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