Orleans. In that role, his team was responsible for nearly $900M in new private sector investment and over 7,500 new jobs. Prior to that position, Miller served as the Executive Vice President of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber where he managed day-to-day operations, developed strategic initiatives, and helped deliver on the firm’s $20M capital campaign. He has held other roles in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Jessica Millman

Owner, The Agora Group, LLC

Jessica Cogan Millman is an expert and leader in urban planning, environmentally sustainable development, and the principles of smart growth. As a founding member of the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) Core Committee, Jessica drafted (and re-drafted and re-drafted) many of the credits. Currently, Jessica is the Chair of the LEED ND Core Committee and a member of the Location and Planning TAG. Jessica was also a member of the Near Westside Initiative LEED ND Pilot Project in Syracuse, NY. In addition, Jessica is LEED faculty and helped design the LEED ND Core Concepts Workshop.Jessica has extensive experience working at all levels of government (Federal, State, andLocal) and also in the non-profit arena. Jessica now leads a private consulting practice, the Agora Group, which draws on her active and diverse career promoting and advancing the best practices to achieve high quality, sustainable communities. In addition, Jessica serves on the Planning Board for the Town of Skaneateles, NY.Prior to founding the Agora Group, Jessica served as the Planning Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. At the Coalition, Jessica primarily advocated for the adoption of good planning policies around the Washington region. Jessica has held many other positions including: the Deputy Director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, which was created by former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening to help state and local elected, civic and business leaders design and implement effective smart growth strategies; Chief of Staff for the Governor’s Office of Smart Growth in Maryland and as the Director of Program and Policy Coordination at the Maryland Department of Planning; and a variety of positions in the Urban and Economic Development Division and the Office of Water at the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Joe Minicozzi

Principal, Urban3, LLC

Joe Minicozzi is the principal of Urban3, a consulting company created by Asheville real estate developer, Public Interest Projects. Urban3’s work in pioneering geo-spatial representation of economic productivity has prompted a paradigm shift in understanding the economic potency of urbanism and the value of well designed cities. Their studies of cities in the United States and Canada have affected the reevaluation of public policy and a broader understanding of market dynamics created by tax policy.

Jonathan Minkoff

Founder, Chief Financial Officer, ASH NYC

Jonathan Minkoff leads financial and business operations at ASH NYC. He is responsible for directing the analytics and underwriting team, as well as liaising with lenders, investors and outside counsel. He was previously at Cayuga Capital Management. Jonathan was raised in Bethesda, Maryland and graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a degree in Economics. His family is active in the real estate and construction industries in the Washington, DC area.

D.J. Monahan

Principal, The Monahan Company

D.J. Monahan is a principal of the Detroit-area based Construction Management / General Contracting firm The Monahan Company (TMC). The firm specializes in intense, complex, projects that typically involve work in high-density urban environments - often with historic implications - with a wide variety of mixed uses including residential, hospitality, retail, commercial, institutional, health care, worship, light-industrial and the like. DJ joined TMC in 1993 after graduating with a B.S. in Construction Management from Michigan State University. Since that time, DJ has had the opportunity to be involved in various capacities on several hundred projects ranging in size from under $1 million to in excess of $40 million. DJ also served a 7-year term as Board Chairman of LifeBUILDERS (LB); a faith-based community development corporation on Detroit’s east side during which time the ministry’s budget grew from $50,000.00 to over $2 million.

Dorian Moore

Vice President, Archive DS

Dorian Moore, AIA, vice-president of the award-winning architectural firm, Archive DS, has been involved in a wide range of architecture, and urban planning projects. Dorian’s focus has been on large-scale planning issues and analyzing how they affect localized placemaking. In addition to being an urban design consultant on the Woodward Avenue BRT and Complete Streets Masterplans he was among a select group of architects and planners invited to Mississippi as part of the charrette planning team for 11 cities along the Gulf Coast that were ravaged by hurricane Katrina. He was a member of an international team of architects and urban designers invited to develop a vision for the underutilized “portlands” in Toronto, Canada. He was a member of the Core Support Staff for the Mayor’s Detroit Land Use Master Plan Task Force in Detroit, Michigan.

Sue Mosey

Executive Director, Midtown Detroit, Inc

Susan T. Mosey has been the Executive Director of Midtown Detroit, Inc. (MDI) in Detroit, Michigan for twenty nine years. This non-profit organization is responsible for community development, marketing, real estate, small business development and arts programming within Detroit’s University Cultural Center and New Center districts – an area now known as Midtown. MDI also manages public space maintenance and security initiatives for the district. Projects that have been undertaken by the organization under her direction include public improvements such as new streetscapes and park development, greenway planning and construction, and residential and commercial real estate development and management. MDI’s newest initiative is the Live Midtown Residential Incentive Program that encourages employees of the anchors to move to Midtown. The organization also produces a number of signature arts events, including Art X Detroit, DLECTRICITY and Noel Night.

Elizabeth Moule

Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists

Elizabeth Moule's career includes the design and planning of projects for educational, institutional and civic clients, historic rehabilitation, mixed-use, commercial projects, housing and urban design. She is a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and an Emeritus Board Member. With her partner, Stefanos Polyzoides, she founded Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists in 1982. A long-time advocate for sustainable design, Ms. Moule designed the LEED Platinum-rated west coast headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is currently leading the design for a new 180-bed residence hall for Scripps College as well as a new high-speed rail station in Tampa. Ms. Moule, with her partner, is a Seaside Prize recipient.

Steve A. Mouzon, AIA, LEED

Principal, The New Urban Guild

Steve is an architect, urbanist, author, blogger, and photographer from Miami. He founded the New Urban Guild, which helped foster the Katrina Cottages movement. The Guild hosts Project:SmartDwelling, which works to redefine the house to be much smaller and more sustainable. Steve founded and is a board member of the Guild Foundation; it hosts the Original Green initiative. Steve speaks regularly across the US and abroad on sustainability issues. He blogs on the Original Green Blog and Useful Stuff. He also posts to the Original Green Twitter stream.

Michael Mullins

President, Mullins Management Company

Michael Mullins is a real estate developer, asset manager and entrepreneur based in Boston. He has interests in real estate development, entrepreneurship, environmental policy, and innovations in civic finance. He is the President of Mullins Management Company. He is also founder of RE|WORK Coworking, a coworking space for real estate firms and the Lean Startup Challenge, an accelerator for technology startups. Michael’s real estate experience also includes planning, finance, construction management, public relations, and entitlements. Michael has an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami, a Masters degree from the MIT Center for Real Estate, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Robert Munson

Founding Board Member, CNU Illinois

Robert Munson, a gratefully retired real estate developer, now follows his passion by blogging on central stations. He completed an eight article series posted in 2014 on “The Urbanophile” and will launch this year the site “What Stations Teach”, a look at how central stations with legacy commuter systems are microcosms for how a region manages and plans for sustainability in its transportation.

Pashon Murray

Owner & Co-Founder, Detroit Dirt

Pashon Murray has an unrelenting drive for waste reduction, recycling, and reuse of materials. She is helping to change the carbon footprint of Detroit through revitalizing neighborhoods, finding solutions for everyday waste, and eliminating trips to the landfill. In 2010 Murray co-founded Detroit Dirt, a local composting and biomass collection company that specializes in providing compost and biomass solutions for the metro Detroit community. Detroit Dirt’s closed-loop model process was designed by Murray to help revitalize Detroit. In 2012, she launched Sustainable Integrations (SI), a Detroit-based 501(c)(3) organization that combats environmental deterioration through learning, educating, leading, and serving the public with programs and services on sustainable land utilization, ecosystem remediation, renewable energy practices, and improved waste management. In May of 2014, Newsweek named Murray as one of its “13 Women in Business to Bet On.”

Aaron Naparstek

Founder and Editor in Chief, Streetsblog

Aaron Naparstek is a pioneering interactive media producer, journalist and leader of New York City’s livable streets movement. As the founder of Streetsblog Aaron played an instrumental role in building a movement that is transforming New York and other world cities by reversing decades of car-oriented planning and policy in favor of sustainable streets that prioritize pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders. As a neighborhood activist and community organizer, Naparstek’s advocacy has led to the development of new bike lanes, public plazas, car-free parks and safer streets in his own Brooklyn neighborhood and throughout the five boroughs. Aaron got his start in transportation policy by writing haiku poetry about the endless horn-honking observed from his apartment window in Brooklyn. He taped the poems to lampposts and called them Honku. This seemingly quixotic personal anger management technique evolved into a surprisingly effective advocacy campaign that eventually compelled city officials to fix his neighborhood’s dysfunctional street. Currently living in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and two young sons Naparstek just completed a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and is now conducting research and developing new projects as a Visiting Scholar at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

David Newsome

Director of Operations, CNU’s New England Chapter

David Newsome is the Director of Operations for CNU’s New England Chapter. This summer he is helping the chapter develop a regional vision and establish the plans to realize those visions as a regional chapter of CNU. He is currently pursuing his MBA and Masters in City Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he has one more year of study left. Prior to MIT he was a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Miami where he focused on projects related to urban sustainability, transportation, and logistics.

Paul Nichols

Educational Planning Officer, Toronto District School Board

A father, urban planner, and problem solver, Paul Nichols has spent over a decade helping to build inclusive & inspiring communities. However, his most important professional realization came with the birth of his son. He noticed that the built form of large urban cores fail to provide the spaces and amenities required by young families, who are increasingly choosing to raise their children in these downtown environments. When not actively engaged in speaking, planning or community engagement, you can find Paul exploring his adopted home town of Hamilton, Ontario spending time with his family, and chasing after his son.

Mark Nickita

President, Archive Design Studio

Mark Nickita, AIA is an urbanist, architect, retail entrepreneur, developer, educator, an elected municipal leader and President of Archive DS, an award-winning, architectural and urban design firm in Detroit and Toronto. He has distinct expertise in the development, enhancement and the regeneration of existing, pedestrian-oriented urban environments including downtowns, neighborhoods, developed corridors, mixed-use areas and underutilized districts of post-industrial cities. Architectural projects include adaptive-reuse, historic rehabilitation and new infill buildings in a variety of cities as well as educational facilities, loft housing, office and retail projects, typically on challenging urban sites that require unique design solutions. His urban design projects include large scale redevelopment master plans, mixed-use corridor strategies, non-motorized and transit infrastructure planning, including the Detroit Citywide Non-Motorized Plan and the Woodward Avenue Bus Rapid Transit Alternative Analysis. With the goal of building and enhancing Places for people, he has resided and traveled to over 400 major cities throughout the world in order to better understand architecture, design and urban issues. Mark is a City Commissioner, current Mayor Pro-Tem and has served as Mayor of Birmingham, Michigan and is also co-owner of urban retail establishments in Downtown Detroit, including the Pure Detroit Stores, Workshop, the Rowland Cafe and Stella Cafes.

Karlene Nielson

Community Coordinator, Ford City Neighborhood Renewal

Karlene Nielsen lives and works in the Ford City Neighborhood for Drouillard Place as the Community Coordinator for their United Way funded neighborhood engagement strategy the Ford City Neighborhood Renewal. Karlene graduated from the School of Social Work at the University of Windsor from their Masters Program in 2010 and holds an undergraduate degree in Criminology/Sociology. Karlene specializes in resident engagement and neighborhood safety initiatives.Karlene is a self-proclaimed "nosy neighbor" who can often be found walking in the neighborhood, digging in the community garden, volunteering at a neighborhood event and getting into conversations with residents that prevent her from staying on top of the dishes and laundry at home.

Lisa Nisenson

Co-Founder, GreaterPlaces

Lisa Nisenson has worked for almost 20 years in environmental protection and smart growth. She undertook urban planning as a citizen activist, an interest that grew as her neighborhood adopted aggressive sustainability goals. As a policy analyst for the U.S. EPA, she expanded her work to include federal policy on watershed planning, transit oriented development, community planning and climate change policy. For the past three years, Ms. Nisenson has worked with a wide array of clients, including the California Water Board, the California Ocean Protection Commission and for US EPA developing Post-Construction guidance for Stormwater rules. She is currently the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Coordinator for Sarasota County, with responsibility for aligning economic development, planning and energy policies and programs.

Nathan Norris

CEO, Downtown Lafayette

Lisa Nuszkowski

Executive Director , Detroit Bike Share

Lisa Nuszkowski has more than a decade of experience working in community and economic development in Detroit. As Executive Director of Detroit Bike Share with the Downtown Detroit Partnership, she is working on the launch of Detroit’s first public bike share system. Prior to this, she worked on urban mobility initiatives, real estate development projects, and public safety enhancements as Senior Project Administrator in Wayne State University’s Office of Economic Development. Lisa has served in two City of Detroit administrations, as Chief of Staff to former House Majority Floor Leader in the Michigan legislature, and as Director of the Michigan Foreclosure Task Force, a nonprofit, statewide coalition focused on advocating for stronger foreclosure mitigation strategies and consumer protection policies. Lisa sits on the board of directors for Southwest Housing Solutions, an affordable housing and community developer in Southwest Detroit, and the Tour de Troit, a nonprofit organization that promotes healthy living through running, bicycling and bicycle safety. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Central Michigan University and a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Lisa was a 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellow with the U.S. German Marshall Fund and a member of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Leadership Detroit Class of XXXIV.

Dara O'Byrne

Deputy Director, Land Use & Policy, Detroit Future City

Dara O’Byrne serves as Deputy Director for Land Use and Policy for the Detroit Future City (DFC) Implementation Office, where she is working on reforming policy and regulations in Detroit, with a focus on land use. At DFC she has worked on initiatives focused on updating the City’s Master Plan of Policies and on advocating for an innovative open space network in Detroit. Dara’s role at DFC is a natural extension of her most recent position as a Detroit Revitalization Fellow working in the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department. During her fellowship, Dara worked on a number of planning initiatives including managing the traditional main street overlay design standards update, creating a community planning guidebook, and facilitating updates to the city’s zoning ordinance. Prior to working at the City, Dara lived in Seattle for nearly 10 years, where she worked as a consultant at Makers Architecture and Urban Design. Her work covered a broad spectrum of issues affecting local quality of life, ranging from land use and zoning to urban design and environmental policy. In her role at Makers, Dara led the Renton City Center Community Plan, which won the Governor’s Smart Community Award in 2012.

Ray Oldenburg

Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology , University of West Florida in Pensacola, FL

Ray Oldenburg, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. He is best known for writing The Great Good Place. He works as a consultant to entrepreneurs, community and urban planners, churches, and others seeking to establish great good places. His most recent assignments were for Consumer Eyes, Inc, New York in 2002, and San Jose, California’s CIRCA 2002 group. He has been invited to speak at symposia and conferences across the US, including at the Urban City Research Conference 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Oldenburg holds a Bachelor of English and Social Studies from Mankato State University, Minnesota, and a Master and PhD in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. He held positions at the University of West Florida from 1971 to 2001, prior to which he taught and researched at the University of Nevada, Stout State University, and the University of Minnesota. Oldenburg also worked as an elementary and high school teacher, and as a dental technician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Edward Orlowski

Associate Professor, Lawrence Technological University

Edward M. Orlowski is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University, and the former Chair of the Department. He holds a BS in Architecture from Lawrence Institute of Technology, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan. He has been a licensed architect in the state of Michigan since 1996, and has practiced with firms such as Luckenbach | Ziegelman, (where he participated in the design of the AIA-award-winning Environmental Interpretive Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn) and the SmithGroup. He was the creator of the first studio related to the topic of sustainability at Lawrence Tech, and has overseen its growth and development. In addition, he has created and directs a graduate-level design studio focusing upon architectural practice within a model of activism. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, Architecture for Humanity-Detroit, the SEED Network, and Architects, Planners, and Designers for Social Responsibility. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association for Community Design. On campus he is the faculty advisor for the LTU Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and is a faculty fellow of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He has presented papers to numerous conferences both in the United States and abroad on sustainability and activist design paradigms.

Robert Orr, FAIA, LEED

Principal, Robert Orr & Associates LLC

Robert Orr is a 7th generation Hoosier and an award-winning architect and planner present at the first sip of coffee that became the grounds for the New Urbanism in the mid-1970s. His collaboration with Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk at Seaside, Florida in 1982 was honored by Time Magazine as "...the most astonishing design achievement of its era and one might hope the most influential." Robert's firm furnished more than 6,000 hours services, most pro-bono, to storm-ravaged Gulf Coast Mississippi and New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Robert received his M.Arch. from Yale and his B.A. (History) from UVM. Robert lives with his wife and four children in New Haven, Connecticut.

Eric Osth, AIA

Principal, Urban Design Associates

Eric Osth is an Principal at Urban Design Associates (UDA) in Pittsburgh, PA. Eric has been educated in, and practiced both architecture and urban design. Eric earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami with honors and a Master of Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked for Merrill & Pastor Architects in Vero Beach, Florida where he served as a designer, project manager and illustrator. Eric illustrated over 100 perspective renderings for the office. At Senior Urban Designer at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP in San Francisco, Eric directed an urban design team on projects in California and Shanghai, China. In his current role at UDA, Eric serves as a Principal-in-Charge for Urban Design and Architecture projects. In addition to directing design teams, he is a proponent of design exploration through a combination of traditional drawing techniques and digital media. Eric has taught as a Visiting Design Critic at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art in New York City and as a Lecturer in Urban Design at University of California, Berkeley. Eric is a registered architect in Florida, Pennsylvania and Utah. He currently serves as a Board Member of AIA Pennsylvania and as Past President of AIA Pittsburgh.

Delma Palma

Architectural and Urban Designer, Torti Gallas and Partners

Delma Palma has been at Torti Gallas and Partners for two years, after graduating from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. Throughout her time at TGP, she has been involved in multiple projects going through the rigorous public process of entitlement in cities such as DC, Richmond, and Arlington. She currently lives in Washington, DC.

Peter Park

Professional Planner, Peter J. Park LLC

Peter J. Park was appointed Denver’s Manager of Community Planning and Development on January 14, 2004. The Community Planning and Development Department is comprised of more than 200 employees that provide Denver’s planning, zoning, construction permit and inspection services. He was formerly the City Planning Director in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he was instrumental in establishing a disciplined approach to comprehensive planning, raising awareness of design, creating the Milwaukee Development Center (consolidating planning, zoning and construction permit functions), streamlining development review procedures and completing a comprehensive update of the city’s zoning code. Mr. Park also holds an appointment at the University of Colorado at Denver as an Associate Professor of Urban Design and Director of the Master of Urban Design Program. He was formerly an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning where he coordinated the Joint Master of Architecture/Master of Urban Planning Degree Program and taught urban design lectures and studios. The work explored in his design studios influenced significant development activities in Milwaukee including the removal of an elevated downtown freeway that makes way for more than 25 acres of new development. Mr. Park has specialized in urban design and planning work requiring innovative design solutions that balance development needs with unique site and design quality concerns. He has worked with a variety of organizations dealing with regional planning, neighborhood planning, urban design, design guidelines and building renovation. Mr. Park has lectured at various institutions including the University of Chicago, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Marquette University, University of Montreal, and the University of Tokyo. He has also spoken to numerous local and national organizations including the American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Planning Association (APA), American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), Council for Urban Economic Development (CUED) and Urban Land Institute (ULI). Mr. Park co-authored The Wisconsin State Building Program Research Project: A Comparative Analysis and edited Growth Management and Environmental Quality.

Daniel Parolek, AIA

Principal, Opticos Design, Inc.

Daniel is an architect and urbanist who has worked with cities and towns of all sizes around the world to create vibrant, urban visions that reinforce the unique character of a place and that support local economies. A recent Next City article—titled “Will U.S. Cities Design Their Way Out of the Affordable Housing Crisis?”—referred to Daniel as “that guy” who coined the term Missing Middle Housing, which intelligently addresses housing issues in cities across the country. He is also at the forefront of rethinking the way we zone our communities to promote more compact, walkable, and vibrant places. In 2007, he co-authored the book Form-Based Codes and, in 2013, as part of a larger sustainable growth strategy in partnership with the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, he wrote the first development code for Gabon, Africa. He serves as a board member for the Form-Based Codes Institute, an organization dedicated to reforming zoning to remove barriers for urban development, and for TransForm, which promotes walkable communities and transportation choices to connect people of all incomes to opportunity. His company, Opticos Design, is a founding B Corporation, a revolutionary new kind of business dedicated to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. His love of good urbanism springs from a childhood spent exploring the vibrant downtown of Columbus, Nebraska on his bike.

Karen Parolek

Principal, Opticos Design, Inc

Manuel Pastor

Director, USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pastor currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). He holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC.

Frank Perissinotti

Professor, St. Clair College

Frank Perissinotti is a professor of Architectural Technology at St. Clair College in Windsor Ontario Canada. Frank has a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Architecture from Ryerson University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Central Michigan University. He has taught numerous courses in the past 27 years as a professor at St. Clair College including the History of Local Architecture. Within the curriculum of that course, he has conducted many walking tours of neighborhoods within the cities of Detroit and Windsor. Frank also sits on committees that promote local Architectural History and Heritage. He is a director in the Windsor Doors Open committee which promotes local heritage by coordinating the opening of private buildings to allow public tours in historically significant buildings. He is also a member of the Sandwich Towne Legacy Committee which has a mandate to preserve its rich history in Windsor Ontario.

Matthew Petty

Principal, Fayetteville Infill Group

Matthew Petty serves on the City Council and develops missing middle real estate projects in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Now in his eighth year as an Alderman, Matthew has focused on simplifying the development process, building in flexibility for experimental entrepreneurs, and changing transportation planning culture within the local government. His company, Infill Group, performs financial, entitlement, and site design consultation in addition to developing multi-family and mixed-use projects on small sites.

Eve Picker

President & Founder, Small Change

Eve Picker's world is wrapped around cities and change. With a background as an architect, city planner, urban designer, real estate developer, community development strategist, publisher, and instigator, Eve employs a rich understanding of how cities and urban neighborhoods work - and how they can be revitalized. Her latest urban (ad)venture is Small Change, a real estate equity crowdfunding portal to help fund transformational real estate projects.

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Principal, DPZ Partners

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, F.A.I.A., is a founding principal of town planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) and was dean of the University of Miami’s School of Architecture for 18 years. Having initiated the graduate program in Suburb and Town Design in 1988, Elizabeth continues to explore current issues in city growth and reconstruction with students and faculty. She has served as Director of the Center for Urban Community and Design, organizing and promoting numerous design exercises for the benefit of communities throughout South Florida. Plater-Zyberk is a founder and emerita board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and has authored two books, Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream and The New Civic Art.

Scott Polikov

President, President, Gateway Planning Group

President of the Gateway Planning Group, Scott is a town planner who started his professional life practicing law with Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C. Returning to Texas, he was appointed Director of the State’s Alternative Fuels Program and served on the Board of Directors respectively for Capital Metro Transit Authority in Austin and the regional metropolitan planning organization (MPO). Alarmed that the MPO’s transportation plan ignored the urban form and sustainable development patterns, Scott channeled his frustration by changing careers and establishing a national planning practice focusing on the marriage of place-making and the economics of multimodal transportation. His team’s practice has integrated the form-based approach into the creation of walkable mixed use employment centers, including projects in the greater Salt Lake City Region and Dallas/Fort Worth. In parallel his team has been focusing on the reinvention and activation of historic town centers in a contemporary market context, including places such as Owensboro, Kentucky, Rogers, Arkansas and McKinney, Texas. Gateway Planning’s awards include the Form-Based Codes Institute’s inaugural Driehaus Award for Best Form-Based Code.

Scott also serves on the Board of Directors of the Form-Based Code Institute (FBCI) and as an associate of the CitiStates Group founded by Neal Peirce. In 2016, Scott was nominated and selected to become a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP).

Stefanos Polyzoides

Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists

Stefanos Polyzoides was born and educated in Athens, Greece, and later earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Architecture and Planning from Princeton University. His career has engaged a broad span of architecture and urbanism, its history, theory, education and design. He is a cofounder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and, with his wife Elizabeth Moule, a partner in Moule & Polyzoides, a Pasadena, California practice since 1990. From 1973 until 1997, he was an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. His professional experience includes the design of educational, institutional, commercial and civic buildings, historic rehabilitation, housing, and the urban design of university campuses, neighborhoods and districts. Mr. Polyzoides has led such projects throughout the United States and around the world, in Canada, South America, Australia, China and the Middle East. He is the co author of Los Angeles Courtyard Housing: A Typological Analysis (1977), The Plazas of New Mexico (2012), and the author of R.M. Schindler, Architect (1982), and the forthcoming Between House and Tower: The Architecture of Density. He also led on the production of four distinguished exhibitions and exhibition catalogs on the architectural and urban history of Southern California: Caltech: 1910–1950, Myron Hunt: 1868–1952, Wallace Neff, and Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate.

Laura Poncelet

Architect, Torti Gallas & Partners

Laura Poncelet is a recently licensed architect at Torti Gallas and Partners. She holds a degree from the University of Miami School of Architecture where she developed an interest in New Urbanism and became CNU-Accredited. She currently enjoys biking and living in Washington, DC.

Shelley R. Poticha

Director, Urban Solutions, Urban Program, Natural Resource Defense Council

Shelley Poticha serves as the director of the Urban Solutions program, building NRDC’s work for better cities that support thriving people. Urban Solutions brings the place-based work of NRDC together into a coordinated strategy and includes promoting transportation choices through mobility options, scaling up building energy efficiency, model green and equitable neighborhoods, sustainable food systems, green infrastructure and climate preparedness. Urban Solutions is the culmination of NRDC’s thinking and work for sustainable communities since the organization adopted the area as an institutional priority.

Russell S. Preston

Design Director, Principle Group

Russell Preston is founder of Principle Group, a planning, design, and development firm focused on creating authentic places. He has worked as a designer and urbanist since 1999 on a variety of public and private projects throughout the United States and is currently developing several mixed use infill buildings in the greater Boston region. A national thought leader, he has contributed to the Tactical Urbanism guides and is editor of “Living Urbanism”, a publication on contemporary urban design and city building. He currently serves as a Commissioner of Boston’s Air Pollution Control Commission and is on the board of directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism and Boston’s South End Washington Gateway Mainstreet. Prior to founding Principle Group, Preston worked with Cornish Associates on the redevelopment of Downcity, Providence and Mashpee Commons, a mixed-use neighborhood on Cape Cod. In 2010 he received the Faculty Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession from the University of Miami. Preston is also a working artist and illustrator.

Michaele Pride

Professor & Associate Dean for Public Outreach and Engagement, School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico

Michaele Pride, AIA, NOMA, Professor & Associate Dean for Public Outreach and Engagement, School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico Michaele is a professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. Prior to 2011, she was at the University of Cincinnati, where she served as the Director of the School of Architecture and Interior Design from 2003-09. As an architect and urban designer, she emphasizes principles of consensus, collaboration and public engagement in her teaching, research and professional consulting. After the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, Michaele helped found the Design Professionals’ Coalition, offering assistance to neglected communities of South LA. She left private practice in Los Angeles to become the inaugural Director of the Downtown Design Center at the University of Kentucky in 1996. Michaele is on the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, and serves on the Design Review Committee for the Sawmill Community Land Trust.

Lee-Michael Pronko

Co-Founder, Strategist, Milieu

Lee-Michael J. Pronko is a co- founder of Milieu and Atelier Ruderal. He is completing his Master in Political Science at Carleton University. Previously, he studied Philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium, while completing an undergraduate degree in Humanities and Philosophy. His research explores the role of citizens in the urban planning and development process. He re-imagines how cities manage extensive knowledge that contributes to better urban planning and development decisions by deploying new digital tools that inform and engage people.

Stephanie Reed Zurek

Associate, Union Studio

Stephanie is an Associate at Union Studio Architecture and Community Design, in Providence, RI, where she has worked on a range of residential and commercial projects. Her project background includes a number of affordable housing developments and a new public library. In the summer of 2011 Stephanie received a LeBrun Travel Grant from the Center for Architecture in New York City, which enabled her to travel to Indonesia to study urban villages. She received her Bachelor’s of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and is currently pursuing a Master's of Sustainable Urban Development from the University of Oxford.

Lynn Richards

President & CEO, CNU

Lynn Richards is President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Previously, Richards had a long and distinguished career at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), holding multiple leadership roles over 13 years including Acting Director and Policy Director in the Office of Sustainable Communities. She worked with dozens of state and local governments to implement placemaking approaches by developing policies, urban design strategies, and environmental solutions for vibrant, prosperous neighborhoods. Additionally, she produced groundbreaking research on water and land use strategies. Before joining the EPA, Richards worked briefly in the private sector at a consulting firm. She lived and worked in the former Soviet Republics from 1988 to 1995, helping environmental groups increase their organizational and political effectiveness. Richards was awarded a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in the 2012-2013 school year. She has a dual Masters in Environmental Science and Public Affairs from Indiana University.

Joseph Riley

Former Mayor, City of Charleston

Joe Riley was first elected mayor of Charleston in December 1975, and went on to serve an unprecedented ten terms. During Riley's forty-year tenure as mayor, the City of Charleston saw a substantial decrease in crime, a revitalization of the historic downtown business district, the creation and growth of Spoleto Festival U.S. A., an expansion of the city's park system, and the development of nationally-acclaimed affordable housing. An important part of Riley's legacy will be his leadership prior to and during the aftermath of the Emanuel Nine shooting; Mayor Riley spent his entire public service career building bridges among diverse sectors of the community, which many consider important groundwork that aided the city's response to the tragedy. At the end of his final term as Mayor in January of 2016, he joined the faculty of The Citadel as the first occupant of an endowed Professorship of American Government & Public Policy created in his honor with the mission of documenting, and teaching, lessons of principled, bipartisan, and effective leadership in pursuit of excellence for the public good.

Chad Rochkind

Founder & Principal, Human Scale Studio

Chad Rochkind is the Founder and Principal of Human Scale Studio. He is a Knight 880 Cities Fellow, and one of Metropolis Magazine’s ""10 New Talents"". Chad holds a Master's Degree in Historical and Sustainable Architecture from NYU, where he graduated at the top of his class. Chad's work is currently focused on helping Corktown become a more walkable and vibrant neighborhood, through a combination of tactical urbanism projects and long-term planning. In 2015, Chad installed a parklet on Michigan Avenue that received national media exposure and started a citywide conversation about the future of Detroit’s streets. He also project managed Symphony in D, a yearlong collaboration between the MIT Media Lab, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the people of Detroit, which was covered by the New York Times and the BBC for its innovative approach to community engagement.

Mark Roderick

Attorney, Flaster-Greenberg, P.C.

Markley Roderick concentrates his practice on the representation of entrepreneurs and their businesses. He represents companies across a wide range of industries, including technology, real estate, and healthcare. Expanding on his in-depth knowledge of capital raising and securities law, Mark is one of the leading crowdfunding lawyers in the United States, and has spent more than 30 years representing entrepreneurs and their businesses in a wide variety of transactions.

Jonathan F.P. Rose

President, Jonathan Rose Companies LLC

Jonathan F.P. Rose’s business, public policy and not-for-profit work all focus on creating more environmentally, socially and economically resilient cities. In 1989, Mr. Rose founded Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, a multi-disciplinary real estate development, planning, and investment firm which has successfully completed more than $1.5 billion of work. In 2005, the firm launched the nation’s first green transit oriented acquisition and redevelopment fund, followed by several green affordable housing and office transformation funds.

Janette Sadik-Khan

Principal, Bloomberg Associates

Janette Sadik-Khan is one of the world’s foremost authorities on transportation and urban transformation. She served as New York City’s transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, overseeing historic changes to New York City’s streets—closing Broadway to cars in Times Square, building nearly 400 miles of bike lanes and creating more than 60 plazas citywide. A founding principal with Bloomberg Associates, she works with mayors around the world to reimagine and redesign their cities. She chairs the National Association of Transportation Officials, implementing new, people-focused street design standards, which have been adopted in 40 cities across the continent.

Andrew Salzberg

Global Mobility Policy Lead, Uber

As Uber’s Global Mobility Policy Lead, Andrew focuses on making Uber an integral part of the future of urban transportation through research, partnerships, and policy development. He joined Uber in 2013 and became the Senior Operations Manager for New York City, Uber’s largest global market, before joining the global policy team. Prior to joining Uber, Andrew worked at the World Bank supporting public transportation investment projects in East Asia. He holds a bachelor of civil engineering degree from McGill University and Master in Urban Planning degree from Harvard University. While at Harvard, Andrew worked at Transport for London through MIT's Transit Research Lab using smartcard transaction data for bus network planning.

Richard Sammons

Architect & Urbanist, Fairfax & Sammons Architects

Richard has a rich background in traditional period design and is well known for his work in architectural proportion, having taught at The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture in London and The Institute of Classical Architecture and the Pratt Institute in New York. He established Fairfax & Sammons Architects, P.C. over twelve years ago with Anne Fairfax, his partner in marriage as well as business. With offices in New York and Palm Beach, the firm has grown to some twenty members, and is committed to an architecture of both tradition and innovation.

Ben Schulman

Communications Director, Small Change

Ben Schulman serves as the communications director for Small Change, one of many ventures he engages in to communicate the value of design and cities. He is the editor of the Design section of Newcity Chicago, host of the "A Lot You Got to Holler" podcast on architecture, urbanism and design, and a writer on urban affairs. Previously, Schulman served as the communications director for the Chicago chapter of The American Institute of Architects, editor of Chicago Architect magazine and as communications director for the urban think-tank, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). Ben’s writing has appeared and been noted in outlets such as ARCHITECT Magazine, Belt Magazine, ICON, New Geography, Streetsblog, The National Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pop City Media and as a contributor to The Urbanophile, among others. He’s presented at The World Association of Public Opinion Research, the Great Books Foundation and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and lectured for Planetizen Courses, the educational platform for the premier urban planning news website.

Bill Schultheiss

Principal Engineer, Toole Design Group

Bill Schultheiss is a principal with Toole Design Group headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland and a national leader in sustainable safety and complete street design. He has focused his career on the transformation of unsafe, automobile-dominated communities into equitable places that provide people options to travel safely and comfortably by walking, bicycling, or taking transit. He helps communities understand the vital role transportation and land-use policies have in improving or harming quality of life, health, safety, economic development, and mobility. Over the course of his career he has helped Toole Design Group transform the Cities of Boston, Seattle, and Washington, DC into leading bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities. Other notable projects he has helped to produce include the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Separated Bike Lane Design Guide, the Boston Complete Streets Design Guide, Safe Routes to School, Pedestrian, and Bicycle Master Plans for the City of Seattle, the design of the Pennsylvania Avenue Bicycle Lanes, and the AASHTO Bicycle Planning & Design Guide. He is a member of the Bicycle Technical Committee of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and he holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston.

Cailin Shannon

Senior Designer, Opticos Design, Inc

Cailin Shannon’s artistic sense and fascination with vernacular architecture make her a versatile, sensitive designer skilled in visioning and placemaking. Her colorful, inspiring illustrations give form to a community’s aspirations and goals, while merging traditional art techniques with new digital technologies. By identifying the nuances of each community’s character, Cailin creates contextual designs for diverse places across the United States and around the world, from the tribal communities of Northern California’s Trinidad Rancheria, to the colorful, historic streetcar neighborhoods of Cincinnati, OH, to the tropical urban environment in Gabon, Africa.

Breanna Shell

Planner, City of Huntington, WV

Breanna is the Planner for the City of Huntington, WV. Breanna graduated in 2011 from the University of Michigan Master in Urban Planning program and has been with the City Planning department since Summer 2012. Breanna took the lead on an in-house revision to the City’s comprehensive Plan update, Plan2025, concluding with a unanimous approval by the Planning Commission and City Council in December of 2013. In addition, Breanna enforces the zoning ordinance, provides administrative assistance to the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals and participates in several community supported revitalization projects.

Terry Shook, FAIA

Founding Partner and Principal, Shook Kelley, Inc.

Charles Terry Shook, FAIA, is a founding partner and principal of Shook Kelley, a firm specializing in strategic consulting services, melding consumer psychographic analysis, branding, architecture, planning and communication design into one united practice. Mr. Shook focuses upon the creation of new communities, in both the suburbs and within urban cores, that reflect timeless patterns of building while responding to modern aspirations for a better life. As one of the nation's top experts in district planning and PlaceMarking, he has been recognized as a vanguard in the movement to return meaning to the urban environment.

Mitchell Silver, AICP

Commissioner, NYC Parks, City of New York

Mitchell J. Silver became Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in May 2014. Commissioner Silver is also the immediate past president of the American Planning Association (APA). He is an award-winning planner with almost 30 years of experience and he is internationally recognized for his leadership in the planning profession and his contributions to contemporary planning issues. He specializes in comprehensive planning, place making and implementation strategies. As Parks Commissioner, Mitchell Silver oversees management, planning and operations of nearly 30,000 acres of parkland, which includes parks, playgrounds, beaches, marinas, recreation centers, wilderness areas and other assets. Prior to returning to his native New York City as Parks Commissioner, he served as the Chief Planning & Development Officer and Planning Director for Raleigh, NC. His career has included roles as a policy and planning director for New York City’s Department of Planning, a principal of a New York City-based planning firm, a town manager in New Jersey, and deputy planning director in Washington, DC.

John Simmerman

Co-Founder, President & CEO, Active Towns

I'm a health promotion professional and entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience. My primary focus is on getting more people moving on a daily basis by helping create communities that support healthy, active lifestyles. Personally, I strive to lead by example by walking and biking to meet most of my daily needs and competing, just for fun, in triathlons and running events on a semi regular basis, which also helps to keep me motivated, focussed and fit. I also enjoy serving as a professional race announcer, mostly of the endurance athletic type such as triathlons and running events.

Daniel K. Slone, Esquire

Partner, McGuireWoods LLP

Daniel K. Slone is a partner of McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond, VA. Dan assists innovative clients in designing and implementing their projects. He helps to create the right entities, put together the appropriate strategies, overcome impediments, and put together effective contracts for the new types of relationships they create including for green businesses and developers, localities, professionals, and non-profit organizations. He has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Congress for the New Urbanism since 2011 and was a Charter Member, General Council from 1992-2010. Dan is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and the Birmingham Southern College with BA Degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. He co-authored A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Architects, Planners and Developers with Doris Goldstein (John Wiley & Sons, September 2008). He is the Recipient of the Henry David Thoreau Environmental Conservator, Better Housing Coalition 2010 Groundbreaker Award and Special Recognition for Service Award from the Virginia Sustainable Building Network in 2006.

Lee Sobel

Principal, Director of Public Strategies, RCLCO

Lee Sobel is RCLCO’s Director of Public Strategies, a position that blends his expertise in real estate and finance with his knowledge of land use and transportation policy. He has been a commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis, in South Florida, and he spent 10 years handling real estate development and finance matters with the U.S. EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities in Washington, D.C. He is a recognized expert in urban retail, market analysis, economic development, and smart growth. During Lee’s tenure in the public sector, he provided technical assistance, policy research and development, and implementation strategies to local governments, quasi-governmental entities, community groups, and national and local advocacy organizations on real estate, finance, and economic development issues with the goal of achieving sustainable community development. At the EPA, Lee authored and co-authored publications that reflect this work, including Infrastructure Financing Options for Transit-Oriented Development, Smart Growth and Economic Success, Market Acceptance of Smart Growth, and This Is Smart Growth. At CB Richard Ellis, Lee brokered the acquisition and disposition of land, retail, and office properties for institutional, national, and private clients. He also provided opinions of value and market analytics for positioning and repositioning income properties. While a broker, Lee authored the first book dedicated to redeveloping shopping malls into mixed-use town centers, Greyfields into Goldfields: Dead Malls Become Living Neighborhoods.

Daniel Solomon

Principal, Mithun | Solomon

Daniel Solomon is an architect and urban designer whose 44-year career combines achievements in professional practice with academic pursuits of teaching and writing. His projects have been published in architectural journals worldwide and have been recognized with more than eighty-five awards. The main focus of his work has been residential architecture and the interaction between housing and urban design. From this base his work has expanded in several directions including large-scale urban planning, regulatory structures that govern urban design and residential, commercial, and institutional architecture. He is the author of many articles and three books: ReBuilding, Global City Blues, and Cosmopolis. A fourth book Attack of the Slab Monsters is nearing completion. As one of the co-founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Daniel Solomon's commitment to urban repair and the construction and reconstruction of urban neighborhoods extends beyond his project work and writing.

Jeremy Sommer

Architect & Urbanist, Sommer Design Studios

Jeremy is an architect and educator based in Georgia. He worked for several prominent New Urbanist architectural firms for several years, then pursued and received a graduate degree in Classical Design in 2009, which led to the founding of his own firm. His award-winning work can be found both in the US and abroad. He has been highly involved with the New Urbanism since college, and is a founding member of the Atlanta Chapter of the CNU.

Jeff B. Speck, CNU-A, AICP, LEED AP, Honorary ASLA

Principal, Speck & Associates LLC

Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for smart growth and sustainable design. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he oversaw the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design, a federal program that helps state governors fight suburban sprawl. Prior to joining the Endowment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co., a leading practitioner of the New Urbanism, where he led or managed more than forty of the firm's projects. He is the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream as well as The Smart Growth Manual. He serves as a Contributing Editor to Metropolis Magazine, and on the Sustainability Task Force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His recent book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time –which the Christian Science Monitor called “timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work” – was the best-selling planning/design title of 2013.

Scot Spencer

Associate Director, Advocacy & Influence, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Scot Spencer leads the Foundation’s work in advancing community-focused policies, practices and strategies that increase opportunities for children, families and the places where they live and foster their success. Spencer also coordinates Casey’s local advocacy efforts in Baltimore. Before taking on these roles, Spencer managed Casey’s investments in East Baltimore, where the Foundation seeks to strengthen community and economic development in a historic, low-income neighborhood next door to the Johns Hopkins University medical campus. He previously was a transportation specialist at the Environmental Defense Fund, where he focused on state-level smart-growth policy and Commuter Choice, a local tax incentive for people who use transit. He also served as deputy director for Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition. There, he led the federal Bridges to Work demonstration, which provided job training and placement services for residents in East and West Baltimore, as well as transportation from their neighborhoods to employment centers in the suburbs. In addition, he worked for several years in private architectural practice, community development and university relations in upstate New York.

Monique St. Pierre

Architectural Designer, Milieu

Monique moved to Ottawa from a rural community to pursue an Undergraduate degree in International Development and Globalization, at the University of Ottawa. During this time her study focused on Human Rights, enabling her to intern and volunteer with various NGO's both locally and internationally. Her connection to the public, while taking a different direction, has been further developed in her current pursuit of a Master's of Architecture degree from Carleton University. She seeks to further explore the connection that different tools of engagement can offer -- both in her academic pursuits and in the development of Milieu -- to an evolving sphere of public consultation.

Paddy Steinschneider

President & Founder, Gotham Design & Community Development Ltd.

Padriac Steinschneider is a placemaker, designer, and real estate developer. He is President of Gotham Design and Community Development, Ltd., a firm he founded in 1978 that seeks projects in village settings that focus on “healing the whole.” His interest in the restoration and adaptive reuse of properties has seen particular success with projects like Wit’s End in Dobbs Ferry and Wicker Park in Chicago. Paddy is very active in his local community, serving on Dobbs Ferry's Land Use Committee, the Mayor’s Task Force on Energy and the Environment, and Sustainable Westchester’s Transportation and Land Use Committee. An Environmental Science major at Columbia College, Paddy received his Masters in Architecture from Columbia University in 1976. With his personal philosophy of being locally involved, Paddy’s previously peripheral support for CNU was invigorated by the advent of chapters. He is a founding member of the New York Chapter and serves as the Chief Operations Officer for CNU New York.

Galina Tachieva, AICP

Partner, DPZ Partners

Galina Tachieva is an expert on urban redevelopment, sprawl retrofit, sustainable planning and form-based codes. As a partner at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Architects and Town Planners (DPZ), Tachieva directs and manages the design and implementation of projects in the United States and around the world. She is the author of the Sprawl Repair Manual, published October, 2010 by Island Press. She is the primary author of the Sprawl Repair Module, a special application to the SmartCode, which enables the transformation of sprawl types into community patterns. Galina is one of the leaders of the CNU Sprawl Retrofit Initiative, a founding member of the Congress for European Urbanism, a member of the Transect Codes Council, a board member of the New Urban Guild Foundation, and is certified by the US Green Building Council as a LEED-accredited professional.

Alex Taranu

Manager, Architectural Design Services, City of Brampton

Alex is an urbanist, urban designer and architect with extensive experience in downtown revitalization, intensification and transit-oriented development, urban design, heritage, process and project management. Alex has managed Brampton’s Urban Design section for the many years with focus on Central Area planning and design, city-wide urban design, heritage preservation and special projects.

Alex is a founding member and director of the Council for Canadian Urbanism (CanU), founding member and past chair of Ontario Professional Planner’s Institute Urban Design Working Group. He has written articles for professional magazines, organized numerous events, and is a frequent lecturer on urban design. Alex has been elected as Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners in 2011 and received the OPPI Award in 2007 for his professional work within the planning profession.

Jonathan Tate

Architect/Urban Designer, Office of Jonathan Tate

Jonathan Tate is principal of OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate), an architecture and urban design practice in New Orleans. The office engages in numerous design-related activities, including applied research, opportunistic planning, strategic development and conventional architectural practice. Notable recently completed projects include 3106 St. Thomas, the first unit under the Starter Home* development agenda, which has received wide recognition, and Wetland Urbanism, a research and publication project that was exhibited at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice.

June Thomas

Centennial Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Taubman College, University of Michigan

June Manning Thomas, Ph.D., is Centennial Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 2003 she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Institute of Certified Planners. She is President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (2013-15). Thomas writes about diversification of the planning profession, planning history, and social equity in neighborhoods and urban revitalization. Recent research assessed the role of minority-race planners in the quest for a just city, explored the relationship between the concept of social equity and the civil rights movement, and examined the land-use reactions of community organizations to vacant land in Detroit.

Jim Tischler

Community Development Policy Director , State of Michigan

James Tischler is Policy Director for the State of Michigan’s Community Development Division, where he is responsible for design of the State’s community development programs and development of statewide and neighborhood-focused policy. He has more than 25 years of experience in the field of urban planning, working for public organizations and consulting with private sector firms. Mr. Tischler holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from Wayne State University and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute. In addition to registration with the American Institute of Certified Planners, he is a registered Michigan Professional Community Planner, a member of the American Planning Association and Michigan Association of Planning, and holds membership in the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Bruce B. Tolar, P.A.

Architect, Architect Bruce B. Tolar, P.A.

Bruce is one of the real heroes of the Katrina recovery. Living and working in the destruction zone, he did a number of extraordinary things, beginning with the creation of Cottage Court in Ocean Springs. There, he assembled the first several Katrina Cottages designed and built, then expanded the court to include several of the Mississippi Cottages. Later, he teamed with manufacturers of several types of newer cottages and has literally built a neighborhood out of what began as an aspiration for “FEMA trailers with dignity.”

Ray Tomalty

Principal, Smart Cities Research Services

Ray Tomalty, has been a consultant in urban sustainability for over 25 years, leading or otherwise participating in over 80 research projects. He has worked with governments, foundations and non-governmental organizations to explore every aspect of urban sustainability and help build Canada's emerging expertise on this topic. He is among the handful of researchers in Canada who have an integrated perspective on cities and their ecological, social and economic subsystems.

John Torti

President, Torti Gallas & Partners, Inc.

As President of Torti Gallas and Partners, Mr. Torti has provided the strong conceptual leadership to bring his firm to international recognition. His firm has been the recipient of over 100 prestigious national design awards in the last 20 years.With offices in Washington, DC, Silver Spring, Los Angeles, and Istanbul, he and his partners have built a firm that understands the inextricable relationship between placemaking, architecture, and sustainability.

Torti Gallas’ work achieves success for their clients and for the communities in which it is located. Mr. Torti joined the firm he now leads in 1973. Under his leadership, Torti Gallas and Partners has focused its practice on Trans National Urbanism, transit-oriented development, mixed use,mixed-income architecture, and human sustainability.Prior to joining Torti Gallas and Partners, Mr. Torti worked with NASA and the National Capital Planning Commission. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Tortiis a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. In 2004, Mr. Torti became a LEED Accredited Professional.

Jeffrey Tumlin

Principal, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Jeffrey Tumlin is the director of strategy for Nelson\Nygaard, a transportation planning and engineering firm focused on sustainable, equitable mobility. His work helps communities move from discord to agreement about the future. For more than twenty years, Jeff has led award-winning plans in cities from Seattle and Vancouver to Moscow and Abu Dhabi. He helps balance all modes of transportation in complex places to achieve a community’s wider goals and best utilize their limited resources. He has developed transformative plans throughout the world that accommodate millions of square feet of growth with no net increase in motor vehicle traffic.

Michael Tunte

Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, Design Workshop

Michael Tunte is an associate, landscape architect and urban designer with Design Workshop. He has designed award-winning projects, lectured at universities and served as an adviser to numerous clients and communities. The scope of his interests is broad, from site design to the development of large urban areas, with a particular passion about the myriad ways communities use public space. Michael graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture as an ASLA Student Honor Award winner. He also holds a Master of Urban Design degree from the University of California-Berkeley, where he was a Gadsby Trudgett Scholarship recipient as well as a University of California Fellowship recipient.

Sydney VanKuren

Sustainable Urbanism Program Coordinator, Farr Associates

Sydney Blankers VanKuren is the Sustainable Urbanism Program Coordinator at Farr Associates. She focuses on sustainable urbanism projects including managing the production of the second edition of Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature. Sydney has professional experience in biology, research analysis, science communication, and environmental planning and policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources as well as a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy.

Paul Whalen, AIA

Partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP

Paul Whalen, Partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, has been responsible for the design and management of projects ranging from private residences to resorts, hotels, institutional buildings, and large-scale planning projects worldwide. Mr. Whalen's experience includes two of the most influential planning projects of our time: the new town of Celebration, Florida, and plan and guidelines that revived the theater block of New York City's 42nd Street, which won a 1999 Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. His planning work also includes a new town for a brownfield site in the New Jersey Meadowlands; Del Sur Village, a new 135-acre mixed-use community in Southern California; and a resort village in New York State's Hudson Valley. Internationally, Mr. Whalen has planned seaside resorts in Europe and South America. His 450,000-square-foot mixed-use retail and residential urban infill project in Arnhem, the Netherlands, won a 2006 Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism. The Grand Harbor courtyard house neighborhood in Vero Beach, Florida, was chosen by Builder Magazine as their 1989 Project of the Year and received a 1991 AIA National Honor Award. His current projects include a master plan and residential community in Xiamen, China, planning, residential and mixed-use projects in Asia and Europe, as well as a 2.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Uttar Pradesh, India. Mr. Whalen, a graduate of Columbia University, received his Master of Architecture from Princeton University in 1981. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Kara Wilbur

Urban Designer & Code Writer, Principle Group

Kara is a planner and urban designer with more than 10 years of national experience for both public and private sector clients. Prior to joining Principle Group in 2014, she worked for 8 years with Town Planning & Urban Design Collaborative, cultivating their New England practice. Her work has focused on revitalization of transitioning downtowns, redevelopment of outdated retail corridors, and common sense transportation plans that promote safety and economic value. She has also spearheaded a new generation of Comprehensive Plans as well as innovative form-based codes that open the door for high quality investment. Believing in the importance of bringing national best practices to the forefront of New England planning, Kara was a co-founder of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism in 2004 and served as the organization’s first president. She lives in Portland, Maine.

June Williamson

Associate Professor of Architecture - Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York/CUNY

June Williamson, RA, LEED AP, is associate professor of architecture and urban design at the City College of New York, CUNY. She is co-author, with Ellen Dunham-Jones, of "Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs,” and author of “Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb.” Over a 20+ year career, she has practiced in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Boston. A frequent speaker and consultant, her writing is published in the books “Retrofitting Sprawl,” “Social Justice in Diverse Suburbs,” “Independent for Life,” and "Writing Urbanism," as well as many journals, magazines and blogs.

Lawrence Williamson

Real Estate Manager, Midtown Detroit, Inc.

Mr. Williamson is the Real Estate Manager, who reports directly to the President, Susan Mosey at Midtown Detroit Inc., (MDI). MDI is a nonprofit planning, real estate and economic development organization that supports the physical maintenance and revitalization of Midtown Detroit, including New Center. He is responsible for economic development, commercial leasing, market research, public hearings and various real estate related project matters.

He has over thirty (30) years of experience covering the fields of, architecture, facilities management, consulting, construction administration, commercial leasing, economic and real estate development in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He has owned/developed, facilitated and managed more than $120 million in real estate projects and has consulted with more than fifty (50) units of government on real estate related projects.

Bucky Willis

Founder of Bleeding Heart Design. Detroit Collaborative Design Center, Designer/Project Manager

A native of Detroit, Rebecca “Bucky” Willis received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM). Bucky has worked for a number of non-profit organizations in Detroit, including Habitat for Humanity, Detroit Future City and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. The heart of her career and research lies at the intersection where architecture and design meet social issues and emotional impact. This career and research focus inspired her to create the concept of Bleeding Heart Design - a design movement and non-profit that inspires altruism.

Bucky believes that artists, designers and architects should seek to improve humanity and solve social issues through design. Designers who embrace their social responsibilities are what she likes to call "design superheroes"!

Lisa Wise, AICP

President, Lisa Wise Consulting, Inc.

Lisa is the founder and President of Lisa Wise Consulting, Inc., a planning and economics firm founded in 2006. As a certified planner and public accountant, Lisa has almost 25 years of experience in land use planning, accounting, and finance. Lisa’s professional focus includes a commitment to inclusive and effective community engagement, comprehensive planning, development codes, affordable housing, economics, and managing complex projects. Examples from Lisa’s project experience include development code updates for the City of Cincinnati, the Cities of Livermore, CA, and Flagstaff (conventional and form-based hybrid codes), and Marin and Santa Barbara Counties, the update of the City of Ventura General Plan and Downtown Specific Plan and Form-Based Code, a City of Benicia, CA, Master Plan and Form-Based Code, the City of King, CA, Historic Corridor Revitalization Plan and Form-Based Code, the City of Kingsburg, CA, Development Code Update (conventional and form-based hybrid code), over 14 housing elements, inclusionary and employee housing studies, and financial feasibility studies for the Ports of San Diego and Long Beach.

Samir Younés

Professor, School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame

Prof. Samir Younés teaches traditional urbanism and architecture and architectural theory. Samir Younés’ professional experience in the United States and Europe includes a comprehensive variety of projects: long-term master-plans, mixed use developments, private residences, and commemorative monuments. In 1993, he designed the monument for the Cornerstone laying ceremony for the Bicentennial of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.. Younés taught architecture at the Catholic University of America from 1986 until 1991 when he joined the faculty at Notre Dame by teaching in the Rome Studies Program. He was subsequently Director of Graduate Studies (1993–1999), Director of the Rome Studies Program (1999–2008), and Rooney Director of Rome Studies (2006-2008). In 2001, Younés was member of the Founders’ Committee of the School of Architecture at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Viseu, Portugal. He was master–planner and senior tutor for the Prince of Wales’ urban task force for Lebanon in 1997. He lectured on architecture at the Universities of Bologna; and Ferrara, Italy; L’ Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France; Univ. of Portsmouth UK; and juried projects at the Univ. of Miami (Rome), Univ. of Maryland, Catholic University, Clemson University (Genova), Univ. of Oregon (Rome), and Yale.

JJ Zanetta

Founder, Zanetta Illustration

Susan Zielinski

Managing Director, SMART (Sustainable Mobility & Accessibility Research & Transformation)

Sue Zielinski is one of the pioneers and leading experts on New Mobility, with consulting and public speaking experience in many countries. She is the Managing Director of SMART (Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation) at the University of Michigan, as well as a Lecturer in Urban and Regional Planning. Just before joining SMART, Susan spent a year as a Harvard Loeb Fellow focusing on New Mobility innovation and leadership. Prior to 2004, she co-founded and directed Moving the Economy (MTE), a Canada-wide “link tank” that works to catalyze and support sustainable urban transportation innovation as well as New Mobility industry development, an integrated industry approach developed at MTE. As a transportation planner for the City of Toronto, she worked for over 15 years developing and leading transportation and liveability policies and initiatives. She has advised on a range of local, national, and international initiatives, including the National Advisory Committee on Energy Efficiency, Transport Canada’s Sustainable Development Advisory Committee, the Gridlock Panel of the Ontario Smart Growth Initiative, the OECD’s Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Project, the King of Sweden’s jury of the Stockholm Partnerships for Sustainable Cities, and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT). She was also a long-time board member of Canada’s Center for Sustainable Transportation and founding board member of the Green Tourism Association.