2008 International

Julie Bargmann is internationally recognized as an innovative designer in building regenerative landscapes and with interdisciplinary design education.  She challenges restrictive policies and conventional remediation practices that plague Superfund sites and Brownfields, giving legible form to complex processes and offering renewed relationships for communities in tired and toxic surroundings.

Bargmann leads projects at the D.I.R.T. studio (Dump It Right There) that explore past and present industrial operations and urban processes in relationship to ecological systems, cultural constructs and emerging technologies.  Interested in sites from closed quarries to abandoned coal mines, fallow factories and urban railyards, Bargmann joins teams of architects, artists, engineers, historians and scientists to imagine the next evolution of these working landscapes. 

Along with a degree in sculpture from Carnegie Mellon University, Bargmann earned a master’s in landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design followed by a Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.  Her work was awarded the 2001 National Design Award by Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum.  TIME, CNN and Newsweek, along with national and international design publications, have recognized Bargmann as leading the next generation in making a difference for design and the environment.


Thomas Baxter IV

Thomas Baxter is the Executive Director of Friends of the Riverfront, a 15 year old membership organization charged with increasing awareness and engagement with the Pittsburgh region’s rivers and riverfronts through activities, stewardship, and expansion of water and land trails. Prior to coming to Friends of the Riverfront, Baxter spent several years study archeology and conducting excavations as an undergraduate before attaining a graduate degree and geography and regional planning.

Thomas Baxter has held several successive positions with Fayette County Redevelopment Authority, Riverlife Taskforce, Allegheny Conference and Carnegie Mellon University focusing on public access as a means of economic development to our region’s four rivers and their riverfronts. Drawing on five years of experience Thomas Baxter now continues his career as Executive Director of Friends of the Riverfront. A position he has held for the last several years. His organization’s main goal is the continued development and stewardship of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail throughout the riverfronts of Allegheny County.

Thomas Baxter may be reached at thomas@friendsoftheriverfront.org via phone at 412.488.0212 x3 or go to www.friendsoftheriverfront.org for complete organizational details.

 

Bob Becker

Bob Becker has been the CEO of New Orleans’ City Park for six years and has been credited with improving the park’s financial condition, securing the first ever public financing toward the park’s operating expenses and developing a new vision for the park’s future.  His focus is now on the restoration of the Park following the extensive damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina and implementation of the Park’s Master Plan. Prior to his work in City Park, Becker was the General Manager for Audubon Zoo and Park and was the Director of the New Orleans City Planning Commission.  Becker is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified City Planners and has received numerous awards throughout his career.  He has a B.A. in History from the University at Buffalo, an M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D from the University of New Orleans in Urban Studies.


Barry A. Bessler

Barry Bessler is Chief of Staff of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Commission. He is a 1979 graduate of Penn State with a B.S. degree in Parks and Recreation Management. Mr. Bessler has worked for the City of Philadelphia/Fairmount Park Commission for 27 years, serving as Chief of Staff for the past 12 years. Mr. Bessler received an Excellence in Programming Award for the “West River Drive Closure Program” from the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society in 1996.


Charles Beveridge
Charles E. Beveridge is Series Editor of the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.  The FLO Papers series has published Volumes 1-7 as well as Series Volume 1, and work is underway on Volumes 8 & 9.

Dr. Beveridge has authored numerous writings on Olmsted, including Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape.  He has lectured widely on Olmsted and his works, has served as historical consultant for three films on Olmsted, and has been a consultant for the restoration and preservation of over forty Olmsted landscapes. 


Dan Biederman
Dan Biederman, co-founder of Grand Central Partnership, 34th Street Partnership, and Bryant Park Corporation, in New York, currently serves as the President of the latter two of those downtown management organizations and as an advisor to other downtown redevelopment management efforts in several other cities.

Bryant Park Corporation is one of the largest efforts in the nation to apply private management backed by private funding to a public park.  The park, once a dangerous and depressing place, reopened in 1991, and now has no crime, a budget 20 times the level under prior city management, and has been a huge success with public, press, and nearby institutions.  Daily attendance counts often exceed 1,000 people per acre on non-event days, which makes Bryant Park the most densely occupied urban park in the world.

34th Street Partnership covers a critical area with over 33 million square feet of commercial space, including Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden, the Herald Square shopping district, and the Empire State Building.  In January of 1992, the Partnership opened a $6 million annual program of security, sanitation, social services, tourist information, public events, and debt service on a major capital improvement bond of $30 million for the district's streets, sidewalks, and plazas.

Mr. Biederman is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1975.  He also earned an MBA with Distinction from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration in 1977.  He recently was the recipient of the Manhattan Institute's first Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship.  This lifetime achievement award is presented annually to a non-profit leader who has found innovative, private solutions for America's most pressing social problems, and who has been both demonstrably effective and widely influential.


Kathy Blaha
Kathy Blaha, of Kathy Blaha Consulting, LLC (KBC), provides services that help clients develop and manage their parks and conservation initiatives.

Until 2007, Ms. Blaha was Senior Vice President at the Trust for Public Land (TPL), directing research and program development for various parks, greenspace and land conservation initiatives.  As a member of TPL's staff for 24 years, she held a number of different leadership positions in their Southeast, Midwest, and Washington, DC offices.  Ms. Blaha's experience and expertise are with local governments and their challenges in development and running parks and conservation programs.

Before TPL, she worked as a planner for the Region J Council of Governments in Raleigh, North Carolina, focusing on water resource programs.  She has a BA in Geography from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a Master's in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Ms. Blaha sits on the boards of the Rails to Trails Conservancy, the Center for Watershed Protection, and KWMV Radio.


Michael Boland
Michael Boland has played a role in the transformation of America's largest urban national park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, since 1989.  Between 1990 and 1997 he worked for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, working on projects including Alcatraz Island, Crissy Field, and the National AIDS Memorial Grove.  Since 2001, he has worked at the Presidio of San Francisco, where he is currently the Chief Planning, Projects and Programs Officer for the Presidio Trust.  Michael heads up an interdisciplinary team of planners, designers, resource managers, and program staff who guide the Trust's conversion of the Presidio into an innovative urban national park.  Michael holds an A.B. in Architecture, a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture, and a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning, all from the University of California at Berkeley.


Frederick Bonci, ASLA

Fred Bonci is a founding principal of LaQuatra Bonci Associates, established in 1984. He has been a leader of many of the firm's community planning, urban design, and public open space projects. His knowledge and extensive experience with urban initiatives has lead to an ever-increasing number of commissions both nationally and internationally. The firm’s work focuses on the creation of viable and sustainable urban neighborhoods and towns that integrate natural systems, public open spaces, and parks. Projects include the design of urban parks and park master plans, green initiatives and ecological framework studies, riverfronts, urban neighborhoods, town planning, and site-specific landscape design projects.

Fred is currently a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, The Urban Land Institute, and the Congress for the New Urbanism. In the recent past, he served as Chairman of the Western Section of the PA/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Fred has served as President of the Pittsburgh Dynamo Youth Soccer Association; President and Vice President of St. Edmund's Academy Board of Trustees as well as Chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee; Board Member of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh; and Charter Member of the Pittsburgh Parks Initiative Committee.

LaQuatra Bonci Associates led a collaborative team effort in the preparation of the Pittsburgh Regional Park Master Plan published in 2001 for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the City of Pittsburgh.


Diane Bossart
Diane Bossart is Education Manager for Pittsburgh's Green Building Alliance.  The Green Building Alliance is a non-profit organization that advances economic prosperity and human well-being in Western Pennsylvania by driving market demand for green buildings and green building products.  In its 15th year, GBA has been a national pioneer, and continues to lead change in our region as the core green building catalysts - a desire for environmentally sound materials and minimal impact, healthy indoor environments, and financial payoff in reduced energy, water, and other operating costs - cascades across every aspect of the built environment, from offices, retail stores, and other commercial spaces to schools, hospitals, and homes.

As Education Manager, Diane Bossart creates and manages all GBA education programs, including the annual Green$ense regional conference, green building tours, and LEED workshops.  She also oversees GBA's membership programs and coordinates GBA's relationship with its branches and other professional organizations regionally and nationally.


Linda McKenna Boxx
Linda McKenna Boxx is the chairman of the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  Since founded in 1966, the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation has supported civic, cultural, and educational organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania.  The Foundation has provided support for a wide range innovative programs including rehabilitation of landmark buildings, development of youth programs, remediation and protection of waters and land, development of community and recreational facilities, and a broad range of educational opportunities.

Linda is also the volunteer president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, a coalition of organizations building the Great Allegheny Passage, a trail between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, MD.  She serves on a number of boards, including the Fallingwater Advisory Committee, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh 250 Commission, and the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau.


Paul Bramhill
Paul Bramhill is the Chief Executive of GreenSpace, a UK charity dedicated to the improvement of parks and open spaces.  GreenSpace is one of the founding organizations in the Parks for Life initiative and has, with City Parks Alliance and Parks Forum, been instrumental in developing the idea of a World Parks Day.  Paul started his professional life as an ecologist before working as a horticulturist, countryside officer, and consultant.  Much of his consultancy life has focused on the improvement of greenspace across the UK, working on large new town projects, recognizing the importance of heritage landscapes, the renaissance of public parks, and the development of greenspace strategies.  Paul also worked in France on the improvement of Parisian housing estates.  Much of his work now involves influencing government, building partnerships with other greenspace organizations, and helping communities, local authorities, and the numerous non-government organizations come together to voice the importance of their environment.  GreenSpace convenes an annual Round Table in Love Parks Week to bring the UK greenspace sector together to work around key issues facing the environment: one of the main themes identified by the meeting in climate change and its impact on greenspace nationally.

 

Joseph (Jody) Brooks

Jody Brooks is an independent consultant who has worked with parks and green space issues for the past 9 years. His most recent position was the Program Officer for Inspiring Spaces at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in Atlanta, GA.  In this role he managed ten active grants totaling over $11M focused on parks and green space in Atlanta.  Mr. Brooks spent two years as a Physical Activity Fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  He chaired the Parks, Recreation, and Sport workgroup for the Physical Activity and Health Branch of the CDC, served as Deputy Chair for the 2006 Cooper Institute Conference titled, "Parks, Recreation, and Public Health: Collaborative Frameworks for Promoting Physical Activity," and co-authored two manuscripts on parks and recreation and public health. Prior to coming to the CDC, Jody was an educational consultant for the Japanese Government in Chiba Prefecture.  Jody also spent four years in Kingston, Jamaica as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Part of his work involved developing physical activity programs and creating green space opportunities for non-governmental organizations in inner-city Kingston.  Jody received his M.S. in Sports Medicine from Oregon State University and his B.S. in Exercise and Sport Science from University of South Carolina.

Mario Browne
Mario Browne was hired at the Center for Minority Health (CMH) in September 2002 as a Project Director and Community Health Coordinator.  In these roles, he has developed partnerships with a cadre of African-American barber shops and beauty salons, and has coordinated the nationally recognized "Take a Health Professional to the People Day," putting a local twist on the national Closing the Gap campaign "Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day."  Mario also acts as liaison between CMH, the University of Pittsburgh's Health Sciences community, and community-based organizations, where his primary responsibilities are community outreach, education and health promotion, and recruitment and retention of minorities in innovative, community-based health promotion projects.

He has presented his work both nationally and internationally, and has published in peer-reviewed journals.  Mario's expertise is in community engagement and his primary interest is in translating research and theory into practice and empowering communities and individuals to eliminate health disparities.  Mario has also coordinated a project titled the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route and formed the Pittsburgh Major Taylor Cycling Club.  Both projects use cultural tailoring to encourage African-Americans to use cycling as a means to get physically active.  

Prior to coming to the Center for Minority Health, Mario was a community-based case management supervisor for the Housing Authority in the City of Pittsburgh.  His professional experience also includes addiction counseling and substance abuse prevention.  He is a Competency Based Trainer for Pennsylvania Child Welfare, and a pre- and post-test HIV/AIDS Counselor.

Mario, a Pittsburgh, PA native, holds a BS in Biology and a BS in Medical Technology from Salem International University and an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences.  He is a member of the Delta Omega Honors Society for public health excellence, and is a 2008 alum of the Emerging Leaders in Public Health Scholars program at UNC Chapel Hill.  Mario is a member of the American Public Health Association and the Society for Public Health Education, among others.

He currently serves on the PA DEP Environmental Justice Advisory Board and the Consumer Health Coalition Board of Directors.  Other volunteer activities include mentoring and chairing the Health and Wellness committee of 100 Black Men of Western PA.


John Buck, CPSSC

John Buck is a soil scientist and project manager with Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. (CEC).  Since 1984, John has applied his background in biology (BS, Lehigh Univ. 1980) and soil science (MS, Penn State, 1985) to revegetation of drastically disturbed land, often producing soil out of whatever granular materials are available on-site, ranging from coal mining wastes or steelmaking slag.  John’s expertise also includes developing beneficial uses of waste materials, phytoremediation of contaminated soils and aquifers, ecosystem restoration including design of replacement wetlands and terrestrial habitats, wetland treatment systems, and invasive plant management.  Mr. Buck is a member of Chatham University’s adjunct faculty, where he has taught soil science.

CEC (www.cecinc.com) is an approximately 450-person environmental and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, with branch offices in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Export PA, Indianapolis, Nashville, Phoenix, and St. Louis.  CEC’s work ranges widely, from remediation of Superfund and brownfield sites, to landfill gas-to-energy projects, to natural resource assessment and restoration projects in pristine areas.  

 

Victor Calise

Victor Calise joined the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation as the Accessibility Coordinator in November 2006. Victor oversees agency compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure that programs are available to New Yorkers of all abilities. His responsibilities include reviewing facility assessments completed by field staff and devising a transition plan to bring parks and programs into compliance; providing technical assistance to design staff and the general public; reviewing the work of all Parks divisions to ensure facilities, programs and services are accessible; conducting site visits to ensure that accessible features are maintained in usable condition; developing a training curriculum to familiarize Parks employees with ADA policies; preparing special grant proposals for accessibility; and establishing and working with an Accessibility Advisory Committee with community members to help evaluate and develop new facilities, programs and services.

Before joining Parks & Recreation, Victor was a frequent advisor on accessibility issues during his eight years at United Spinal Association, where he helped develop affiliations with professional sports franchises. He expanded these affiliations nationwide and reached out to a broad new constituency of individuals with disabilities in order to promote the proven benefits of adaptive sports.

Victor grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, playing roller hockey, baseball, handball, and a number of other sports. In July 1994, Victor was paralyzed in a mountain biking accident in Forest Park, Queens. He has since become an outstanding advocate and leader for people with disabilities and disabled sport. In 1998 he traveled to Nagano, Japan to compete on the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. He was married in Central Park’s Conservatory Gardens in 1999, and currently lives with his wife, Susan, and their two daughters (ages 2 and 5) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. 

 

Denys Candy

Denys Candy was born in Sligo, Ireland.  He grew up in Dublin and arrived in the United States in 1976.  His passions lie equally in songwriting and in building communities.  An organizational consultant, he designs and facilitates high engagement collaboration, often using the arts to generate broader involvement and action in community plans.  The founder of Community Partners Institute, he has worked with schools and school districts, universities, foundations and community partnerships to address social and health issues in the United States, the United Kingdom, and his native Ireland. (www.communitypartner.org)  He designed and continues to co-direct the multi-organizational partnership Find the Rivers!, whose comprehensive initiative to influence health and economic development by reconnecting Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District to the city’s three rivers is now in progress (www.findtherivers.net).  As a songwriter, Denys Candy writes acoustic music that blends Irish, British and American influences.  He has performed in several local bands, including Inish, Loch Gill and Irishtown.  His first CD, Six Song Suite, has been called a “fine tasting collection of modern Celtic music” that “packs more punch than a lot of releases twice as long” (Pittsburgh Magazine & City Paper).  Some of his new songs inspired by Buddhist meditation practice are featured on the CD Dharma Rain (Laughing Rivers, June 2005).  As an artist, he favors working on songs that explore the power of place on the migrant imagination. (www.denyscandy.com)

 

Margaret M. Carreiro

After receiving her Ph.D. in Botany in 1989 from the University of Rhode Island and working as a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Dr. Carreiro went on to become a member of the Biology faculty at Fordham University before moving to the Biology Department faculty at the University of Louisville, Kentucky in 2001, where she is currently a professor. Over the last 18 years, her research program has focused primarily on understanding how urban and suburban land uses affect forested habitats, particularly the interactions between plants and soils. More recently, she and her students are collecting data so that the ecosystem services that plants and soils provide human communities can be measured. 

Dr. Carreiro has received 15 grants and authored over 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed scientific journal articles focused primarily on these topics.  She was lead editor of a recent book dealing with the ecology, planning, and management of urban forests.  She is also on the editorial board of the scientific journal, Urban Ecosystems, and has served on a national level panel to identify and develop national-scale indicators of the use and condition of urban-suburban ecosystems in the U.S.A (The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems Report).  Currently she is serving on two city-wide committees in Louisville (the Community of Trees and the Climate Change Action Plan Committee) focused on improving the city’s trees and highlighting the role of the urban forest in increasing a city’s resiliency to environmental stress.


Meg Cheever
For the last eleven years, Meg Cheever has worked in the field of parks management in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as President and CEO of the non-profit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.  Ms. Cheever, a lawyer by training, has extensive experience in communications and marketing, parks management, and fundraising.

Ms. Cheever played a founding role in establishing the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and has been responsible for introducing and implementing a strategic management approach to that organization as well as to the parks management efforts of the public-private partnership for parks jointly developed by the Conservancy and the City.  This has included the introduction of innovative business management practices to increase revenues generated from park operations, as well as innovative improvements in ecological restoration and management.  The Parks Conservancy's recently completed capital campaign, A Community Partnership for the Renaissance of Pittsburgh's Great Parks, successfully raised over $30 million from 6,000 donors and attained 112% of its fundraising goal.

Ms. Cheever's qualifications include a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in the History of Art and a law degree from Boston University School of Law.  Ms. Cheever completed the Harvard Business School's program on Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Non-Profit Organizations in 2005.  She spent 18 years at WQED in Pittsburgh, serving as General Counsel through 1991 and publisher of Pittsburgh magazine from 1991-1997.  During her tenure as publisher, the magazine received the City and Regional Magazine Association's gold medal for general excellence, the highest national award given a city magazine.  Ms. Cheever is currently on the boards of the City Parks Alliance and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.  The YWCA Greater Pittsburgh presented Ms. Cheever with its Allerton Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.


Fiona Cheong
Fiona Cheong is a novelist, an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Project Leader of Re-Imagining Our City, an initiative that gives young people of diverse backgrounds the opportunity to shape their city's future together by designing beautiful, socially inclusive public green spaces.

In 2007 the Case Foundation invited proposals for the Make It Your Own Awards, a grants program that forgoes traditional grant-making to embrace a more grassroots, "citizen-centered" approach.  From a nationwide pool of 5,000 applications evaluated on their strength as examples of "citizen-centered" approach change, the Foundation selected Re-Imagining Our City among its 20 finalists, then invited the public to vote online for the top 4.  Re-Imagining Our City received 4,130 votes, ranking fifth.

With partners including Find the Rivers!, Hill House Association, Winchester Thurston School, the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and a youth council recruited from the city's low-income and wealthy neighborhoods, the project's pilot phase will run from September 2008 to April 2009.

Fiona has received several prestigious grants, including the University's Innovation in Education Award and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts artist's grant.  Her published fiction includes two novels, The Scent of the Gods (1991) and Shadow Theatre (2002), and shorter work in Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Asian American Fiction and Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing.  She was born in Singapore and has a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from Cornell University.

 

Steve Coleman

Inspired as a child by Pittsburgh’s Schenley and Frick Parks, Steve Coleman is now Director of Washington Parks & People, the capital’s award-winning alliance of community park partnerships.  Coleman is Trustee of the City Parks Alliance, Chair of the Working Group of the International Urban Parks Alliance, and Managing Partner of the Cool Capital Challenge.

Parks & People (www.washingtonparks.net) uses community greening to advance environmental restoration, counter poverty and crime, develop green  jobs and revenue streams, strengthen public health and fitness, plant gardens and farm markets, ground education in expeditionary learning, advance local models for countering the climate crisis, bridge divisions, build community pride, and advance grassroots citizen leadership.

Coleman’s work in the urban parks movement has been covered in such media as Parade, Landscape Architecture, National Parks, Hemispheres, Monuments Historiques, Bloomberg, NPR, CNN, PBS, and the BBC.  His work has won commendations from the National Congress for Community Economic Development, Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Washington Architectural Foundation, DC Preservation League, National Park Foundation, National Park Service, US Park Police, and President of the United States (Partnership Leadership Award).  He has been a consultant and guest speaker for park partnerships across the US and beyond.


Carol Coletta
Carol Coletta is president and CEO of CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City.  

Previously, she served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis.  In addition, she served as executive director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and American Architectural Foundation.

Carol was a Knight Fellow in Community Building for 2003 at the University of Miami School of Architecture and is currently a candidate for a Master of Design Methods at the Institute of Design at IIT.  She is frequently interviewed as an expert on urban issues by national media and is an active speaker on the success formula for cities and creative communities.

This year she was named one of the world's 50 most important urban experts by a leading European think tank.


Curtis Cravens
Curtis Cravens runs the New York City regional office for the New York State Division of Coastal Resources, which administers brownfield and waterfront revitalization grant programs throughout the state.  Cravens works closely with city agencies and numerous economic development, environmental justice, and affordable housing non-profits on Brownfield Opportunity Area grants throughout the city.  Prior to joining the State, Cravens was Director of Government Relations at Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, a Brooklyn LDC.  Prior to this he spent five years as a visual artist exclusively focused on an abandoned and contaminated copper refinery in Queens.  This inter-disciplinary history is documented in Copper on the Creek: Reclaiming an Industrial History.  He is a board member of the Prospect Park Alliance.


Dick Dadey
Dick has led Citizens Union of the City of New York, an independent, non-partisan civic organization dedicated to promoting good government and political reform in the city and state of New York, since 2004.  Dick has extensive experience with advocacy organizations and has held leadership positions with City Parks Alliance, New Yorkers for Parks, Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign.  He currently serves on the boards of the City Parks Alliance, Friends of the Hudson River Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.  Dick holds a BA in American Studies from Syracuse University.


Marinela Servitje de Lerdo de Tejada
Marinela has been the Director of Papalote Museo del Nino in Mexico since its opening in 1993.  During this time, the museum has become one of the six most visited museums in the world.  Marinela also created and developed the Papalote Mobile, an innovative concept of a travelling museum, which visited 27 states in Mexico and Guatemala.  She created and was responsible for the project that represented Mexico in the Hannover World Fair in 2000.  Marinela has gained national and international recognition for her initiatives and commitment to children, the environment, and education.  She was named Hans Christian Andersen Ambassador and in 2007, Patronato Nacional de la Mujer del Ano, A.C. awarded her the medal for "Woman of the Year."  She served as President of the Pro-Bosque de Chapultepec Trust, an organization focused on the restoration and conservancy of the Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico's largest park, the equivalent of Central Park in New York.

Marinela also serves as President of The Patronato del Instituto Nacional de Pediatria (National Institute of Pediatrics) and of the Instituto de Fomento e Investigacion Educativa, A.C. (Institute of Educational Development and Research).

Marinela earned a BA degree in Sociology from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico and a master's degree in International Development Education from Stanford University.


James V. Denova
James Denova is Vice President with the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.  His primary responsibilities include program development and grantmaking in the areas of education and economic development.

Jim holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Social Work with a concentration in social research.  He has over 30 years of experience in nonprofit administration and philanthropy.  Prior positions include: Research Director for the Community College of Beaver County, Vice President of Research & Planning for the United Way of Allegheny County, Senior Program Officer for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, and Executive Director of the Forbes Fund.

He has consulted with other nonprofit organizations in the areas of program evaluation and strategic planning, and has publications that include school-based health services, adult literacy, and nonprofit management.  He serves on the West Virginia Department of Education's 21st Century Learning Advisory Council and Project Lead the Way State Leadership Team.

 

Michael DiBerardinis

Michael DiBerardinis is Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. DiBerardinis was appointed by Gov. Edward G. Rendell to oversee the state agency created in 1995 to manage the state’s parks and forests; administer grant programs to benefit rivers, trails, greenways, local recreation and regional heritage; and provide information on the state's geologic resources. 

At DCNR, he is working to look beyond the traditional mission as the stewards of our public lands, to one of advocacy and leadership on broad environmental issues around land and water.  Under Secretary DiBerardinis's leadership, DCNR has undertaken such initiatives as the Pennsylvania Wilds, a nature tourism effort in the north-central part of the state; TreeVitalize, a public-private partnership to restore tree cover in southeastern Pennsylvania; and has led efforts to promote statewide land conservation, build sustainable communities and create outdoor connections for citizens and visitors.

Prior to being named as secretary for DCNR, DiBerardinis served as Executive Director of the Campaign for Working Families, a program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia providing free filing assistance, support and counseling for eligible families to acquire public benefits and access to information and programs on financial literacy.

Before working with the Campaign, DiBerardinis was the Vice President of Programs for the William Penn Foundation. In this position, he oversaw the $60 million annual grant-making programs in the Philadelphia region while developing and coordinating the Foundation’s strategic planning process and evaluation system.

DiBerardinis’ long history of public administration includes serving as Recreation Commissioner to the city of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000, where he organized the work of 600 staff persons and 160 facilities, including parks, ball fields, swimming pools and Veterans Stadium. During his tenure as Recreation Commissioner, DiBerardinis significantly expanded programs and services.

Prior to his service in municipal government, he served as Chief of Staff for Congressman Thomas Foglietta from 1986 to 1991, where he supervised five Philadelphia offices; managed relationships with businesses, unions and constituent groups in the district; and crafted positions and policies on issues including housing, Central America and the conversion of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

DiBerardinis has a bachelor of arts in political science from St. Joseph’s University. He lives in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia with his wife, Joan Reilly, and their children Gabriele, Justin, Maura, and Daniel. He enjoys fly-fishing, bird watching and learning the Italian language. 

 

Christian DiPalermo

Christian DiPalermo is the Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P), and his extensive background in government affairs, law, city, state and federal politics strengthens NY4P and its work in advocating for equitable and efficient parks and recreation services citywide.

Prior to joining NY4P, Mr. DiPalermo was the Director of Operations for PARKS 2001, a citywide campaign to restore, reform and revitalize parks and recreation. In his position he managed staff and volunteers in their research, community outreach and campaign work. The campaign placed parks and recreation at the forefront of Mayoral and City Council debates and rallied support to spread the word that these services are essential -- not a frill.

He joined the parks advocacy movement after serving as the Regional Vice President for External Affairs at SBC Telecom. While at SBC, he developed the company's community outreach and lobbying efforts in New York City. In addition to his work with SBC, Mr. DiPalermo served as the Government Relations Director for the YMCA of Greater New York where he raised and monitored $15 million in government funding for youth and operations programming and an additional $10 million in government money for the YMCA's capital campaign.

Mr. DiPalermo is honored to have served as a District Representative for Congresswoman Nita Lowey and as a Legislative Aide for New York State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer. He has a law degree from the New England School of Law, a Masters in Public Administration from New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY — Binghamton University.


Richard Dolesh

Richard Dolesh is the Senior Director of Public Policy for the National Recreation and Park Association in Washington, DC. He worked for 28 years for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission managing natural area parks followed by nearly 3 years at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as the Director of the Forest, Wildlife and Heritage Service before coming to NRPA in 2002.

Rich is the current chair of the Rivers and Trails Conservation Coalition, and represents NRPA on the Coalition for Recreational Trails.  Rich is member of the steering committee of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden, and serves on the Advisory Panel of the National Forum on Children and Nature.

Rich is a frequent contributor to NRPA’s Parks and Recreation Magazine, and has written numerous articles on parks and natural resources in publications that include The Washington Post and National Geographic Magazine.  

 

Herbert Dreiseitl, ASLA

Herbert Dreiseitl, artist, landscape architect, and founder of Atelier Dreiseitl, was born March 16, 1955 in Ulm, Germany. In the German tradition, Herbert has trained as an artist through apprenticeships, including in England, Norway and Germany, and contact with other artists. As a young man he did his required civil service as an art therapist in the drug rehabilitation center “Sieben Zwerge.” These experiences have lent a special social sensitivity to his work.

In 1980, inspired by a vision for water, architecture and art, Herbert founded the Atelier. The practice’s work has synthesized Herbert’s involvement with a large network of artists, professionals and scientists, and evolved to the present day into a dynamic, cutting edge professional company.

His unique philosophical and artistic insight has enabled Herbert to unite a multidisciplinary team of professionals and forge new paths in urban design. Herbert’s leadership has guided Atelier Dreiseitl to work nationally and internationally to great acclaim. The practice has a deep applied knowledge of water technologies. In an in-house workshop the practice builds 1 to 1 models to test water behavior. Herbert is intimately involved in these experimentation processes. Long-term computer simulations provide technical back-up. Herbert Dreiseitl acts as the creative and moderating link between all of the Atelier's specialists, encouraging a synergistic interface of art, ecology, engineering and hydrology.

Dreiseitl is a Registered Landscape Architect in the German Chamber of Architects and member of the ASLA.  He has co-authored several books, including New Waterscapes: Planning, Building and Designing with Water and Neue Wege für das Regenwasser (New Ways with Rainwater).

 

Michael M. Edwards

As the President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, Michael Edwards administers the Business Improvement District Downtown, advocating for the business and property owners and marketing Downtown as the region's business and cultural center and the premier location to live, work, shop, dine, play and visit. In addition, the Partnership administers a range of Downtown programs in the areas of transportation, housing and economic development.  Currently there is over $3 billion in new private and public investment underway in Downtown Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the PDP, Mr. Edwards was the President of the Downtown Spokane Partnership in Spokane WA, Principal of The Saratoga Associates in Buffalo, NY and Executive Director of the Buffalo Place, Inc. in Buffalo, NY. Edwards, originally from Buffalo, NY, earned his B.A. from Canisius College in Buffalo and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.


Caryn Ernst

Caryn Ernst is Associate Director of the Trust for Public Land’s Conservation Vision Services.  She oversees conservation visioning and greenprinting projects for TPL, working particularly on community engagement strategies and water resource protection.  She provides services to TPL’s field offices and local partners in community outreach, planning, fundraising, facilitation and watershed analysis, and builds TPL’s national leadership in conservation vision watershed protection through publications, research, presentations and partnerships.

Before coming to TPL, Ms. Ernst worked in neighborhood and park planning for the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, after having spent a number of years as a program manager and community organizer with the Allegheny Policy Council working on youth and family issues in low-income neighborhoods.  Ms. Ernst has a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University (1991) and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2000).


Michael Eversmeyer

Michael Eversmeyer is a Registered Architect whose career has been focused on historic preservation, renovation and adaptive reuse, and historic documentation.  After growing up in Northern Virginia, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and his master’s in architecture from Tulane University in New Orleans.  He began a sojourn in public service in 1983 when he joined the staff of the Historic District Landmarks Commission in New Orleans.  In 1985 Mr. Eversmeyer moved to Pittsburgh and was hired as the historic preservation planner in the Department of City Planning, where he served for twelve years as staff to the Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission.  After returning to the private sector to join the firm of Perkins Eastman Architects, he is currently self-employed as an architect and consultant with specialties in historic preservation and traditional architecture.  In recognition of his career dedication to historic preservation, Mr. Eversmeyer was appointed by the Mayor of Pittsburgh in 2002 to be a member of the Historic Review Commission, and in early 2003 was named chairman of the commission, in which role he served until 2007.  Also in 2003, he was appointed by Governor Rendell to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board, which is an advisory body to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.


Jim Ferlo
Senator Jim Ferlo completed his first term in the Pennsylvania State Senate and was re-elected to a second term at the end of 2006.  Formerly a 14-year Pittsburgh City Councilman and two-term Council President (1994-1997), Ferlo has been incorporating his own passionate style of community activism since the late 1960s.  It was during those early years as a union activist, political organizer, and community advocate that Ferlo affirmed his commitment to the public and his confidence in people.

As Board Treasurer of the City of Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority, Senator Ferlo has been a leader in shifting the mindset of local development and investment.  His has focused attention on neighborhood-based and Green Building initiatives.  At the State level, he was a vocal supporter in the drive to expand and implement the Commonwealth's Main Street and Elm Street programs.  He has been a pioneer in envisioning ways that local communities can take advantage of these state programs, including several instances where he has successfully urged local townships and boroughs to collaborate with neighboring municipalities to combine their strengths as a "Multiple-Main Street" or as an "Enterprise Zone."

Ferlo has been a leader in the fight to strengthen Pittsburgh's economic base through tax reform, job creation and retention, economic development, and funding parity from Harrisburg.  Identified as an advocate for historical preservation, Ferlo has pressed for riverfront and brownfield development, historic civic district designations, building projects for parks and playgrounds, protection of green space, and awareness for public open space.

Ferlo was born to Italian immigrant parents in the small upstate town of Rome, NY.  He credits part of his legislative effectiveness to being one of 10 siblings.  He currently resides and is a homeowner in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh.


Sylvia Hill Fields

Sylvia Fields has served as manager and later executive director of the Eden Hall Foundation since May 1996.  In this position, she is the media spokesperson and coordinates the Eden Hall Foundation grantmaking function.  Mrs. Fields is responsible for the allocation of over $9 million annually.  Mrs. Fields is the first African American woman to direct a major private foundation in the Pittsburgh region.A veteran grantmaker and administrator, she manages the legal and financial business of the foundation.  Mrs. Fields began her grantmaking career at the Duquesne Light Company, where she also managed the Employee Involvement Committee, United Way Annual Campaign and the company school partnership program.  While at Duquesne Light, Mrs. Fields is best known for having established a Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy.

Active in various professional organizations, Mrs. Fields is a member of the Council on Foundations and serves as a director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Seton Hill University, Greater Pittsburgh YWCA, and the World Affairs Council.  Mrs. Fields is a past director of Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum.  In 2006, Mrs. Fields was named one of Pittsburgh’s 50 Most Influential African American Women by the New Pittsburgh Courier. Mrs. Fields received a bachelor’s degree from Seton Hill College and a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Mrs. Fields and husband Fred reside in Monroeville and have two children, Justin, age 18 and Jettie, age 16.


Laura Fisher

Laura Fisher serves as Senior Vice President of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and as Executive Director of French and Indian War 250, Inc. Since 2001 she has also served as Co-Director of the Point State Park Planning Committee, a joint initiative of the Conference and the Riverlife Task Force to develop and implement a new master plan for the historic landmark park at Pittsburgh’s Forks of the Ohio.

The Conference is a business leadership organization working in collaboration with public and private sector partners to stimulate economic growth and enhance the quality of life in southwestern Pennsylvania. Since coming to the Conference in 1998, Fisher has largely focused on advocacy and development issues with a particular focus on cultural and historic organizations, trails, outdoor recreation and regional promotion.

In 2001, Fisher began organizing a collaborative effort among southwestern Pennsylvania’s numerous French and Indian War sites, designed to take advantage of the 250th anniversary of the War and the related founding of Pittsburgh and Ligonier in 1758. She established a 501(c)3 supporting organization of the Conference, French and Indian War 250, Inc., and as its Director she has spearheaded the planning of a broad-based regional and national commemoration. Part of that work includes the development of the historic interpretive plan for Point State Park.

An art historian by training, Fisher worked for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC before coming to Pittsburgh.


John Flicker
John Flicker is President of the National Audubon Society.  Flicker grew up on a small family dairy farm in Minnesota where he learned to love the outdoors.  He studied at Crosier Seminary in Onamia, Minnesota from 1963 to 1968.  After receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1971, and a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1974, he became a staff attorney for the Nature Conservancy.  During his 21-year tenure with the Nature Conservancy, he held various positions including Great Plains Director for the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; Florida State Director; General Counsel in their Washington, DC area Home Office; and eventually Chief Operating Officer.

In 1995, Flicker became President of the National Audubon Society in New York.  During his tenure there, he more than doubled the size of the organization with a strong emphasis on building conservation capacity at the state level.  He has opened 24 new state offices for Audubon, and launched over 50 community-based Audubon Centers.  He also played a leadership role in key national issues including protecting the Everglades, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Mississippi River, and Long Island Sound.


Mark A. Focht, ASLA
Mr. Focht was appointed Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Commission by Mayor John F. Street and Fairmount Park Commission President Robert N.C. Nix, III in August 2005.  In this position, Mr. Focht is responsible for day-to-day management of the 9,200-acre, 63-park Fairmount Park system with a staff of 210 employees and an operating budget of $16.7 million.  Prior to his appointment, Mr. Focht served as director of the Park Commission's Environment, Stewardship & Education Division (ES&ED).  This division is an unprecedented multi-million dollar effort to restore the natural areas throughout the Fairmount Park system and to build a constituency for their protection through environmental education and community stewardship.  Prior to that, Mr. Focht served as the park's natural lands restoration manager for three years.

Mr. Focht holds Bachelor of Science and Master's degrees in landscape architecture from Penn State University and the University of Massachusetts, respectively, and is a PA licensed landscape architect.

Prior to joining the Fairmount Park Commission in 1997, Mr. Focht was director of capital projects for the Center City District (Philadelphia, PA), a private-sector business improvements district, where he directed the $26 million Walk!Philadelphia streetscape improvement project.  Additionally, Mr. Focht has over ten years experience working for two multi-disciplinary design firms and has been an adjunct professor in Temple University's Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture since 1989.

Mr. Focht lectures extensively and serves on Boards of the Fairmount Park Conservancy, Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust, Awbury Arboretum Association, Philadelphia Sports Congress and the Landscape Architecture Affiliated Program Group (APG) of the Pennsylvania State University.  Mr. Focht was the recipient of the 2007 Arts and Architecture Alumni Achievement Award from Penn State University.

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD

Mindy Fullilove is a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University.  She was educated at Bryn Mawr College (AB, 1971) and Columbia University (MS, 1971; MD 1978).  She is a board certified psychiatrist, having received her training at New York Hospital-Westchester Division (1978-1981) and Montefiore Hospital (1981-1982).  She has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health.  From her research, she has published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It (2004), and The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place (1999).  She is also co-author of Rodrick Wallace’s Collective Consciousness and Its Discontents: Institutional Distributed Cognition, Racial Policy and Public Health in the United States (2008).   She has also published numerous articles, book chapters, and monographs.  She has received many awards, including inclusion on “Best Doctors” lists and two honorary doctorates (Chatham College, 1999, and Bank Street College of Education, 2002).  Her work in AIDS in featured in Jacob Levenson’s The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS in Black America.  Her current work focuses on the connection between urban function and mental health.  


Mike Gable

Mike Gable is a Deputy Director for the Department of Public Works (DPW) of the City of Pittsburgh.  Mike is a 34-year employee (19 with Parks and Recreation, 15 with Public Works) whose focus and commitment has always been parks.  He has direct responsibility for the maintenance of 170 parks and operations with Forestry, Architecture, Personnel and Fiscal.  Mike is a board member on the PRPS Park Resource committee, a graduate of the NRPA Park and Recreation Maintenance Management School, and has developed documentation (Business Plans, Task/Frequency Schedules, Standards and Procedures for Park Facility Maintenance Programs) that is used by DPW staff in their daily operations.


Timothy Gallagher
Tim has 31 years of experience as a Parks and Recreation professional.  Before coming to Seattle, he was Director of Parks and Recreation for Los Angeles County.  He has led parks systems in Stockton, San Luis Obispo County and Yreka, California.  He has also worked as a sports reporter and taught natural resource management at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and Chico State University.

Tim's professional affiliations include being legislative chair for the California Parks & Recreation Society Legislative Committee, serving as a board member for the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, and being past president of the California Association of Regional Parks & Open Space Administrators.

He is an avid outdoorsman, having traveled extensively enjoying natural parks throughout the world.  Recently, he completed a five-month hike of the Pacific Crest Trail which he started at the California-Mexico border.  The 2,700-mile trail zigzags its way from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington, over rugged high desert, glaciated expanses of the Sierra Nevada, and volcanic peaks and glaciers in the Cascade Range.  Approximately 1,000 hikers attempt to finish the trail each year with fewer than 100 actually completing it.


Alexander Garvin

Alex Garvin has combined a career in urban planning and real estate with teaching, architecture, and public service. He is currently President & CEO of Alex Garvin & Associates, Inc. From 1996-2005, he was Managing Director of Planning for NYC2012, New York City’s committee for the 2012 Olympic bid. During 2002-2003, he was the Vice President for Planning, Design and Development at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with the redevelopment of the World Trade Center following 9/11. Over the last 35 years he has held prominent positions in five New York City administrations, including Deputy Commissioner of Housing (1974-1978) and City Planning Commissioner (1995-2004).

Alex is the Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning and Management at Yale University, where he has taught a wide range of courses for 40 years, including “Introduction to the Study of the City,” which has remained one of the most popular courses at Yale. In addition, he teaches two courses in the School of Architecture, including a seminar on “Intermediate Planning & Development.”

Alex is a member of the National Advisory Council of the Trust for Public Land and the Board of Directors of the Society of American City and Regional Planning History. Between 1996 and 2004, he was a fellow of the Urban Land Institute for whom he has organized and taught workshops on basic real estate development, the residential development process, and the role of design in real estate. Alex is also a member of the Boards of Directors of the Ed Bacon Foundation, the Forum for Urban Design and the Mayor's Institute on City Design.

Alex is the author of The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, published by McGraw-Hill and winner of the 1996 American Institute of Architects book award in urbanism. (The substantially revised, updated, and expanded 2nd edition was released during the Summer of 2002). He has also authored Parks, Recreation, and Open Space: A 21st Century Agenda, published in 2001 by the American Planning Association, and was one of the principal authors of Urban Parks and Open Space, published in 1997 jointly by the Trust for Public Land and the Urban Land Institute. His most recent work, The Beltline Emerald Necklace: Atlanta’s New Public Realm, was commissioned by the Georgia office of The Trust for Public Land in 2004.

Alex earned his B.A., M.Arch, and M.U.S. from Yale University. 


Richard Gelb

Richard Gelb is the performance manager for King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, where he helps determine success measures, supports performance improvements, and tracks achievements across a range of program areas.  He is currently advancing lifecycle assessment methods for capital programs – a planning and design approach that concurrently addresses functional, environmental, and fiscal performance domains.

Richard also provides performance management support to several executive initiatives, including Equity and Social Justice, Climate Protection/Adaptation, and Rural Service Delivery.  He coordinates efforts to track and map community-wide climate emissions, service equity, and the environmental behavior of residents.

Recently, for Seattle Parks and Recreation, Richard served as the Sustainable Building Coordinator for over $200 million of ‘ProParks’ levy spending.  He served as LEED project coordinator and developed and implemented a scorecard system for site development projects, which resulted in significant fiscal, functional and environmental performance improvements. 

Richard has a BS in Business Administration, a Masters in Environmental Studies, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.


Tony Genco
Tony Genco, President and Chief Executive Officer, has served Parc Downsview Park, Inc. for more than seven years.  With boyhood roots in the Downsview community and a deep concern for the development of the land, he rose to lead the company within two years of joining PDP.  For more than five extremely challenging years, including a change in governance and a reorganization of the company, the hosting of two very large international events and material progress in implementing the corporate vision for the Downsview lands, Mr. Genco has endeavored to demonstrate the leadership necessary to guide this immense, innovative undertaking.  He has an extensive breadth of experience and skills in all facets of public affairs, communications, government relations and management, and is active in many charitable and community activities.  Mr. Genco has most recently previously served on the Toronto Expo 2015 Steering Committee, the Smart Commute North Toronto-Vaughan Board and the Community Home Assistance for Seniors (CHATS).  He currently serves on the Spadina-York Subway Extension Committee, the Columbus Centre, the Vaughan Public Libraries Board, and is an External Fellow at York University's McLaughlin College and a member of the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network.


William A. Gilchrist

William Gilchrist is the Director of the Department of Planning, Engineering & Permits for the City of Birmingham, Alabama, which is responsible for planning services and development regulations for the city.

Mr. Gilchrist is an alumnus of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, where he served on the Awards Committee, Community Committee, and chaired the Committee on Design Assistance.

He also serves on the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Engineering Council, the Visiting Committee to MIT’s Department of Architecture, and Auburn University’s Advisory Committee for Architecture and Urban Design.  Mr. Gilchrist is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, serving as vice-chair on its Public/Private Partnership Council.

He has contributed articles to numerous publications and has appeared on National Public Radio and PBS’s The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

Geoffrey Godbey, Ph.D.

Geoffrey Godbey is the President of Next Consulting, a company concerned with re-positioning leisure and tourism services for the near future as well as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management at Penn State University. The author of ten books and over 100 articles concerning leisure, work, time use, aging, recreation and parks, tourism, health and the future, he is the past President of the Academy of Leisure Sciences.

Previously a faculty member at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, Godbey has undertaken research for the American Association of Retired Persons, the US Forest Service, the National Recreation Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He has been a consultant to the National Science Foundation, State Government of Sao Paulo, Brazil, US Department of the Interior, as well as many advertising agencies and public and private recreation, park and tourism organizations. Godbey has testified before committees of the United States Senate and the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. A frequent public speaker to diverse groups, he has given invited presentations in twenty-four countries.

He also advised and was the spokesperson for Hampton Inn’s Year of 1,000 Weekends campaign as well as serving on Hilton Hotel’s Leisure Time Advocacy Board. From 2002-2004, Godbey helped develop the LifeTrail, a series of stretching and strengthening stations for older adults, for Playworld Systems, Inc. Currently he an advisor on the future of leisure for The Next Thousand Years Project, sponsored by the Foundation for the Future.

Recently, he has conducted research on the impact of ethnic change on outdoor recreation, relations between health and use of leisure, and the impact of changing demographics on the tourism function of the National Park Service.

A book he co-authored with Dr. John Robinson entitled Time for Life — The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time was published in June 1997 by Penn State Press with an updated edition published in 1999. Godbey is completed a five city study of the relationships between use of leisure and health among older adults. He is also currently at work on a book about the impact of time on consumer purchasing behavior with Paul Nunes and Jim Wilson. Several of his books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Godbey has written for or been extensively quoted by a wide variety of academic journals and popular periodicals including American Demographics, Prevention, Modern Maturity, Issues in Science and Technology, Public Opinion, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Social Research, The Futurist, Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Leisure Studies, The World and I, American Enterprise, Hospitality Research Journal, Parks and Recreation, World Tennis, and many others. His poetry has appeared in numerous outlets including The Nation.

Interviews and summaries of Godbey’s writings have appeared in a number of mass media outlets including US News and World Report, Newsweek, Time, Reader's Digest, The Economist, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning Show, New York Times, Glamour, Psychology Today, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Modern Maturity, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, The Utne Reader, NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw, CNN News, The ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings and many others. 

Philip J. Gruszka

Phil Gruszka is Director of Management and Maintenance Policies for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and advises the Conservancy and the City’s Department of Public Works on horticultural and ecological issues facing Pittsburgh’s parks. He has 30 years experience in the Green Industry and is an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist. He founded and operated his own tree care business in the Chicago area for 11 years before going to Longwood Gardens as foreman of arboriculture and grounds keeping, where he supervised 20 staff, plus volunteers and student interns. In addition to his horticultural duties in formal areas, he initiated a woodland management program for the 700 forested acres aimed largely at stopping the spread of invasive Norway maple. Mr. Gruszka is a leader in testing historically significant populations of trees and their contemporary replacements for genetic diversity and developing protocols for managing those historic collections and maximizing biodiversity while maintaining aesthetic attributes. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from the University of Illinois, completed a six-month internship with the United States Forest Service, and graduated from the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences. 


Reginald "Flip" Hagood

Flip Hagood is Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the Student Conservation Association. Flip serves as the lead executive for SCA's strategic initiatives and business development. Prior to joining SCA he worked for the Department of Interior for 30 years, and in his last position worked for the National Park Service as the Director of Training and Education. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for SCA and the Advisory Council for its Diversity Initiative.

He currently is a member of the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society and is on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Conservation Leadership. He also serves as a Trustee for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and is on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Interpretation and the Friends of the High School for Environmental Studies. He received an M.S. degree from NOVA University in Florida and a B.S. Degree from American University in Washington, D.C. He is a certified Career Counselor and has advanced training and education in the fields of Human Resource Development and Instructional Systems Design. 


David Hance

David Hance received his Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon, and his Bachelor of Arts in Geography/Geology from the University of Montana. He is a Principal with Perkins Eastman, a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh XXI, and President of the Highland Park Community Development Corporation. His involvement with community representation began with the announcement from the City of Pittsburgh in 1989 that the two open reservoirs in Highland Park would be covered. Thus began an 11 year saga of education, advocacy, coalition building and speaking up for solutions that balanced the needs of the historic park, as well as the major drinking water supplies centered within Highland Park. 


Peter Harnik

Peter Harnik is director of the Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence.  In 2000, he authored Inside City Parks, a book about the park and recreation systems of the 25 largest cities in the U.S.  His research also resulted in The Excellent City Park System: What Makes it Great and How to Get There, published in 2003.  Currently he is heading research projects to determine how much economic value a park system can bring to its city; how much parkland a city should truly have; how to design parks to help improve the public’s health; and how to make sure that park-rich, vibrant neighborhoods are also affordable.

Previous to TPL, Harnik was co-founder and vice president of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.  He also founded the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail in Washington, D.C. and served for many years as president of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.  In 1987 he was named one of the “Global 500” by the United Nations Environment Programme.

A native of New York City, Harnik grew up near Riverside Park.  He is a 1970 graduate of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.


Marijke Hecht

Marijke Hecht works with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as the Director of TreeVitalize Pittsburgh. TreeVitalize Pittsburgh is a joint project of Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. TreeVitalize will plant 20,000 trees by 2012 on streets, in parks, and along riverfronts throughout the Pittsburgh region. As the former Executive Director of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, Marijke advocated for the $7.7 million Nine Mile Run stream restoration project, led the organization’s community forestry and rain barrel programs, and initiated the design process for a new stormwater demonstration site at a dilapidated entrance to Frick Park. She received a Master of Science in Botany from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont and a Bachelor of Arts in Nutritional Anthropology from Hampshire College.


Teresa Heinz
Teresa Heinz is chairman of the Heinz Family Philanthropies and the Heinz Endowments.  She is also the creator of the prestigious Heinz Awards, an annual program recognizing outstanding vision and achievement in the arts; public policy; the environment; the human condition; and technology, the economy, and employment.

After the death of her husband, U.S. Senator John Heinz, in 1991, Mrs. Heinz was urged by national and Pennsylvania political leaders to seek election to his Senate seat.  She chose instead to assume direction of the family's extensive philanthropic operations, undertaking a major reorganization designed to sharpen the foundations' strategic focus.  Today, the foundations she oversees are widely known for developing innovative strategies to protect the environment, improve education, enhance the lives of young children, broaden economic opportunity, and promote the arts.

Following on the work of her late husband, Mrs. Heinz has championed the education of women regarding the importance of pensions, savings, and retirement security.  Products of her support in this area have included the publication of a nationally acclaimed book, Pensions in Crisis, and a magazine supplement, "What Every Woman Needs to Know About Money and Retirement," that was published in Good Housekeeping and US Airways' Attache magazine.  In a related area, she directed the development of the Heinz Plan to Overcome Prescription Drug Expenses, a program to make prescription drugs affordable for older Americans.  The Boston Globe hailed the HOPE plan as "a great service for Massachusetts...presenting the state government with a credible plan to provide its elderly citizens with prescription drugs."  In addition to Massachusettes, similar "blueprints" have been studied or adopted in five other states including Pennsylvania, Maine, and Mississippi.

Heralded by the Utne Reader in 1995 as one of 100 American visionaries, Mrs. Heinz has long been recognized as one of the nation's premier environmental leaders.  In 1995, she announced one of the largest grants ever made to the environment, a $20 million gift to create the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment in Washington, DC, a unique attempt to bring together representatives of business, government, the scientific community, and environmental groups to collaborate on the development of mutually acceptable yet scientifically sound environmental policies.  In addition to serving on the Heinz Center's board, she was one of 10 representatives from non-governmental organizations attached to the U.S. delegation to the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil in 1992.  Since 1995, she has sponsored annual conferences on Women's Health and the Environment, bringing women together with health, environmental, and policy experts to learn how the environment impacts their daily lives.


Brian J. Hill
Brian Hill is a program officer with the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which is based in Pittsburgh and is among the largest independent foundations in the world.  The Foundation's priorities include regional economic development, the quality of life in southwestern Pennsylvania, land preservation, and watershed restoration and protection with an emphasis on western Pennsylvania.  Since its inception, the Foundation has provided more than $500 million for land protection in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation.  Prior to joining the Foundation in spring 2008, Hill served as the CEO and President of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, a statewide non-profit group headquartered in Harrisburg.  He has also worked for or served three Pennsylvania Governors, most recently as an executive policy specialist on environmental or transportation policy for Governor Rendell, and earlier as a member of the 21st Century Environment Commission created by Governor Ridge and as Chairman of the Citizens Advisory Council to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Casey.  Hill has served on the board of trustees for the PA Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, and the French Creek Valley Conservancy. 


Eloise Hirsh

Eloise Hirsh is the Administrator of Staten Island’s Fresh Kills Park.  At 2200 acres, the Fresh Kills Park project is one of the most ambitious public works project in the City’s history.  The transformation of what was the City’s biggest landfill for 50 years into a productive, vital, beautiful destination open to all is a powerful symbol of renewal with challenges and opportunities on an unprecedented scale.   

Eloise Hirsh has an extensive career in public and non-profit sector management.  She spent 18 years in Pittsburgh, where she was Mayor Tom Murphy’s Director of City Planning during his first two terms, Director of the Mayor’s Commission on Public Education, and, as firm principal of the consulting firm Iron Hill Associates, led projects on open space preservation and development, transportation issues, affordable housing and child and family welfare. 

Before relocating to Pittsburgh in 1988, Eloise spent 20 years in New York City government where her responsibilities ranged from infrastructure and park management as First Deputy Commissioner (Chief Operating Officer) of New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, to labor relations and productivity improvement as Director of New York City’s first Labor Management Productivity Committee.

She has been on the faculty of the Heinz School for Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service


Diane P. Holder

Diane Holder is the Executive Vice President of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and President of the UPMC Health Insurance Division and President and CEO of UPMC Health Plan. The UPMC is one of the nation’s leading integrated delivery systems and through its health plans and affiliates, provides health coverage and benefit management for over one million men, women and children in Pennsylvania.  The Insurance Services Division includes the UPMC Health Plan, UPMC for You, Community Care Behavioral Health Organization and Work Partners. These health benefits companies, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania manage benefits for Commercial, Medicaid, Medicare, Behavioral Health, EAP, Health Promotions and Worker’s Compensation programs.

Ms. Holder has held a number of leadership positions in health care including the CEO of UPMC’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and was the founding CEO of Community Care Behavioral Health Organization.  Ms. Holder is a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her master’s degree from Columbia University.

Ms. Holder serves on local and national boards including the Alliance of Community Health Plans, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Winchester Thurston School.  She was recently appointed by Governor Rendell as a Co-Chair for the Commonwealth of Pennylvania’s Chronic Care Management, Reimbursement and Cost Reduction Commission.  She is a frequent speaker regarding the subject of health care services and financing.  She and her husband have three children and reside in the Shadyside area of Pittsburgh.


John Hopkins, DipLA, MLA, ASLA, FLI

John Hopkins is Project Sponsor for the Olympic Parklands and Public Realm at the Olympic Delivery Authority, London, UK. In addition to the United Kingdom, he has practiced in Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States.  He is a landscape architect, urban designer and environmental planner with expertise in regional planning through to site design and implementation.  He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, a Corporate Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute and on the CABE and South East England Regional Design Review Panels.

He is a Churchill Fellow in Urban Design and published Urban Space: form, funding and function based on research in Boston, New York, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon.  He writes regularly for the professional press, and has made contributions to several books on urban and landscape design. He taught for several years at the Bartlett, University College, London and has lectured widely. He most recently co-edited and contributed two chapters, one co-written with Peter Neal, to Cultured Landscapes – Designing the Environment in the Twenty-first Century published by Spons Press.


Tessa Huxley

Tessa Huxley is Executive Director of the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy (BPC Parks) in New York City.  She began her career in public horticulture as a community gardening activist, working as Community Outreach Coordinator at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Director of Urban Agriculture at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Executive Director of The Green Guerillas.  In addition, she was co-founder of the American Community Gardening Association and served as President.  She was awarded a Loeb Fellowship in Environmental Design at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. 

Since 1988 Ms. Huxley has been Executive Director of BPC Parks.  She created a plan and brought the organization to a staff of 76 full time professionals plus another 50 seasonal employees.  An environmental activist as well, Ms Huxley has imbued all of the work in Battery Park City’s parks with a sustainable vision.  BPC Parks has proven, through two decades of work, that it is possible to have 1st class, highly used, public parks that use no toxic chemicals (in horticulture or in hard surface maintenance).  The work of the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy has been recognized all over the US and by many in Europe as well.

David Jahn
David Jahn has been the City Forester in Pittsburgh since 2005.  He has an Associate's Degree in Agriculture from Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph University, Guelph, Onatrio; a Bachelor of Religion degree from North American Baptist College in Edmonton, Alberta; and a Master's of Divinity post-graduate degree from North American Baptist Seminary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  David Jahn has been associated with landscaping and arboriculture full-time for the past 18 years, and has been a Certified Arborist for the last 14 years through the International Society of Arboriculture.  He is a Registered Consulting Arborist (#425) with the American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA).  He has assisted in the writing of County and City tree ordinances in Florida and Pennsylvania.  He has coached consultants in training at the ASCA Academy, has taught Woody Ornamental classes to Master Gardeners, and carries on a private arboriculture consulting practice.  In his current role as City Forester for Pittsburgh, David Jahn is responsible for protection and management of 31,000 street trees, plus that many more in public parks and greenways.


John M. Jakicic, Ph.D.

John Jakicic is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Activity.  Dr. Jakicic is also the Director of the NIH-Funded Obesity and Nutrition Research Center, and the Director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Jakicic has a national and international reputation as a leading scholar in this area of physical activity and weight control.  Dr. Jakicic is currently conducting research to examine the appropriate dose of exercise combined with healthy eating recommendations to prevent weight gain in adults.  This research will provide valuable public health information related to exercise recommendations for the prevention of obesity.  This line of research builds off of a long-line of prior research conducted by Dr. Jakicic which demonstrated that approximately 60 minutes per day of moderate intensity physical activity is necessary to enhance long-term weight loss and prevent weight regain.  These experiences have culminated in Dr. Jakicic serving as the coordinator of the “America on the Move in Pittsburgh” initiative that is a collaboration of academic, corporate, medical, and community organizations throughout the Greater Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania region.  This initiative is part of a nation program to improve the health of children and adults through modest increases in physical activity and modest reductions in dietary intake.


Kevin E. Jeffrey

Kevin Jeffrey was appointed the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation’s Deputy Commissioner for Public Programs in April 2002. Public Programs encompasses the operation of 36 recreation centers, 17 Nature Centers, Central Recreation, Urban Park Rangers, Parks Enforcement Patrol, Partnerships for Parks, and Central Communications.

Kevin was raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In May 1979, he joined Parks as one of the very first Urban Park Rangers.  During his tenure with NYC Parks, he supervised the Mounted Rangers Unit, served as Executive Director of the Parks Enforcement Patrol, was next appointed Chief of Operations of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and thereafter, Brooklyn’s Chief of Recreation. Kevin left NYC Parks to serve as Deputy Commissioner of Recreation, Programs and Services with the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. He was later appointed Regional Director of State Parks holdings in New York City.

Kevin returned to Brooklyn in 1997, taking on the role of Executive Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA where he spearheaded the task of revitalizing this large urban youth development facility. He has also served as a trainer and coordinator in the design and implementation of Total Quality Management programs within the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the National Parks Service.

As Deputy Commissioner for Public Programs, Kevin Jeffrey is committed to expanding recreational, educational, and athletic opportunities for all New Yorkers.

Kevin resides in Brooklyn and has four children. He spends his free time enjoying fishing, camping and other outdoor activities with his family.


Daniel H. Jones

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Dan holds degrees from Yale University (B.A., M.F.) and Indiana University, Bloomington (Ph.D.).  He has spent much of his working life in the fields of education and business management.  In addition to founding and managing his own business, he taught World History and the History of the American West at the University of Louisville.  Most recently, he founded “21^st Century Parks,” a non-profit corporation that manages a partnership that seeks to develop a 4000-5000 acre park and trail system in the last major undeveloped corridor surrounding Louisville.  He currently serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of “21^st Century Parks,” where he oversees planning, design, and construction of the new parks.  He is married, with four children, and enjoys hiking, camping and fishing with his family, skiing, running, and reading.


K B Kabuta
K B Kabuta is a Senior Youth Leader of the Great Plains Youth InterAction Program.

K B was born in Africa and moved here with his two siblings and mother when he was a young child.  He is currently 17 years old and attends Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

K B has overcome numerous obstacles and challenges due to the non-traditional upbringing he has had to accept.  He credits GPRC's Youth InterAction Program, along with the guidance of his mentors Lorenzo Wilborn, Youth Director, and Jarid Manos, CEO and Founder of Great Plains Restoration Council, with guiding him in the direction he is now traveling.


Bruce Katz

Bruce Katz is a Vice President at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The Metro Program seeks to redefine the challenges facing cities and metropolitan areas by publishing cutting edge research on major demographic, market, development and governance trends.

Mr. Katz regularly advises national, state, regional and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas. He focuses particularly on reforms that promote the revitalization of central cities and older suburbs and enhance the ability of these places to attract, retain and grow the middle class. In 2006, he received the prestigious Heinz Award in Public Policy for his contributions to urban and metropolitan America.

Mr. Katz is a frequent writer and commentator on urban and metropolitan issues. He is the editor or co-editor of several books on transportation, demographics and regionalism, including Taking the High Road (Brookings Press, 2005), Redefining Urban and Suburban America (Brookings Press, 2003), and Reflections on Regionalism (Brookings Press, 2000). His op-eds and articles have appeared in a wide range of major national and regional newspapers including The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Baltimore Sun.  Mr. Katz frequently appears on TV and radio, including National Public Radio's Morning Edition, PBS’s The Lehrer Newshour, and CNN.

He is also a Visiting Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. 

Before joining Brookings, Mr. Katz served as Chief of Staff to Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Katz has also served as the staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs.

Mr. Katz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.


Liam Kavanagh
Liam Kavanagh is the First Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.  A lifelong New Yorker, Mr. Kavanagh was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, and now resides in Brooklyn.  A graduate of the City University's Herbert H. Lehman College, Kavanagh joined Parks in 1981.  He has served as Brooklyn's Forestry Director, Deputy Chief of Operations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Chief of Operations in Manhattan before his appointment as Deputy Commissioner by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe on February 25, 2002.

As First Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Kavanagh oversees efforts to improve the quality and increase the number of well-maintained greenspaces in public parks throughout New York.  He traces his involvement in the field to the renovation of the gardens along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in 1989, where a great gardener and a willing crew of helpers transformed a lackluster landscape into a showpiece.  It remains one of his most memorable projects and it demonstrated the tremendous opportunities for growing great gardens in parks throughout the City.  "People respond positively to well-maintained greenspaces," Kavanagh notes.  "They've become a hallmark of successful public spaces."


Dina Klavon, RLA, ASLA
Dina Klavon is Principal of Klavon Design Associates, Pittsburgh.  Her 25 years of experience encompass many areas of landscape architecture including master planning, site planning, and urban design with emphasis in design, project management, and client relationships.  Recently the firm facilitated the community design process, site analysis, historic research, conceptual design alternatives and final design, including site plan design, landscape design, construction details, specifications, and cost estimate for the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning's Re-design of Market Square.


Lucy Lawliss, ASLA

Lucy Lawliss is the Superintendent of George Washington Birthplace National Monument and Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Virginia. She has been cultural resources lead for a group of four national historical parks in the San Francisco East Bay and was the former lead for the National Park Service, Park Cultural Landscapes Program in Washington, DC. She began her career with the NPS as an historical landscape architect for the Southeast Regional Office where she established the cultural landscapes program.

Ms. Lawliss has authored several award-winning historical landscape publications including The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1857-1979 (2008), Olmsted in Georgia: The Residential Work of the Olmsted Firm 1895-1937, published by the Southern Garden History Society, and the Cultural Landscape Report: The Birth Home Block, Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site. In addition to her NPS work, she is on the board of directors of the National Association for Olmsted Parks and a past board co-chair of the organization.

She has an undergraduate and master’s degree in landscape architecture with a certificate in historic preservation from the University of Georgia and is a registered landscape architect.


Kang-Oh Lee
Kang-Oh Lee is secretary general and a member of the steering committee of Seoul Green Trust Foundation (SGT) since 2003.  SGT is one of the most active NGOs in the field of urban park and forest management.  He is currently a director of Sustainable Development Division of Green Citizens' Committee, Seoul Metropolitan.  He is an executive administrator of Seoul Forest Park Conservancy, which was founded to manage the park through citizen participation in 2005.  He served as a director of Forest For Life, which is a nationwide citizen's movement NGO in Korea.  He also served as a volunteer specialist of UNDP, assigned in Maldives with the "Million Tree Planting Project."

He received his Master of Forestry from the Seoul National University in 1996.  During graduate school, he served as a volunteer in the Philippines (1993-1995) supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency and wrote a thesis of social forestry in the Philippines.


Arleyn Levee
Arleyn A. Levee is a landscape historian and preservation consultant, specializing in the work of the later Olmsted firm of Olmsted Brothers John Charles and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., their partners, and associates.  She advises professional and community preservation groups about rehabilitation and stewardship of their Olmsted landscapes.  She lectures nationwide and has authored several publications concerning the Olmsted design and planning legacy and its impact upon neighborhoods and cities.

Ms. Levee has worked extensively with non-profit preservation groups.  Associated with the National Association for Olmsted Parks since 1980, she was a founder of the Massachusetts Association for Olmsted Parks.  Currently, she is on the board of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, is a Trustee for Historic New England, a member of the Belmont Historic District Commission, and sits on the Emerald Necklace Restoration Project Advisory Committee. 


Charlie Lord

Charlie Lord is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. After clerking on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1993 and co-founded Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), in Roxbury.  Charlie served on ACE's Board until 2004. Charlie is now the Director of the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College and serves as the chair of the Urban Ecology Collaborative, a multi-city partnership that includes organizations in Boston, New Haven, New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Washington.  The UEC is working to improve ecosystem services for and with urban communities through enhancing tree canopy and through transformation of urban land. Charlie has taught environmental law and policy and environmental legal history at Boston College Law School and is now a lecturer in the Environmental Studies Program at Boston College. He is on the boards of directors for the Community Rights Council in Washington, D.C. He has published numerous articles on environmental law and environmental policy. Charlie was named a Barr Foundation Fellow for 2007, recognizing outstanding leaders in the non-profit sector in Boston.

 

Caroline Loughlin

Caroline Loughlin is one of the editors of and a contributor to The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857-1979, published in 2008. She is also the co-author of Forest Park, published in 1986, which is a history of a major park in St. Louis. She is a board member and co-chair of the Research Committee of the National Association for Olmsted Parks, which she has served as secretary, treasurer and co-chair and continues to serve on the steering committee for the Olmsted Research Guide Online. She was a founding board member of Forest Park Forever in St. Louis, which she served as president, and of the Friends of Fairsted, of which she is the president. For Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, MA, she co-chaired the 175^th anniversary committee, was a member of the steering committee for the Preservation Initiative and volunteers in the Historical Collections Department.


Richard Louv
Richard Louv is a futurist and journalist focused on family, nature, and community.  He is chairman of the Children & Nature Network and the author of seven books.  His most recent, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin), has stimulated a national conversation about the future relationship between children and nature.  The Children & Nature Network is an organization helping build the movement to connect children with nature.  He is also honorary co-chair of the National Forum on Children and Nature, co-chaired by four state governors.  The Forum, sponsored by the Conservation Fund, will distribute $20 million to programs around the country designed to get kids outside.

In January, the National Audubon Society will present Richard Louv the Audubon Medal.  Past recipients have been Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson, Robert Redford, Jimmy Carter, and the Rockefeller Family.  The medal will be awarded for Louv's "exceptional contributions promoting the importance of connecting people to nature, especially children."  He is the 2008 recipient of the Cox Award, Clemson University's highest honor, awarding "sustained achievement in public service."  The National School Board Journal chose Last Child in the Woods as a notable book in education for 2006.  In 2005, Discover Magazine named Last Child in the Woods one of the top science books of the year.  And Spirituality & Health magazine named it one of 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2005.  The book has spawned a national movement that is now moving into the international sphere.  Last Child in the Woods has been translated into six languages.

Louv has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and other newspapers and magazines.  He has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, the Today Show, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, NPR's Morning Edition, Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, and many other programs.  Between 1984 and 2007, he was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune; he was also a columnist and member of the editorial advisory board for Parents magazine, and served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World award program and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.  He is on the board of directors of ecoAmerica and a member of the Citistates Group.

He speaks frequently nationally and internationally, having appeared before the Domestic Policy Council in the White House and at major governmental and professional conferences internationally.  Richard Louv is married to Kathy Frederick Louv and the father of two young men, Jason, 25, and Matthew, 19.  He is working on his eighth book.  He would rather fish than write.


Karen Lukas
Karen Lukas has been an EcoSteward with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy since 2003.  The Urban EcoSteward program was created to provide a framework under which citizen volunteers contribute to the maintenance of Pittsburgh's city parks.  Each EcoSteward maintains a small part of a park under the supervision of staff from one of three sponsoring organizations: the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, the Frick Environmental Center, and the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association.  After receiving training on invasive plant identification and removal, Karen took on stewardship of the hillside below the Schenley Park Visitor Center.  

After retiring from the Computing Services Division at Carnegie Mellon University in 2007, Karen began working with PPC field staff on invasive plant control in all four of Pittsburgh's great parks, and as a crew leader for PPC volunteer work days.

Her interest in the outdoors is lifelong, and was expressed in careers as a marine scientist at the Harbor Branch Foundation Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida, and a faculty position as Associate Professor of Geology at Vassar College.  In addition to her work as an EcoSteward, Karen is a Tree Tender for Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.


Rhonda Macdonald
Rhonda has worked for most of the last 20 years in the private sector in a range of positions including senior management, business development, project management, marketing, and consulting.  Her clients have included land and natural resource managers; federal, state, and local government; financial institutions; telecommunications; and utilities both within Australia and internationally--primarily in the Asia Pacific region.

Since joining Parks Victoria in 2002, Rhonda's main focus has been the development and implementation of key corporate initiatives including a Capital Investment Strategy and Parks Victoria's successful $100m funding bids in 2005 and 2006.  Rhonda spent the last two years managing Werribee Park, one of Parks Victoria's most significant cultural heritage sites and a showpiece for successful public/private sector investment.  Rhonda leads a team delivering a diverse range of commercial projects that support Parks Victoria's tourism, heritage, and environmental goals.

Rhonda is passionate about urban parks and their need to provide contemporary, sustainable, and relevant experiences, and recognizing the critical role they play in building healthy communities.  She is a member of the Parks for Life Governance Committee, an initiative of the International Urban Parks and Greenspaces Alliance.


Doug MacGregor

Doug MacGregor is the museum educator at Fort Pitt Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He grew up outside of Pittsburgh and has enjoyed history since he was a child.  He completed his bachelors degree at Slippery Rock University and his Master’s at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  He concentrated his studies on the colonial and revolutionary eras and completed his thesis on John Connolly, leader of the Virginia action at Pittsburgh and a loyalist through the American Revolution.  Doug has been at the Fort Pitt Museum since 2002 and helped design the new exhibits and directs the educational programs.  He has written a book and several articles on historical topics related to Western Pennsylvania.


Jarid Manos
An environmental advocate for more than sixteen years, Jarid Manos is founder and CEO of Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC), which is based in Fort Worth, TX and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD.  GPRC's Plains Youth InterAction helps build new youth leaders who work to restore and protect the interconnected health of themselves, their communities, and the earth at the same time.  GPRC has created three reserves, the still-endangered Fort Worth Prairie Park, the new 12,000-acre Cynthia Ann Parker Wilderness in West Texas, and a 4,600-acre expansion of Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  GPRC is one of the main founders of the emerging ecological health movement.  Mr. Manos further adds to his GPRC duties as a youth worker, health advocate, and writer.  A vegan athlete, he also serves on the Board of Directors of the Black Vegetarian Society of Texas.  His first book, Ghetto Plainsman, was recently released by Temba House Press.


Barbara McCabe
Miss McCabe has worked for the Philadelphia Recreation Department for 23 years and has held various positions in both the Program and Maintenance Divisions of the Department.  In November 1998, she was assigned the newly created position of Parks Coordinator by former Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis and continues to hold that position today.  Miss McCabe is responsible for the oversight of the 79 neighborhood parks and squares in the Recreation system and is involved in all aspects of park management.  The Parks Coordinator position was created in response to increasing community interest and the growing number of emerging Park Friends groups in the city.  The main function of the position is to serve as the Departmental representative in a three-way partnership called the Parks Revitalization Project, created by the PA Horticultural Society (PHS) in 1993.  Miss McCabe works closely with PHS and the individual park communities, as well as many staff within the Department and in other city agencies, to coordinate various services to these vital open spaces.

Miss McCabe holds a Bachelor of Science in Community-based Health Education from Penn State University.  She is also a NPSI-certified playground safety inspector.

In addition to her professional work with parks, since 1999, Miss McCabe has been an active park volunteer with the Friends of Campbell Square, the Philadelphia neighborhood park she grew up in.


Michael McClary
Michael McClary has been involved professionally and as a volunteer in community development efforts for over 15 years.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Wynnefield Heights Civic Association and is Chair of its Conshohocken-Windemere Park Revitalization Committee.  Mr. McClary has served in this capacity for over four years and has led community efforts to garner over $150,000 in public and private investment into the park facility.  Additionally, Mr. McClary serves on the Board of the Wynnefield-Overbrook Revitalization Corporation and the Advisory Board of Philadelphia Green.  Mr. McClary is employed as a loan officer with The Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution. 

J. Kevin McMahon

Kevin McMahon is President & CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which operates four major performing spaces, six smaller performance spaces, four galleries, and a variety of other ancillary facilities including multiple parking facilities, restaurants, ticketing operations, and public parks/plazas.  He has led the Trust since 2001.  In addition to the resident company programs, the Trust presents more than 300 attractions annually, including the Pittsburgh Dance Council and Pittsburgh First Night.

From 1992-2001, McMahon was Executive Vice President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he served as Chief Operating Officer with principal responsibility for supervising all revenue functions (fundraising and marketing) and resource allocation (budgeting and finance) as well as general administrative functions.

Mr. McMahon was Vice President for Development at the New School for Social Research from 1983-1992.  The New School operates Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Otis Art Institute, and the Actors Studio.  McMahon received a BA from Hiram College and an MBA from the City University of New York.

Mr. McMahon serves on the boards of Hiram College, Point Park University, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Performing Arts Centers Consortium, WQED Multimedia, Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau, Pennsylvania Economy League, Three Rivers Arts Festival, the Heinz School of Management at Carnegie Mellon University, and the School of Continuing Education at University of Pittsburgh.


Tamica Mickle
Mrs. Mickle is one of the Pittsburgh Regional Program Managers for the Student Conservation Association.  She is responsible for the oversight and management of regional community programming and works to involve local youth in conservation service, environmental education, and outdoor recreation opportunities.  Before coming to SCA, she worked with the Hill House Association for five years, leading youth and community development programs.  Tamica earned her BS in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh.


Vernice Miller-Travis
Vernice Miller-Travis became the Executive Director of The Environmental Support Center in January 2008.  The Environmental Support Center promotes the quality of the natural environment, human health, and community sustainability by increasing the organizational effectiveness of local, state, and regional organizations working on environmental issues and for environmental justice.

Prior to that she served as Executive Director and then Coordinator of Strategic Development and Outreach for Groundwork USA, a network of independent non-profit environmental organizations.  As a former program officer of the Ford Foundation (2000-2003), she launched that institutions environmental justice portfolio in the United States.

She was director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1993 until 1999, and served on the Expert Panel for the East Baltimore Development Initiative demolition protocol.  In 2003 and 2004, Ms. Miller-Travis served on the All Appropriate Inquiry Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which wrote the statutory language for the "Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Redevelopment Act," passed by Congress in 2002.

She is co-founder of the West Harlem Environmental Action, a 20-year-old community-based environmental justice organization in New York City.  She is also a founding member of The National Black Environmental Justice Network, which is a preventive health, environmental and economic justice network with affiliates in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Ms. Miller-Travis is an Urban Planner and a graduate of Columbia University, and author of numerous articles on race and land use, environmental justice, brownfields redevelopment and hazardous waste policy, sustainable community development, historic preservation, and neighborhood revitalization.


Timothy J. Mitchell
Named General Superintendent & CEO of the Chicago Park District by Mayor Richard M. Daley on January 20, 2004, Timothy Mitchell's commitment to excellence is reflected in his accomplishments at the Chicago Park District since his inauguration.

During his tenure, Mitchell has implemented new programming, committees, and playground standards to provide an inclusive park system for patrons, ensuring that every Chicagoan, regardless of physical or cognitive abilities, can participate in park programs and events throughout the city.  This effort has led to the removal of architectural barriers that obstruct access to park programs and facilities.

In addition, Mitchell has spearheaded a campaign to re-establish federal funding for the Urban Park Recreation and Recovery (UPARR) Act of 1978, worked with the 2016 Chicago Olympic Organizing Committee to recommend the city as a host of the 2016 Summer Games, and successfully campaigned to stop the expansion of a refinery that would dump toxins into Lake Michigan.

Mitchell joined the City in 1989 as Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Human Services.  In that position, he managed the department's 18 divisions and offices; helped oversee the expansion of programs such as child care, homeless services, and youth development; and acted as a liaison with other government agencies.

In 1998 he became First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of General Services and was promoted to Commissioner the following year.  The General Services Department is responsible for operating and maintaining city buildings and properties, as well as managing leases and telecommunications services for more than 500 city buildings.

In July 2001, Mitchell joined the Mayor's Office as Chief of Infrastructure and Operations.  During his tenure, he managed the City's $1.9 billion capital plan and supervised the operational and infrastructure departments of City government.  He also served as a liaison between City Hall and the City's sister agencies to ensure their efforts were coordinated.  Mitchell received the City's prestigious Kathy Osterman Award for public service in 1994.

He currently serves as a board member of the City Parks Alliance, the Parkways Foundation, Lincoln Park Zoo, Art Institute of Chicago, After School Matters, the Boys and Girls Town of Chicago, Gateway Green, Ravenswood Park Townhome Association, Special Children's Charities, and Neighborspace.  Mitchell was most recently elected as World Commissioner representing North America for the International Federation of Parks and Recreation.

He is a 1989 graduate of Loyola University Chicago and a resident of the Andersonville neighborhood. 


Christine Mondor

Christine Mondor is an eternal optimist regarding the power of design in our environment. Her diverse experience enables her to note trends and technologies and bring benefit across project types, from residential and commercial to educational planning. She has been active in shaping the Pittsburgh region’s buildings and landscapes as an architect, educator and activist for over a decade. Her projects have been recognized nationally and internationally and include the design of MAYAspace and Viz Offices in South Side Works, East End Veterinary Medical Center, "extended stay" house, and the evolveHOUSE, a prototype for affordable sustainable living. She has explored sustainability at a variety of scales, as project architect for the 100,000 sf Food Bank that was one of the first 10 LEED Rated buildings in the nation, to a modest and beautifully detailed straw bale comfort station in rural Pennsylvania. She has strong experience with organizational dynamics and she has helped companies like ALCOA, General Dynamics, and Phipps Conservatory bring sustainable ideas and practices to their organization.

Christine teaches architecture and landscape design at Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham University. She supports organizations who promote design and currently is Vice Chair of the board of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh and sits on a Project Committee for Friendship Development Associates. She has also contributed to Pittsburgh’s reputation for excellence in sustainability as a board member of the Green Building Alliance and Three Rivers Association for Sustainable Energy (TRASE). She received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University and studied architecture and sustainable design in Scandinavia. Christine is Registered Architect and a LEED Accredited Professional.


Velma Monteiro-Tribble
Velma Monteiro-Tribble serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Assistant Treasurer at Alcoa Foundation.  In her executive position she is responsible for carrying out the vision, mission, oversight and management of personnel and philanthropic giving in well over 33 countries.  The current assets of the Foundation are approximately $500 million.

In addition, she is responsible for the overall management, for Alcoa, the company, of well over $3.7 million for Alcoa's Employee Engagement programs, Employee Matching Program, Sons and Daughters Scholarship Program, and sponsorships.

She most recently served over three years as the senior program officer responsible for the Foundation's global signature initiatives, U.S.-based and international philanthropic giving programs.  In this supervisory position, she also was responsible for achieving the Foundation's grantmaking mission, objectives and sharing of best practices and measurement outcomes.  She also serves as the Secretary on Alcoa Foundation's board.

She has more than 30 years of experience in grantmaking, leadership development and training, community development, community enterprise, evaluation, tests and measurements, with such organizations as the National Association for Community Leadership, the U.S. Department of Education, American College testing, Rhode Island College and Brown University.  She also served as an administrator in the U.S. Peace Corps in Asia.  She holds a bachelor's degree from Stillman College, a master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Rhode Island, and a nonprofit management certificate from Case Western Reserve.

She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Urban Bankers Leadership Award and the National Woman of Achievement Award from the National Business and Professional Women Association.  She has written many articles and booklets on the topics of leadership, community leaderships, grassroots leadership, diversity in leadership, diversity in the workplace, and many more.  She chairs the Advisory Board for the Morehouse College International Leadership Center.  She also serves on numerous local, national, and international boards.
 

Kevin Moore
Prior to joining Bluefield Holdings, an institutionally funded, ecological project developer and natural resource asset management company, Kevin was Project Director of the Weequahic Park Association, where he supervised the construction, development, and project-specific programming of the historic resource Weequahic Park in Newark, New Jersey.  He was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the park's restoration efforts, which included the successful completion of the $3 million Lake Restoration Project, to test the effectiveness of non-urban best management practices in an urban watershed.  There he coordinated the park's first urban wildlife survey with the New Jersey Non-Game and Endangered Species Program and was responsible for the implementation of the park's Landscape and Horticultural Training Program for at-risk youth.  Kevin is a former member of the Board of Trustees for the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) and is on the board of the National Association for Olmsted Parks.  He is also a Leadership Newark Fellow Class of 2003.  Kevin studied Architecture at Hampton University and Construction Management at New York University.


Dr. Cynthia Morton

Cynthia Morton is an Associate Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Dr. Morton completed her Master’s degree at the University of North Carolina, and her Ph.D. degree at the City University of New York.  Upon completion she was award a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) post doctorial fellowship and study at Kew Gardens.  During the NATO fellowship she obtained a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Fellowship and remained in England for several years conducting molecular research and fieldwork in Africa, Australia, Malaysia and South America. Since then her work has focused on evolutionary molecular biology and teaching students about plant biology, evolution, and biotechniques.   She has been the major professor for 7 Master and Ph.D. students and has served as a committee member to 10 other Ph.D. students.  She has published 43 peer-reviewed papers and presented 50 seminars on her research.


Edward K. Muller
Edward Muller is Professor of History and Director of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.  He received his M.A. and Ph.D in Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and taught for several years in the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland before joining the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh in 1977.  He is a past chairperson of the Department of History and a Fulbright Research Scholar in New Zealand.  Author and editor of books and articles on the historical geography of North America, particularly cities, he edited North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), and DeVoto’s West: History, Conservation, and the Public Good (Ohio University Press, 2005) and most recently co-authored (with John F. Bauman) Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006).  Active in public history, he is past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and member of the Board of Trustees of the John Heinz History Center.


Tom Murphy

Tom Murphy is a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute/Klingbeil Family Chair for urban development. Murphy, former mayor of Pittsburgh, joins six other ULI senior resident fellows who specialize in public policy, retail/urban entertainment, transportation/infrastructure, housing, real estate finance and environmental issues.

His extensive experience in urban revitalization—what drives investment, what ensures long-lasting commitment—is a key addition to the senior resident fellows’ areas of expertise.

Since January 2006, Murphy had served as ULI’s Gulf Coast liaison, helping to coordinate with the leadership of New Orleans and the public to advance the implementation of rebuilding recommendations made by ULI’s advisory services panel last fall. In addition, he worked with the Louisiana state leadership, as well as with leadership in hurricane-impacted areas in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to identify areas appropriate for ULI involvement.

Prior to his service as the ULI Gulf Coast liaison, Murphy served three terms as the mayor of Pittsburgh, from January 1994 through December 2005. During that time, he initiated a public-private partnership strategy that leveraged more than $4.5 billion in economic development in Pittsburgh. Murphy led efforts to secure and oversee $1 billion in funding for the development of two professional sports facilities, and a new convention center that is the largest certified green building in the United States. He developed strategic partnerships to transform more than 1,000 acres of blighted, abandoned industrial properties into new commercial, residential, retail and public uses; and he oversaw the development of more than 25 miles of new riverfront trails and urban green space.

From 1979 through 1993, Murphy served eight terms in the Pennsylvania State General Assembly House of Representatives. He focused legislative activities on changing Western Pennsylvania’s economy from industrial to entrepreneurial and authored legislation requiring the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pension fund to invest in venture capital. In addition, he authored legislation created the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership, which is dedicated to advancing Pennsylvania’s focus on technology in the economy; and he authored legislation to encourage industrial land reuse and to transform abandoned rail right-of-ways into trails and green space.

Murphy served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay from 1970 through 1972. He is a 1993 graduate of the New Mayors Program offered by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He holds a master’s of science degree in urban studies from Hunter College, and a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from John Carroll University.

He is an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects; a board member of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities; and a board member of the National Rails to Trails Conservancy. He received the 2002 Outstanding Achievement of City Livability Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and was selected as the 2001 Pittsburgh Man of the Year Award by Vectors Pittsburgh.


Catherine Nagel

Catherine Nagel has served as Executive Director of City Parks Alliance (CPA) and the National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP), two national organizations that seek greater public investment and involvement in urban and historic parks throughout North America, since April 2004.  Catherine holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Japanese Studies from Bucknell University.


Shawn Norton

Shawn Norton currently serves in the Office of the Associate Director of the National Park Service (NPS) as the Agency-wide Environmental Leadership Program Coordinator.   In this role, he is responsible for working with all parks and programs towards the goal of improved environmental performance and sustainable park management.  He is both the creator and developer of a new and innovative program to combat climate change in parks and protected areas entitled Climate Friendly Parks.

He has received the Presidential Award for Federal Energy Management for efforts in promoting energy conservation and renewable energy use in the NPS.  He has also received the Secretary of the Interior Meritorious Service Award for developing an innovative program for “greening” the NPS.

He has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Bachelors Degree from the State University of NY, College of Forestry.  He has a wife and three children and is very active in school and community affairs.


Patricia O'Donnell, FASLA, AICP, RLA
Heritage Landscapes, Preservation Landscape Architects & Planners, founded by O'Donnell in 1987, focuses exclusively on the preservation of cultural landscapes through planning, implementation, and management undertakings.  With offices in Charlotte, VT and Norwalk, CT, the firm has completed over 400 commissions, and with 32 professional awards, the firm is widely recognized as a leader in the field.  O'Donnell and her Heritage Landscapes team have collaborated with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy on some 25 planning and implementation projects over the past 10 years.

Notable implementation projects include Lincoln Cottage, AFRH, DC; Valley Forge National Historical Park, PA; Bamboo Brook, Morris County, NJ; Highland, Riverview, and Schenley Parks, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Louis I. Kahn Boathouse Landscape, Ewing Township, NJ.

Current planning projects include Graycliff Cultural Landscape Report (CLR), Derby, NY; New York Botanical Garden Cultural Landscape History, Bronx, NY; Richardson Olmsted Center, former Buffalo Asylum CLR, Buffalo, NY; Foster, Shoaff, Weisser and McMillan Parks and Rudisill Boulevard CLRs, Fort Wayne, IN; and the Mellon Square Preservation, Management & Interpretation Plan, Pittsburgh, PA.  Current projects are focusing, in part, on sustainability and best practices applications to historic landscapes.

O'Donnell received two master's degrees in landscape architecture and urban planning and is licensed in fourteen states.  She serves as the International Federation of Landscape Architects Cultural Landscapes Committee (IFLA CLC) Global Chair, encouraging communication among landscape architects worldwide to enhance recognition and expertise.  She is an active ICOMOS expert member and participant in the World Heritage process.  A global traveler, she appreciates the vast diversity of cultural landscapes that express the unique interactions of people and places and enjoys shaping her shared cultural landscape with Jim Donovan, spouse, at Broad Reach Farm, Charlotte, Vermont.


Dan Onorato

Dan Onorato, Chief Executive of Allegheny County, is a life-long resident of Pittsburgh. He graduated from Penn State University with an accounting degree in 1983 and worked for several years as a certified public accountant before earning his law degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1989. He practiced as an attorney until 1991.Onorato was elected to Pittsburgh City Council in 1991 and re-elected in 1995. In 1999, he successfully ran for Allegheny County Controller and spent four years being a watchdog against wasteful spending and fraud. In 2003, Onorato launched a successful campaign for the Office of Chief Executive, and he was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2007.  His background as an accountant and attorney give him the strong management skills and fiscal discipline with which he governs Pennsylvania’s second largest county. 

Onorato focuses on three key areas to our region’s success: economic development around Pittsburgh International Airport; redevelopment of old industrial sites; and creation of high-tech businesses from university research and development. Onorato and his wife, Shelly, have three children, Kate, Emily and Danny.


Stuart Ord
Stuart has been a Regional Manager for Parks Victoria since 1998, and has had a wide variety of experience in managing national, state, regional, and marine parks, and more recently all metropolitan parks in the Melbourne urban environment.  In partnership with corporate staff, he is currently heavily involved in progressing the "Healthy Parks Healthy People" initiative in Victoria.

A forester by training, Stuart spent five years managing commercial forestry projects in the Otway Ranges in the Sth West Victorian ranges prior to joining Melbourne Water in the management of water supply catchments and metropolitan recreational parks.  He has been with Parks Victoria since its inception in 1996.  He was awarded a Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 1998 giving him the opportunity to study national and regional park management and tourism services in Canada and the USA.

Stuart spends as much time as possible trekking various trails within and outside Australia, and enjoys all forms of sport including swimming, running, and cycling.


Edward Patton
Edward Patton is the Director of Capital Projects for Riverlife and is responsible for the implementation of broad-based projects within Three Rivers Park.  A Penn State graduate, Mr. Patton has worked over the last 25 years in managing and designing water-related development and infrastructure.  A licensed professional engineer, Mr. Patton also teaches nationally a course on Context Sensitive Solutions, a philosophical comprehensive approach to highway design.


Charles Pepper

Charles Pepper is the Deputy Director of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, the cultural landscape program in the Northeast Region of the US National Park Service.   In this capacity, Charles co-manages Olmsted Center programs and projects that promote the preservation of important landscapes through research, planning, stewardship and education.  Charles is active in developing methodologies that effectively integrate traditional horticulture with preservation practice.   His work has included designing a framework for cultural landscape maintenance operations, developing resource sensitive preservation maintenance techniques for historic properties, and establishing procedures to conserve plants in cultural landscapes.  He is also involved with promoting education and training opportunities that recognize the importance of skilled preservation maintenance professionals and has organized several national historic landscape maintenance conferences and training programs to help build preservation skills of field staff.   Charles has degrees in plant science, horticulture and landscape management from the State University of New York and Cornell University.  He has been recognized with several national and regional awards for his initiatives and accomplishments in cultural landscape preservation.  Recently, Charles was selected to represent the US National Park Service on a mission to Angkor Wat, Cambodia to assist with the conservation of cultural landscapes and historic trees associated with the centuries old temples and palaces at this World Heritage Site.


Richard Piacentini
Richard Piacentini has been the executive director of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens since 1994.  During his tenure, the conservatory - one of America's oldest - completed a $36.6 million expansion and has climbed in size and stature through its emphasis on leading-edge, changing exhibits and pace-setting sustainable buildings, programs, and practices.  Phipps is recognized as a leader in public gardens nationally in sustainably and eco-friendly practices.  In 2005, Phipps opened the first LEED-certified visitor center in a public garden and in 2006, the most energy-efficient conservatory in the world.  Currently Phipps is engaged in constructing the world's greenest building, the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, which is being designed as a "living," or zero net-energy building.

Richard is past president and treasurer of the American Public Gardens Association (APGA), the 500-member professional association of North America's gardens, and currently chairs their Green Buildings and Landscapes Committee.  He is a recipient of one of the APGA's highest awards, the Professional Citation; a Shades of Green Leadership Award from the Green Building Alliance; a Carnegie Science Award for his environmental work; a CEO of the Year Award from the Pittsburgh Business Times; and recognition as a Tourism and Travel Advocate of the Year from VisitPittsburgh.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Richard was first licensed as a pharmacist before joining the management ranks of public gardens.  He holds a master's degree in botany and an MBA.  He and his wife, Jan, a chemist, reside with their two children in Pittsburgh.


Marion Pressley

Marion Pressley is a devoted professional who has contributed enormously to the designed landscape through her work in landscape architecture and the rehabilitation of public parks and private historical properties. Over the last forty years, she has continued her strong design skills and commitment to the public landscape, through a wide range of projects throughout the eastern U.S. Marion is recognized nationally for her historic preservation work, and is one of very few professionals in the nation to achieve national recognition in both historic preservation and contemporary design practice. Marion’s contribution to preserving the Olmsted legacy is particularly noteworthy and includes a substantial body of work devoted to the recovery of the Emerald Necklace Park System – from master planning to the implementation of treatment design. Her portfolio of notable projects include award-winning park designs, historic landscape preservation planning projects, and the implementation of treatment work on a wide spectrum of landscapes including parks, parkways, historic cemeteries and private gardens. Community process and the integration of multiple perspectives is also a hallmark of Marion’s design practice. A dedication to professional organizations, non-profits, and education completes Marion’s long list of credentials. Concurrent with her design, preservation, and community service, Marion has continuously helped build the next generation of landscape architects, through courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Landscape Institute of the Arnold Arboretum. 


Karen Purcell

Karen Purcell leads the Celebrate Urban Birds citizen-science project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. By collecting simple data about birds and habitat from participants, the project seeks to better understand the value of urban green spaces for birds and engage new audiences in science. Celebrate Urban Birds uses visual, performing and participatory arts, community events, and science to connect people in inner cities with the natural world. Since its launch in May 2007, the project has reached over 50,000 participants in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and many other countries. More than 2,000 partner organizations have embraced the project. Purcell also leads outreach efforts for the Latino community in the citizen science and education departments at the Lab of Ornithology and is Project Director for Urban Bird Gardens, an NSF planning grant designed to develop a new model for brining participatory STEM education to Latino families. In addition to her work at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Purcell is part of the Education Advisory Panel for the National Forum on Children and Nature, a movement promoted by the Conservation Fund in partnership with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.


Susan Rademacher
Susan Rademacher specializes in developing, enhancing, and restoring parks and historic landscapes.  Currently, she serves as Parks Curator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, where she is responsible for landscape planning, design, and preservation, and special projects.

As founding Executive Director of Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy in 1991, Susan led the Conservancy in producing a nationally renowned master plan, completing numerous historic restoration projects, securing major national grants, creating a volunteer program that has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars of value in ecological restoration, and increasing public awareness and appreciation of the Kentucky city's acclaimed system of Olmsted-designed parks and parkways.

At the same time, Susan served as Assistant Director of Louisville's Metro Parks Department, establishing the Planning and Design Division.  In that capacity, she was responsible for master planning, capital project development, and construction for the entire system of 122 parks and 6 parkways, golf courses, and community centers.  Major projects included strategic planning for a 7,000-acre expansion of the parks system known as the 21st Century Parks project, creating the Shawnee Parks Sports Complex, restoring Frederick Law Olmsted's great Baringer Hill in Cherokee Park, reconstructing the historic Iroquois Amphitheater, and re-launching the Mayor's Committee for Public Art.

Susan was the Editor-in-Chief of Landscape Architecture magazine from 1984-1987, and was a founding editor of Garden Design magazine.  She is the author of several books and numerous articles in the field of landscape architecture, and has lectured and taught at many American institutions and universities, including the Smithsonian Institution, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, J.B. Speed Art Museum, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, the University of Pennsylvania, U.C. Berkeley, and Harvard University.  Born in Columbus, Georgia, Susan is a graduate of Miami University and was a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Design at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.


Luke Ravenstahl

Luke Ravenstahl was officially elected Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh, “America’s Most Livable City,’ in a special election on November 6, 2007. The 28-year-old Pittsburgh native holds the distinction of being the youngest mayor of any major U.S. city. Elected by the overwhelming margin of 64 percent to 35 percent, he will serve out the remainder of late Mayor Bob O’Connor term, until 2009.

Mayor Ravenstahl became the 59th Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh on September 1. 2006.  Ravenstahl’s ascent to the top of Pittsburgh government began less than three years earlier, when he became the youngest member ever elected to Pittsburgh City Council. Two years later, his colleagues unanimously voted him Council President.

Mayor Ravenstahl is creating a Pittsburgh with a vibrant economy and 21st century job growth. He is implementing his public safety action plan to make Pittsburgh one of the cleanest and safest cities in the country. He is working to attract and retain residents and businesses and served as one of the key creators of the recently announced Pittsburgh Promise, an innovative student scholarship program that is expected to improve our school system and expand the City’s tax base. The Mayor is embracing technology to establish Pittsburgh as a technology and research business hub, as well as creating a development environment that makes the City a national leader in green building. Thanks to Mayor Ravenstahl’s two consecutive balanced budgets, the City is regaining financial stability.

Mayor Ravenstahl is a 1998 graduate of North Catholic High School, located in the Troy Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He received his B.A. in Business Administration from Washington and Jefferson College, where he graduated with honors in December 2002.  Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and his wife, Erin, live in Pittsburgh’s Summer Hill neighborhood.


Anthony Reed

Anthony Reed is an archivist with the National Park Service at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. Mr. Reed received a BA in sociology and women’s studies from UC Santa Barbara before attending Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences in Boston, with a concentration in Archives Management. Mr. Reed is active with local and national museum and archival organizations in addition to providing technical assistance and archival management guidance to NPS sites throughout the northeast. Prior to joining the NPS, Mr. Reed worked on archival collections with various organizations including the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, MA, the Chancery of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Microsoft Corporate Archives, the town of Burlington, MA, the Rare Books & Manuscripts division of the Boston Public Library and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at Harvard University.


Richard Reed
Richard W. Reed, Jr. is Executive Vice President of The Pittsburgh Foundation, one of the largest and oldest community foundations in the United States.  After joining the Foundation in May 2004 as Vice President of Development, he was named Executive Vice President in April 2005.

Richard is a member of the Board of Directors, Treasurer, and former Secretary of Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, and he is a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team of the Council on Foundations.  He serves as a director and officer on the boards of a number of nonprofit organizations including Gilda's Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Fund for the Advancement of Minorities through Education, and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy where he is Chairman.  He has also served on the boards of Staunton Farm Foundation and the Allegheny County Parks Commission.

Additionally, he is a past Board Chair of the Ellis School and Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.  He is also a corporate director of The Lockhart Company, one of Pittsburgh's oldest companies.  Before joining the Pittsburgh Foundation, Richard was Executive Vice President at Pressley Ridge, a nonprofit agency providing behavioral health services to youth and families in eight states and internationally.

He also held the position of Director of Development and Public Affairs for Pressley Ridge Schools, and then as Director of the Pressley Ridge Foundation.  During his tenure at Pressley Ridge, Richard was also responsible for a commercial venture, CS&O, which developed Internet-based outcomes measurement tools for human service agencies.  The company was sold in 1999 to FHC Health Systems.

In the corporate for-profit sector, Richard worked for eleven years in the coal mining industry, latterly at President of Shannopin Mining Company, a privately held company with 250 employees that produced one million tons of coal per year in Greene County, PA.

He has a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.


Joan M. Reilly

Joan Reilly is Senior Director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s nationally recognized urban greening program, Philadelphia Green.

Joan co-leads the work of Philadelphia Green in utilizing horticulture to build community and improve the quality of life in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods and downtown public spaces. Program areas include parks revitalization, public landscapes, community gardens, urban tree canopy restoration, vacant land management, stormwater management projects, and open space planning. Joan leads these key urban greening strategies working in partnership with community-based organizations, local residents, civic organizations, the City of Philadelphia, and state and federal agencies using open space revitalization and greening as a community-building tool.

Joan has played a leading role in the development of a 15-year partnership among the Philadelphia Department of Recreation, Fairmount Park, community groups and Philadelphia Green to revitalize neighborhood parks in the city and create systems change in stewardship practices. The partnership referred to as the Parks Revitalization Project is recognized nationally as a model for private/public partnership. In the past few years, this partnership was recognized for its innovation by the Project for Public Spaces, Urban Parks Institute and the Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Society.

Joan has a Master’s in Education. She serves as a Board Member for the City Parks Alliance, The Philadelphia Parks Alliance, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful, and Board Member Emeritus for St. Christopher Hospital for Children.


William B. Rogers

Will Rogers is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, playgrounds, community gardens, farms, historic places, and wilderness. Mr. Rogers joined TPL's Western Region as Director of Projects in 1991, served as Western Regional Director, and was chosen national president in 1998. Based in San Francisco, TPL has 400 staff members working out of 40 offices nationwide. Since 1972, TPL has helped protect over 1.9 million acres of land-one third of this since Mr. Rogers became president. Also under Mr. Rogers’ leadership, TPL launched its successful Conservation Finance Program, which has helped 192 states and communities design and pass ballot measures that have created over $18 billion in land conservation funding. Mr. Rogers serves on the boards of Island Press and the Center for Land-Based Learning. He is a nationally recognized advocate for land conservation, and has given recent major addresses to the Urban Land Institute, the Land Trust Rally, the National Smart Growth Conference, and Talk of the Nation, among others. Before joining TPL, Mr. Rogers managed infill urban development projects for a Chicago-based real estate development company, managing both new construction and the rehabilitation of vacant industrial buildings for commercial, office, and residential use. In addition to his real estate experience, Mr. Rogers founded and managed a commercial honey production company in Bogotá, Columbia. He is a graduate of Stanford University and received his MBA from Harvard University.


Marilyn Saba
Marilyn Saba has been a teacher in the award-winning arts program of Boston's Patrick O'Hearn school for the past 15 years, specializing in fine art, music, drama, and literature.  Along with classroom duties, Ms. Saba produced and directed musical stage presentations featuring 3- to 10-year-olds based on much-loved children's books employing themes of environmental and social awareness, 60s songs of peace, and social activism.  Ms. Saba is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including an Impact II Teacher Demonstrator Grant, and the Milken Foundation Site Award.  She has collaborated on educational projects related to art, nature, and city parks with Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Olmsted National Historic Site, and the US Coast Guard.


Gary Jay Saulson

Gary Saulson is director of Corporate Real Estate for The PNC Financial Services Group where he leads PNC’s Realty Services business unit. He is responsible for all of PNC’s non-lending real estate functions, including the management of properties, construction and development, as well as the development and implementation of occupancy and ownership strategies for all PNC real estate. This includes both owned and leased, as well as foreclosed OREO (Other Real Estate Owned), residential properties and commercial assets.

PNC currently has Three PNC Plaza under construction, a 780,000 sq. ft. mixed used project in downtown Pittsburgh that will include office space, a Fairmont hotel, condominiums and a parking garage. Three PNC Plaza is expected to play a key role in revitalizing the city’s core and is one of the largest green mixed used projects in the country.

Saulson is also responsible for leading PNC’s environmental strategy that has resulted in PNC having more buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) than any other company in the world. Construction projects completed under Saulson include: 650,000 sq. ft. PNC Firstside Center in Pittsburgh, the world’s largest corporate green building; 441,000 sq. ft. Eastwick Operations Center in Philadelphia; 85,000 sq. ft. BlackRock Building in Wilmington, Del.; and 113,000 sq. ft. PFPC world headquarters in Wilmington, Del. In addition, PNC is the first financial institution to build green bank branches using PNC’s Green Branch® construction and the first company to qualify under the USGBC volume build program. PNC has constructed more than 50 green branches to date.

In 1990, after working as a principal of a real estate development and investment company in Phoenix and other real estate-related positions, Saulson joined PNC as a manager of PNC Realty Holding Corp’s OREO department. Saulson is a member of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Real

Estate Executive Board, International Council of Shopping Centers and the Rivers Club. Saulson served as president of the Pittsburgh Green Building Alliance from 2003-05; as chairman of the Transition Committee on Real Estate and Energy matters for the former county executive of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the City of Pittsburgh’s Plan C Committee. Saulson has received a

number of awards including the USGBC’s LEED Award for his advancement of the LEED Rating System (2006); and received the Green Building Alliance’s Shades of Green Leadership Award (2005). He was also instrumental in promoting the

USGBC’s Volume Build LEED Certification Program in support of PNC and other U.S. firms. In addition, Saulson serves on the board of directors of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Pittsburgh.

Saulson is a graduate of the George Washington University, Washington D.C., and is a frequent speaker on green building, design and construction. Past presentations include national conferences for the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).


Kirk Savage

Kirk Savage is currently the chair of the department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh.  Over the past 25 years he has published widely on public space and public monuments in the United States.  His first book, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America, won the John Hope Franklin prize in 1998 for best book published in the field of American Studies.  His new book, forthcoming from University of California Press, is entilted Monument Wars: Washington, the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape.  The book is a synthetic study of the U.S. capital’s memorial landscape from the L’Enfant plan to the present day, which reconsiders the key public monuments and spaces within a narrative of nation building, spatial conquest, ecological destruction, and psychological trauma.


Christina Schmidlapp

Christina Schmidlapp is the former project director of the Allegheny Commons Initiative, which is implementing a comprehensive park master plan for Pittsburgh’s oldest park. Her interest in Allegheny Commons began in the 1980s, while living across the street from the park. A native of Sewickley, PA, she graduated from Cornell University and studied urban planning at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. At the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Christina nominated properties to the National Register of Historic Places, including Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park.  She was a founding board member of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.


Ellis Schmidlapp

Ellis Schmidlapp is president of Landmarks Design Associates, a full service architectural firm specializing in preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive use of historic buildings and new construction within existing neighborhoods and districts.

Prior to establishing LDA, Mr. Schmidlapp served for nearly a decade as Director of Historic Buildings Development for Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Mr. Schmidlapp has served on the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Board and National Register Review Committee as well as the Board of Preservation Pennsylvania, having served as Vice President for two years. He was a board member of Conservation Consultants, Inc. and past president. Mr. Schmidlapp is a founding board member of The Green Building Alliance. He has been an instructor, panelist, and jurist for the Urban Land Institute, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and Carnegie Mellon University, among others. 


Steven Schuckman

Steven Schuckman is the Superintendent of Planning & Design for Cincinnati Parks. He directs capital improvements, master planning and design for the historic Cincinnati park system. Responsibilities include managing the design of new parks, and the redesign of existing parks and facilities, overseeing property transactions, and managing the maintenance of park buildings, public art and park’s infrastructure.

The Planning Division also is responsible for the acquisition of new parkland and the development of trails and greenways linking parks and nature preserves. Another area of responsibility includes managing Park’s Nature Education program.

Steve directed the development of the 1992 Parks Comprehensive Master Plan and recently completed the new Parks Centennial Master Plan, adopted 100 years after the system’s first master plan by George Kessler in 1907.

Mr. Schuckman has been with the Park Board since 1990 and was acting Director of Parks from 1999 to 2000.  For ten years prior to that he was a Senior Planner in the Cincinnati City Planning Department, first in the Historic Conservation section, responsible for historic preservation planning, and creating and administering historic districts and landmarks, and then in the planning section where he worked on neighborhood plans.

Steve previously worked for the City Planning Department in Springfield, Mass. as an urban designer and planner and also practiced architecture there from 1974 to 1979. His undergraduate degree and a Master of Architecture degree is from Washington University in St. Louis. He is originally from New York City.


Thomas Schmidt

Thomas Schmidt was Vice President and Legal Council for Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and Director of the Fallingwater House Museum from 1975-1996. He was founding President in 1990 of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. He was the Director of the Conservancy's Urban Program which continues to build parklets, playgrounds, community gardens and riverfront trails. The Program also helped to preserve Pittsburgh's green hillsides. Mr. Schmidt initiated the planting of the many flower beds that you see around the city.


Lisa Schroeder

Lisa Schroeder is Executive Director of The Riverlife Taskforce, a non-profit organization established in 1999 to create a vision and master plan for Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. Under her leadership, Riverlife is creating a metropolitan scale waterfront park along 12 miles in the heart of Pittsburgh, comprised of new parks, water landings, bridge connections and lighting. Lisa raises capital funds from public and private sources and manages liaison with elected officials, Foundations, Non-profit organizations and commercial real estate owners and developers. She is a Phi Beta Kappa with a Masters Degree from Columbia University School of Architecture and 30 years professional experience working in NPOs and governments to revitalize urban environments.


Dick Skrinjar
Dick's portfolio of experience is as deep as the Allegheny Valley and wide as the three rivers Pittsburgh inhabits.  His Community Services division takes advantage of Pittsburgh's parks for intergenerational recreation and educational activities, from active and healthy aging for the oldest Pittsburghers to literacy, art and good nutrition education for the young.

During his distinguished public service career he's served the administration of five governors and two mayors.  With the PA Department of Transportation, he introduced Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful to the region and started the successful Adopt-a-Highway program along 2,300 miles of area roadways.  He was instrumental in implementing roadway plantings and beautifications and has helped develop models of environmental stewardship in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and Department of Environmental Protection.  With the U.S. Senate he helped craft legislation giving the region the ability to claim energy credits for traffic mitigation measures during highway and bridge construction.

A Public Relations Society Communicator of the Year, his degree in Journalism and Mass Communications is from Point Park University.  His many national awards include The Freedoms Foundation Award and the American Society of Civil Engineers' highest award for Service to People.


Brenda Smith
Brenda Smith joined the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association as Executive Director in January 2008; NMRWA is dedicated to the restoration and protection of the Nine Mile Run watershed through citizen engagement, demonstration projects, and advocacy.  Over the last two decades, Brenda has helped nonprofit groups as diverse as humanitarian aid organizations and arts ensembles with strategic planning, board development, fundraising, and administrative challenges.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Brenda travelled around the world four times, working on Pitt's Semester-at-Sea program.  Between trips she studied at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.  In 1989 she co-founded Global Links, a nonprofit organization that provides hospitals in Western Pennsylvania and across the U.S. with an environmentally responsible alternative to disposal or incineration of surplus equipment and supplies.  Materials recovered here are sent to hospitals and clinics serving the poor around the world, with special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean.  Serving as President of Global Links for ten years, Brenda helped the organization grow to include more than ten paid staff members, hundreds of volunteers, and average annual donations valued at more than $1 million.

Brenda has worked in either a volunteer or consultant capacity with the Three Rivers Community Foundation, the Renaissance City Choirs, the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, and Building New Hope.  Most recently, she served for three years as the full-time Development Director of Chatham Baroque.


Laura Solano
Laura Solano is a principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA) and joined the firm in 1991.  She has been a leading force in developing the firm's extensive portfolio of public parks and urban open spaces including Mill Race Park in Columbus, IN; Don River Park in Toronto; the Boston Children's Museum; Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh, PA; and Teardrop Park in New York City.  Since 1992, she has been a visiting lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.  She lectures extensively in the US, having spoken at Harvard University, Radcliffe College, University of Virginia, and the Rhode Island School of Design.  She has been on numerous workshops and panels and served on the Editorial Board for Architecture Boston Magazine.

Her work has been widely published in design journals and books including the forthcoming Reconstructing Urban Landscapes, the Recent Projects of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.  The American Society of Landscape Architects and Progressive Architecture have bestowed numerous awards on her work.  Laura received her BLA from The Ohio State University in 1983 after studying Botany at the University of Maryland from 1975-1978.


Liza Stearns
Ms. Stearns is an Education Specialist with the National Park Service, serving three historic house museums in Greater Boston: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, and Longfellow National Historic Site.  As Education Specialist, she is responsible for creating and managing education programs that use primary source material to teach standards of learning identified by state and national curriculum frameworks.  Ms. Stearns has been involved in curriculum design and student programming for the past 20 years.  She has written, designed, and implemented a variety of programs and curricula that engage students in learning about the past through active investigations of historic house architecture, landscape, collections, and documents.


Dianne Swan

Dianne Swan is the Executive Director of the Rosedale Block Cluster, Inc. (RBC), a grassroots group located in the far southern corner of Pittsburgh’s Homewood-Brushton neighborhood where she has made her home for well over 25 years.  Homewood South, like many communities, faced multiple social challenges.  Through historic collaborations, Dianne was able to take the lead in organizing the community, oversee the complex program development, predevelopment, development and opening of the first outreach center in the Rosedale-Tioga community.  The Center was the first economic development to take place in over twenty-five years in the Rosedale-Tioga community.  

Dianne’s leadership and the organization’s mission kept the organization focused on improving the environment, ensuring that community youth which rarely had access to the training, development and employment opportunities were and remained central to the movement.  Rosedale’s goal is to continue to move towards self-sustainability. Through additional collaborations Dianne was able to incorporate preschoolers into the Horticultural, Nutritional, Cultural and Health Program.  Dianne’s leadership and high-level synergistic relationships, a modest committed staff, and Board have enabled her to blend the three major national issues, Green Jobs, Vacant properties and Early Childhood Development while keeping Rosedale focused on its purpose to enhance family values.

Dianne is now leading the effort to develop another asset, the community’s first Native Plant Nursery, Nature Center and Plant Production Room, which will provide additional educational, training and employment opportunities for the community in addition to providing a new and developmentally rich destination for the region.


John A. Swintosky, RLA
John Swintosky is a registered landscape architect with Louisville Metro Parks.  He previously worked as a horticulturist and landscape manager at central Kentucky horse farms.  His formal training and education is in engineering and landscape architecture.  He has been associated with Louisville Metro Parks as both intern and practicing professional since 1994.

Swintosky has been involved in all aspects of park planning, design, and construction, as well as collaborative design efforts with related agencies and institutions in Louisville.  He enjoys applying the principles of Olmstedian design on new projects as well as in historic preservation and rehabilitation efforts.

Another key focus of Swintosky's work has been upgrades to the comprehensive planning for quality maintenance of Metro Parks' living and built landscapes, especially native plant communities and natural systems.


Thomas J. Swisher, RLA, ASLA
Tom is a graduate of West Virginia University (WVU) and is an associate landscape architect for Pennoni Associates in Monroeville, PA.  His area of expertise is in parks and recreation planning and design.  Tom is currently one of the co-chairs for the Western Section of the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).  Through ASLA, Tom organized and led a team of volunteer landscape architects on a one-day design charette for Vandergrift in April 2006.  The design charette was to identify areas for gateways, gathering space and streetscapes while creating quick, sustainable design solutions that incorporate the integrity of the historic fabric of Vandergrift.

Tom is very active within the community.  He has participated on two Community Design Teams through the WVU Extension Office.  These design teams studied and explored increasing heritage tourism within Webster Springs, WV and connecting Sistersville, WV via their recreational resources.  He also participated in a National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored Our Town Workshop in Blairsville, PA exploring future riverfront development and trail linkage.

Tom currently volunteers as a member of two local grassroots organizations aimed at revitalizing his hometown of Freeport, PA and the neighboring towns of Apollo and Leechburg.

Tom has completed numerous workshops and seminars including the Historic Landscape Institute's two-week seminar on Historic Landscape Preservation hosted by the University of Virginia and Monticello, and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Design Courses 101, 201, and 301. 


Tupper Thomas

Tupper Thomas is the Administrator of Prospect Park, the 580-acre flagship park of Brooklyn, and the President of the Prospect Park Alliance.

In 1980, in response to community pressure to put a stop to the decaying state of the Park, New York City created the Prospect Park Administrator's Office.  Tupper was hired as the first Administrator. She is responsible for the ongoing operation of the Park, its continued multimillion-dollar restoration, special events, public information, fundraising, and services for Park visitors.  The Prospect Park Alliance was formed by a group of concerned citizens in 1987 to revive, enrich, restore and preserve Prospect Park in partnership with the City of New York and the community. Tupper has served as President since that time.

Since 1980, park usership has increased from 1.7 million to over 8 million. In the fiscal year 2008, over 6000 volunteers contributed more than 30,000 hours and the Alliance privately raised more than $7 million from over 4200 donors.  The Alliance capital and operating budget set for fiscal 2008 approaches $10 million.  

Tupper has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Fund for the City of New York award in 1987.  She has been a guest speaker for parks groups throughout the United States and abroad. Her prior professional experience includes eight years with the New York City Department of Housing and Preservation. She has a Master's degree in Urban Planning from Pratt Institute.


Ron Tipton

Ron Tipton has spent most of the past 30 years as an advocate for public land preservation and national park protection. A graduate of George Washington U. with an undergraduate degree in American Studies and a law degree from GW’s National Law Center, Ron has worked as a program officer at the National Academy of Sciences and on the oversight/investigative staff of the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee. Since 1978 he has been a part of the advocacy and/or management team of four non-profit national conservation organizations: The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund, and National Parks Conservation Association. (NPCA) Ron has been the Senior Vice President for Programs for NPCA since 2000.

Ron is currently the President of Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington, an organization founded and supported by Episcopal parishes in the DC metropolitan area that provides counseling to individuals in need that want to improve their lives. He has been a member of the board or governing council of numerous recreation and trails organizations, including the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, International Mountain Bike Association, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and the Benton MacKaye Trail Association. Ron is married and has one child and in 1978 walked the entire length of the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail.

David Vater

David Vater has lectured and led tours of Pittsburgh architecture for over twenty years.  He is a Pittsburgh native and his ancestors have lived in the region since the 1830’s.  He is an architect and has been president of his own firm since 1992.

He earned his degree in architecture from the University of Kentucky in 1977, and received a scholarship to study at the Preservation Institute at Nantucket, MA.

His architectural work has received awards from the American Institute of Architects, the International Masonry Institute and the Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission.

His articles and book reviews have appeared in Columns Magazine and other local publications.  In 1998 he authored the nomination that put the 46 acre Chatham Village Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places and assisted with the additional research that made it a National Historic Landmark in 2005.

He has served on the Board of Directors of the AIA Pittsburgh’s Foundation for Architecture, the Friends of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline, and Chatham Village Homes, Inc.


Lisa A. Kunst Vavro

Lisa Kunst Vavro is Director of Landscape Architecture/Landscape Studies Program at Chatham University, Pittsburgh. A Registered Landscape Architect, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a self-designed major, “Restoration of the Urban Environment”, in 1975 from the University of Pittsburgh.  She began her graduate studies in landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1981.  From her Master’s thesis, Lisa co-authored and published the article “Landscape Preservation Deserves a Broader Meaning” in the January 1981 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.

In Pittsburgh, Lisa joined the Architecture staff of the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Engineering and Construction in 1991.  As a Project Architect with the City of Pittsburgh until August 2003, Lisa worked on a wide range of projects, from the Reconstruction of Market Square, a free assembly/free-speech park in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh (1992) to the award winning Rehabilitation of Anderson Playground in Schenley Park, one of the city’s four regional parks (1996).

In January 2004, Lisa joined the faculty of Chatham College to direct the new Landscape Architecture and existing Landscape Studies graduate programs. In addition, she took on the role of Director of Chatham College’s Arboretum. .She has served two terms as the Chapter President of PA/DE Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, is an active member of the Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission, and serves on the board of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh.


Russell Watkinson
Russell Watkinson is the Director of Parks, Conservation and Lands in the Australian Capital Territory Department of Territory and Municipal Services.  Previously, Russell held the position of Director of Parks and Places.  From 1998 to 2004, Russell was the Executive Director of the Wet Tropics Management Authority in Cairns.

Prior to joining the Wet Tropics Management Authority, Russell was Regional Manager (Coastal Program) for Far North Queensland with Queensland Department of Environment.  From 1992 to 1996, Russell held the position of Deputy Director - Victorian Fisheries - Department of Natural Resources and Environment.  Previous to that, Russell worked as a Senior Executive in Parks and Land Management with the Melbourne Board of Works and with Victorian National Parks at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Russell gained his MSc in Landscape Ecology, Design and Maintenance at London University and is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, an Associate of Leisure Australia and an active member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.


Marlane Weslian
Marlane Weslian has been a Development Officer with Slavic Village Development (SVD) since 1998 and carries out neighborhood planning, greenspace development, and real estate projects in the Slavic Village/Broadway community located on the south side of Cleveland, Ohio.  This includes developing new trails, public art, and brownfield redevelopment.  She also supervises the Organizing Department and the Active Living by Design program at SVD.  She is a Certified Main Street Manager and Economic Development Finance Professional.  Her previous experience includes work as an Executive Director of a local development corporation, director of job placement with Hard Hatted Women, an organizer with the Council of Unemployed Workers and a post-surgical licensed practical nurse at the former Deaconess Hospital.


Nathan Wildfire
Nathan Wildfire is the Sustainable Policy Coordinator for East Liberty Development, Inc. (ELDI), one of Pittsburgh's largest community development groups.  After decades of neglect and poor planning decisions, East Liberty today is one of the city's most booming neighborhoods with over $600 million in the development pipeline - retail, small business, mixed-income housing of all types, and new infrastructure.  Since so much development is happening so rapidly, East Liberty presents the perfect opportunity to test drive green pilot projects with the goal of changing how the city and region do business.  Projects include the most energy-efficient homes ever created by a CDC, in construction now; five community gardens, including biofuel crop programs that employ youth on our vacant spaces; two LEED-certified buildings and a LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Project; new bike lanes linking our parks and commercial core; the city's first neighborhood-based comprehensive tree plan; one of the region's largest street plantings this year; plans for new plazas that integrate green design; green demolition pilot projects; the city's first co-housing development; and a comprehensive stormwater mitigation program that test pilots various green infrastructure practices and analyzes their impact on the regional system.  ELDI is also engaging the community in a complete redesign of neighborhood parks, turning community liabilities into assets.  All of these projects are born out of the Green Vision for East Liberty, the nation's first green overlay plan for an urban distressed neighborhood, to be released this fall.


Andrew Wiley-Schwartz
Andy Wiley-Schwartz is an Assistant Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability at New York City Department of Transportation.  Andy was hired by Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn in 2007 to develop a public space program at DOT and develop livable streets initiatives for the department.  In this capacity he developed and launched the NYC Plaza Program, an initiative of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC2030 to develop new public spaces out of existing streets in communities across New York City.  He is also spearheading an effort to streamline and standardize streetscape improvements with a specific aim toward improving the walkability and livability of New York City's streets.  In addition, Andy supervises several special projects for the DOT Commissioner including a contract with Danish architect Jan Gehl to measure, evaluate, and promote public life in New York.

Prior to working at NYCDOT, Andy was a Vice President at Project for Public Spaces, Inc., where he directed their Transportation Program.  He supervised and coordinated PPS's key transportation projects, including DOT training programs, corridor management projects, main street and downtown street enhancement, traffic calming and bicycle/pedestrian projects.  In addition to his training and project work, Andy has conducted in-depth research into park partnerships, transportation facility development, public space programming and downtown and neighborhood revitalization programs.  Prior to working at PPS, Andy was a political analyst for Washington Analysis Corporation, an investment research firm, where he wrote and commented on politcal affairs and the impact of trade, monetary, and domestic policy on the financial markets.


Randy Worls

Randy Worls has worked for the Wheeling Park Commission since 1954.  He worked through high school and college and started full-time in June of 1960 serving as the Director of Activities.  In 1972 he appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Wheeling Park Commission and the Parks System Trust Fund of Wheeling serving in that capacity for 27 years.  The Wheeling Park Commission operates the only self-sustaining public park system in the United States.

In 1999, he became the president and CEO of the Oglebay Foundation undertaking a full time effort in creating a long-term maintenance endowment fund for the parks. During his term as CEO of the Wheeling Park Commission the staff increased from 325 to over 1,000 employees, the annual budget increasing from $4 million to $20 million a year.  The current budget of the Wheeling Park Commission is $32 million.

During his career, Worls has been involved in raising over one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) for capital improvements, special programs, and endowments.  Worls is responsible for creating several special events during his career, including Oglebay’s Winter Festival of Lights, which still remains as the largest light show in the United States.  The show turned the months of November and December from the worst two operating months to the best two operating months for the Wheeling Park Commission.

Randy Worls is a nationally recognized authority on revenue production in public park systems and has been invited to speak on the subjects of revenue producing facilities, self operation of public park facilities, fundraising, and finding alternative resources for public park and recreation systems by several dozen park and recreation associations and departments throughout the United States and Canada.

Worls’ current challenge is building a one hundred million dollar ($100,000,000) endowment fund for the Oglebay Foundation to assure the future of both Oglebay and Wheeling Park.


Byoung-E Yang
Byoung-E Yang is professor and former dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, which he joined as a faculty member in 1977.  He is currently the President of Seoul Green Trust Foundation and also the Representative of National Trust of Korea.  He also served as a president of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture and as a member of the board of directors, International Federation of Landscape Architects (1993-1995).  He is currently a member of the editorial advisory board of the international journal Landscape and Urban Planning since 1993.  Included in his special appointments in government and corporations were the positions of commissioner, Metropolitan Park Commission, Seoul Metropolitan Government (1991-1995) and commissioner, National Park Commission, Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea (1998-2000).  He served as an invited researched of the Korean Research Institute of Human Settlements (1984-1985) and a member of the Design Review Committee, Ministry of Construction, Korea (1979-1981).

He received his PhD from the University of Michigan and Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.  He has received the 1997 Best Research Article Award from the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture.  He is the author and co-author of books such as Korean Traditional Landscape Architecture, Authentic Garden, and Environmentally Friendly Housing Complex.  He has also published more than 70 other texts that include book chapters, scholarly papers, articles, and book reviews.


Shaun Yurcaba
A native of Roswell, Georgia, Shaun Yurcaba was hired in 2006 by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) to be the on-site coordinator of the Vandergrift Main Street Program for the historic town of Vandergrift, PA.  The town of Vandergrift, PA was created by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895-1896 and has tremendous potential to thrive again, and is well on its way to restoration.  

Shaun is trained in architecture and design, receiving a BA in Design from Clemson University and a Master's of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame.  At PHLF, Shaun also works with the community revitalization efforts in Tarentum, Stowe, Swissvale, Elizabeth, Freeport, Leechburg, and Apollo.  Trained in architecture and historic preservation, Shaun is passionate about restoring communities and the historic fabric of the central business districts.  She has created exemplary design guidelines and recommendations for historic communities that will aid with restoration and rehabilitation efforts.  Shaun Yurcaba still believes that many of our historic downtowns who are struggling will again become the center of life, business, culture, and community.


Prof. Dr. S. Shabih-Ul-Hassan Zaidi
Prof. Zaidi is currently serving as a Tenured Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.  He completed his PhD degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Birmingham, UK in 1990.  He obtained his MS degree in Human Settlements Planning from AIT, Bangkok in 1982 and BS degree in City and Regional Planning in 1975 from UET, Lahore, Pakistan.  He was awarded the Best University Teacher Award by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in 2002.  Prof. Zaidi has more than 40 research publications published in the national and international journals and conference proceedings.


Christian Zimmerman, ASLA
Christian Zimmerman is the Vice President of the Prospect Park Alliance, responsible for all aspects of the Design and Construction Division and the Prospect Park Archives.  He is the Park's lead landscape architect, overseeing all new and restoration work including architecture and site design.  Christian has been overseeing the Park's restoration for eighteen years.  He is a member of the board of directors of the National Association for Olmsted Parks.


Kyung-Jin Zoh
Professor Zoh, who was born in Seoul, studied landscape architecture at Seoul National University and completed his PhD in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Fine Art.  He was a former professor of the University of Seoul between 1996 and 2007.  He is now a chairman at the department of landscape architecture in the Graduate School of Environment Studies, Seoul National University.  He has edited many books on contemporary landscape in Korea.  He has also participated in several public landscape projects.  He won the design competition for Seoul Forest Park with Dongsimwon Landscape Design.  Since 2003, he has been involved in planning and managing urban parks as a board member in Seoul Green Trust.