Miguel Iraola, ASLA, RLA, is a Principal with Hord Coplan Macht, a multi-disciplinary architecture, planning and landscape architecture firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. With over 24 years experience in planning and urban design, he leads the firm’s planning studio. Miguel brings his experience in complex visioning projects, stakeholder consensus building, transit-oriented development, town planning and community master planning. A strong believer in placemaking, he strives to craft tangible strategies and create design solutions informed by an appropriate response to context. Mr. Iraola is a licensed landscape architect in the State of Maryland and Commonwealth of Virginia and has lectured to numerous universities and professional organizations on topics ranging from urban revitalization to transit-oriented development. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, American Planning Association, Urban Land Institute and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Mr. Iraola is a graduate of Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Horticulture and a graduate of Kansas State University with a Master of Landscape Architecture.

Dace Blaumanis is a Planner with Howard County, Maryland, Department of Planning and Zoning, Division of Comprehensive and Community Planning. For the last 12 years, Ms. Blaumanis is the project manager of the County’s mixed-use Route 1 Corridor. As project manager, Ms. Blaumanis prepared policies, zoning regulations, corridor studies and a design manual specifically for this area. In addition, she staffs the County’s Design Advisory Panel, which reviews plans for targeted areas such as commercial corridors and downtown Columbia. Reflecting her belief in the importance of citizen participation, Dace is the Department’s liaison to several community organizations in the corridor. Previously, Ms. Blaumanis was a planner for the City of Laurel, Maryland, and the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, with a Master of Urban and Regional Planning.

Matthew Fitzsimmons is a Planner and Architect with Hord Coplan Macht, a multi-disciplinary architecture, planning and landscape architecture firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Fitzsimmons is a certified planner (AICP), LEED-Accredited Professional and licensed architect. He is the project manager for the Oxford Square TOD project. He has over 11 years of project experience in transit-oriented developments, comprehensive planning and urban design. Mr. Fitzsimmons has served on the Middle Branch Master Plan advisory group in Baltimore and the Baltimore AIA’s Urban Design Subcommittee. Mr. Fitzsimmons is a graduate of Towson University with a Bachelor of Science, Planning Certificate Program and a graduate of the University of Maryland with a Master of Architecture and Master of Community Planning. He is an associate member of the American Institute of Architects, member of American Institute of Certified Planners, American Planning Association, Urban Land Institute and the Congress for the New Urbanism.

David Levy, AICP, is Chief of Long Range Planning and Redevelopment with the City of Rockville, Maryland. Mr. Levy’s division manages comprehensive, neighborhood and topic-specific master planning. Current areas of focus include Rockville’s portion of MD 355 (Rockville Pike) and updating the City’s 2002 Comprehensive Master Plan. Previously, Mr. Levy was a key facilitator for the development and launching of Rockville Town Square, a mixed-use public-private transit-oriented project in downtown Rockville. In prior positions, Mr. Levy has been an Assistant Commissioner in Baltimore City’s Department of Housing and Community Development; Brownfields Project Coordinator for the City of Baltimore; and Special Assistant to the Mayor of Quito, Ecuador. He has also been a consultant to government agencies on strategies for community and economic development, including interactions with transportation and environmental policy, in a wide range of domestic and international settings. Mr. Levy has a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Nkosi Yearwood is a community planner with the Montgomery County Planning Department. Since 2000, Nkosi has participated and created comprehensive transit-oriented and mixed use plans for the Shady Grove and White Flint Metro Stations in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has also created zoning standards for transit areas and reviewed private and public development, including Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) for Walter Reed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. His education includes architectural history and architecture from the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Cincinnati. He is a member of Urban Land Institute and USGBC. Besides his work activities, he volunteers with Loaves and Fishes, a homeless feeding program in Washington, DC and Neighborhood Design Center, a non-profit that works to improve neighborhoods in Baltimore and Prince George’s County.

An Associate Policy Scientist with the Institute for Public Administration (IPA), William has focused on transportation and land-use policy since beginning his career as a practicing planner in 2005 (AICP, 2010). He has participated in a number of academic-oriented projects for the University (Safe Routes to School, Mobility Friendly Design, Transit Oriented Development, Bus Rapid Transit, Health Impact Assessment, and Healthy/Walkable Communities). Several years ago, he and several colleagues began a fruitful collaboration with the Department of Health, Nutrition, & Exercise Science at the University, as well as with the state’s department of public health. Since that time, special attention has been paid to moving from the theoretical to the practical. In 20008, IPA helped to establish the Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) Coalition in Delaware. William has done numerous walkability audits with citizen planners in Delaware municipalities. Concurrently, IPA began emphasizing the inclusion of, and emphasis on, health, walkability, access to healthy foods, and complete communities in comprehensive land-use plans in Delaware. William has helped to update or create five such plans. William holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from SUNY Genseo and a master of public administration from the University of Delaware.

As an associate policy scientist with the Institute for Public Administration at the University of Delaware, Ms. Scott has a broad range of expertise in city management, public policy analysis, economic development, grants management, and land use and transportation planning. Ms. Scott has managed and served as a principal investigator on several projects that focus on improving mobility and interconnectivity, advancing sustainable land use and transportation planning, fostering mobility-friendly design, healthy and complete communities, complete streets, and improving multi-modal transportation options. Marcia holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Gettysburg College and a master of city management degree from East Tennessee State University. Prior to her work with IPA, Ms. Scott served as a grants administrator at the Borough of Downingtown, Pennsylvania; assistant to the city manager at the City of Newark, Delaware; management analyst at the University of Delaware Public Administration Institute, and budget analyst at the City of Rockville, Maryland.

As the Health Impact Assessment Planning Coordinator for the City of Baltimore Health Department, Keith serves as the principal investigator for a CDC-sponsored grant to increase the capacity for the City of Baltimore to conduct Health Impact Assessments and to include health in decision making across departments. He is currently overseeing the completion of three health impact assessments related to urban infill, alcohol policy, and vacant property reuse. Keith moved to Baltimore from California, where he advocated for smart growth initiatives with the Sierra Club and served as a research associate for the City of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health. His experience also includes serving as staff for the City of Miami Beach Planning Department, specializing in historic preservation efforts, and as an analyst for the City of Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. Keith holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida Atlantic University.

A strong background in remote sensing of the environment and natural resource mapping has led Andrew Homsey to a deep interest in water resources, watersheds, wetlands (both tidal and non-tidal). Additionally, his area of focus includes cultural studies, such as demographic trends, land use, and health-and health care-related issues, particularly as influenced by the built environment. His interest is in investigating these topics both from a scientific as well as a policy standpoint. He has been involved with planning, land use, and demographic issues for several decades, beginning with an internship at the Wilmington, Delaware Planning Department during his undergraduate career. Many recent projects have dealt directly with tracking demographic, economic, and land use trends, along with their public policy implications. Andrew assisted the Lewes Fire Department in their long-range planning efforts by predicting future (20 year) projected population and age characteristics to determine anticipated capital expenditures. He has also been active in projects mapping food deserts in Delaware, and in determining the potential for communities across the state to maximize the health benefits of the built environment for their inhabitants.

Jennifer L. Toole, AICP, ASLA has over 20 years of experience in multi-modal planning and design, and serves as an expert consultant on transportation projects throughout the United States. Her experience includes both hands-on facility design as well as comprehensive master planning. She served as the author of AASHTO’s newly released 2012 edition of Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities. Jennifer served as the 3-term President of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, from 2000-2003. Jennifer is the President of Toole Design Group, a Maryland planning and engineering firm with over 40 employees and a national reputation for bicycle and pedestrian planning and design.

Jane Dembner, AICP is a Columbia resident and urban planner who for over 25 years has worked with elected, appointed and citizen leaders to create quality places and implement innovative community planning projects throughout the eastern United States. Her community planning experience includes comprehensive plans; development review and zoning; park, recreation, and open space planning; urban design strategies; facility and capital improvement planning; smart growth; and multi-modal transportation solutions that incorporate pedestrian, bicycle, transit and auto transportation investments. Ms. Dembner’s experience spans the public, private sector and non-profit sectors with a focus on improving the built and natural environment. She has led and executed integrated land use and transportation studies at the neighborhood, city, county and regional levels. She is particularly adept at designing and implementing public participation processes and moving stakeholders and diverse groups towards consensus. Ms. Dembner has worked as a planner at the local and federal government levels; as a consultant planner for small and large private firms; and she is currently director of Community Building and Sustainability for the Columbia Association, a non-for-profit public benefit corporation that provides services and community facilities for Columbia, Maryland -- the nation’s most well-known planned city. Ms. Dembner’s work has been honored by ten state and national awards for innovative urban planning, public participation, and policy work related to smart growth, revitalization, and targeting infrastructure investments to advance policy objectives. As CA’s Director of Community Building and Sustainability, Ms. Dembner is leading planning, design and the related capital improvement program to make Columbia a more livable, walkable and vibrant place to live, work and play as it approaches its 50th anniversary. Responsibilities include oversight of watershed management initiatives, landscape improvements/management, capital improvements, and long-term planning related to capital improvements and community development. Her current focus is on enhancing Columbia’s transportation and pathway network to support enhanced pedestrian and bicycle mobility for everyday activities (Connecting Columbia), the design and implementation of Symphony Woods Park -- Downtown Columbia’s central park; providing assistance to Columbia’s Village Associations on their village center community plans; and liaison with Howard County on planning and transportation initiatives. Ms. Dembner is active in a number of volunteer and civic endeavors. She is a member of the Champions Council (Board of Directors) of the Coalition for Smarter Growth; a member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB), and a member of the Board of Directors of the Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center (MCRC) of Howard County;. Ms. Dembner received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Oberlin College, with urban design and planning studies in Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, and Great Britain; and her Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dennis J. Lane is the Senior Vice President, Ryan Commercial Real Estate Services. He began his professional career with The Rouse Company in 1977 as a Village Center Marketing Director in Columbia. In 1978, he moved to Florida to work with Rouse malls in Tampa and Tallahassee, eventually returning to Columbia to oversee the marketing efforts of malls in seven states. In the early eighties he left the mall business for a brief foray into the nascent information technology business, first with a startup in New York called Videonet and later with Chronicle Videotex, a subsidiary of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1988 he returned to Maryland and commercial real estate as Director of Leasing for Crystal Hill Investments, a Columbia based real estate developer and later went into commercial real estate brokerage in Columbia in 1990. He has initiated and participated in the development of over a million square feet of office and R&D/Flex projects in Columbia and the BWI Business District. He is currently a Senior Vice President of Ryan Commercial Real Estate Services. Dennis has also served on the boards of Leadership Howard County, The Columbia Foundation, the Columbia Festival of the Arts, the Columbia Business Exchange, the Howard County Chapter of the American Heart Association, and the Candlelight Concert Society. He is 1995 graduate of Leadership Howard County and served as General membership chair in 1999. He writes a monthly column for The Business Monthly, co-hosts a podcast on Howard County issues called “and then there’s that…” on HoCoMoJo and blogs “about stuff around here” at www.wordbones.com.

William “Bryan” Hall is aPrincipal Planner with the State of Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination. He currently serves as the Sussex County Circuit Rider Planner providing technical assistance on land use activities to local and county governments. Before taking his current position, he was the urban and community forestry coordinator and state arborist for the Delaware Forest Service. Finally, he serves on many boards commission which address land use issues at all levels of government.

Ed Lewandowski is a Coastal Community Specialist at the University of Delaware. With a 25-year career in environmental protection, land/water conservation, and natural resources management he currently serves at the University of Delaware Sea Grant College as its lead land use outreach educator. Prior to joining the University system he served as the Executive Director for the Center for Inland Bays, a National Estuary Program. Finally Ed is a trusted member of numerous national, regional, state and local boards, councils, commissions, panels and advisory committees that work to enhance the natural resources of the region.

Sidney Brower is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park where he served as an active member of the faculty from 1979 until 2011. He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Master of City Planning degree from M.I.T. From 1966 until 1979, he worked in the Baltimore City Department of Planning, where he was chief of the Comprehensive Planning section and, later, chief of the Design Research section. He has published three books: Design in Familiar Places: What Makes Home Environments Look Good (Praeger, 1988), Good Neighborhoods”: A Study of In-Town and Suburban Residential Environments” (Praeger 1996, paper 2000), and Neighbors and Neighborhoods: Principles of Successful Community Design” (APA Planners Press, 2011). He is the author of numerous papers in academic journals, and book chapters on the subject of urban design and environment-behavior research. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, and Environment and Behavior. His research focuses on ways in which people's attitudes and behaviors affect and are affected by their physical surroundings, and on ways in which research information can be made useful to planners and designers.

Uri Avin is Research Professor and Director of the Planning and Design Center (P&DC) at the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland. P&DC assists local, regional and state agencies in Maryland and across the nation on a wide range of projects. These include land use planning, urban design, integrated land use/transportation planning, economic analysis, agricultural preservation, housing and environmental issues. Prior to this appointment Uri Avin was a practitioner for 40 years of very varied experience. These include a decade in Maryland’s public sector as a planning director or deputy director in three counties, including Baltimore and Howard Counties, and 30 years as a national consultant, developing plans for cities, counties, regions and states. Over the past two decades, his work has been recognized through 9 national and 21 state awards. He has taught over the years as adjunct faculty in several graduate planning and real estate programs in Maryland. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Planning Association and was on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Fifth Edition of The Practice of Government Planning. For 12 years he served as a Site Visitor for the Planning Accreditation Board. Mr. Avin holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Architecture (thesis: Le Corbusier’s Unité d’ Habitation-A Slab for All Seasons?) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Masters degrees in Urban Design and City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Using Scenarios to Make Urban Plans, Chapter 6 in Engaging our Futures: Effective Planning Practices, Hopkins and Zapata (eds), Lincoln Land Institute, April 2007. He has also, over the past decade, published 6 articles or short pieces in professional journals like JAPA, the Journal of Transport and Land Use and Planning Magazine, several of which are frequently cited. He is a regularly featured speaker at national planning conferences and has keynoted numerous conferences on Smart Growth and the land use/transportation connection. Mr. Avin’s interest in the Plan for the Valleys was spurred by his interactions with Dr. David Wallace, one of the Plan’s authors, who taught him at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-70s. In the mid-eighties Mr. Avin was the Deputy Director of Planning for Baltimore County, where he has lived for 34 years, a few miles south of the Valleys. For this session, Mr. Avin will draw not only on a close reading of the primary sources, set in their context and ferment around regional planning (e.g. the genesis of Columbia New Town), but will also draw on prior interviews conducted with key players in the PV such as David Wallace and County staff involved in the creation of county growth policies of the 60s and 70s, now deceased.

Robert Tennenbaum, AIA was the chief planner for the new town of Columbia, Maryland, where his responsibilities included the preparation of a general plan for the town, the plans for four Columbia villages and their neighborhoods, and the concept design of three village centers and several multi-family projects. In addition, he participated in the Planning Work Group and in the Architectural Review Board. As principal of Tennenbaum Associates, he worked on the planning and design of new communities including Horley, in Great Britain, Sao Paulo, in Brazil, Cali, in Columbia, and on Title VI projects in Maryland, Texas, and Georgia. Tennenbaum served as Vice-President of Baltimore’s Center City Inner Harbor Development Corporation, where he co-managed Baltimore’s 20-year downtown strategy. He was Vice-President of Baltimore’s Market Center, where he set planning and development goals and redevelopment strategies, developed urban design concepts for rehabilitation and new construction, and marketed concepts to developers. He also served as Director of Real Estate for the University of Maryland campus in downtown Baltimore, with responsibility for planning and acquiring properties, planning and managing public/private real estate development projects, and monitoring public improvements.

Mary Corbin Sies holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and an A.M. in American Studies from the University of Michigan, and an A.B. in American History from Michigan State University. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, and Co-Director (with Psyche Williams-Forson) of the Material Culture/Visual Culture Working Group. She is also an affiliate faculty member of the Women's Studies Department, the African American Studies Department, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, and the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education. Her research and teaching interests span material culture studies, planning history, architectural history, urban/suburban history, and cultural and social history of the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. She is an authority on American suburbs from 1850 to the present, particularly planned, exclusive suburbs and the material and cultural landscapes, values, and everyday lifeways established by their upper-middle class white residents. She has undertaken a collaborative project with historian Andrew Wiese of San Diego State University to investigate and map the relationships between black and white suburbs in North American metropolitan areas between 1900 and 1950. Her publications include “Greenbelt, Maryland: Beyond the Iconic Legacy” (with Isabelle Gourney), in Richard Longstreth (ed,), “Housing Washington: Two Centuries of Tradition and Innovation.” She is co-editor with Christopher Silver of “Planning the Twentieth –Century American City,” and “Planning the American City Since 1900,” both published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. She is the recipient with Isabelle Gournay of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation of three grants from the Maryland Historical Trust to survey the Modern Movement in Maryland (MOMOMA); she and Professor Gournay have prepared several National Register nominations for modern vernacular landscapes and are writing a history of modern architecture in the Free State.

A native of France and a resident of Historic Greenbelt, Isabelle Gournay received a professional degree in architecture from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and a doctorate in art history from Yale University. She co-edited ‘’Paris on the Potomac: The French Influence on the Architecture and Art of Washington, D.C.” (Ohio University Press, 2007), and authored “The New Trocadéro” (Pierre Mardaga - Institut Français d'Architecture, 1985), the “A.I.A. Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta” (University of Georgia Press, 1992), and numerous articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries published in the U.S., France, Great Britain, Canada, Italy, and Holland. Professor Gournay has been the lead researcher, with Professor Mary Corbin Sies (American Studies), in a groundbreaking study of the Modern Movement in Maryland sponsored by the Maryland Historical Trust. With the help of graduate students in Historic Preservation, Sies and Gournay have authored many National Register nominations and helped save modernist landmarks from demolition, including the Lustine automobile showroom in Hyattsville. Gourney’s publications explore connections between urbanism, architecture, and housing in France and the United States, including the impact of the U.S. home builder, Levitt, around Paris. Her current research focus is: "Architecture Students at the École des Beaux-arts and the North American Scene." The resulting book, undertaken with Marie-Laure Crosnier-Leconte, conservateur en chef du Patrimoine, and with the support of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art in Paris, will provide the first comprehensive synthesis of the extraordinary contribution of these American, Canadian, and French designers and teachers to the history of Western architecture between1850 and 1940, and their impact on the social history of the United States, Canada, and abroad, and on Franco-American relations. In Fall 2010, Professor Gournay was a scholar-in-residence at the INHA to work full time on this project.

Marsha S. McLaughlin is Director of the Department of Planning and Zoning for Howard County, which has been one Maryland’s fastest growing jurisdictions. With a Masters of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts, Ms. McLaughlin has broad expertise in planning and design. Trained as a land planner, Ms. McLaughlin has worked in Howard County since 1988. Previous work has included downtown redevelopment, growth management and tourism development projects in Baltimore, California and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has taught graduate school courses in landscape architecture, planning and land-use law and is a frequent program presenter to student, professional and community organizations.

Mark Thompson has served as the Director, Downtown Redevelopment for Howard County since February of 2011. He is responsible for guiding the implementation the Downtown Columbia Plan which was adopted in 2010. He works with County Departments, major property owners and developers and community groups to implement a wide range of policies and programs outlined in the Plan. Previously, Mr. Thompson founded Real InSITE, LLC, a commercial real estate brokerage and consulting firm. He has also held senior positions at major real estate companies including General Growth Properties, The Rouse Company and Ryland Homes. Mr. Thompson has a Masters in Regional Planning and a Masters in Business from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Urban Studies.

As Columbia Association President, Phil Nelson’s objectives include planning and enhancing the health and safe-living environment of Columbia and the community; providing programs and projects to promote community and environmental sustainability at CA; utilizing available means to foster financial stewardship that will require refocusing resource management; encouraging community engagement, satisfaction, connection and individual development at CA; and utilizing interagency partnerships to develop the best programs possible for the residents of Columbia. With these objectives, Phil is determined to carry on the Rouse vision, enhancing the quality of life for people living and working in Columbia and continuing to foster a city where people can learn and grow. Phil Nelson came to Columbia after spending more than forty years in the Midwest. He served as city manager of Northglenn, Colorado from 2001 to 2006; city manager of Derby, Kansas from 1988 to 2001; and county administrator of Barton County, Kansas from 1986 to 1988. Before his move to Columbia, Phil served as the city manager of Troy, Michigan. He is currently a member of the International City/County Management Association.

Jane Dembner, AICP is a Columbia resident and urban planner who for over 20 years has worked with elected, appointed and citizen leaders to create quality places and implement innovative community planning projects throughout the eastern United States. Her community planning experience includes comprehensive plans; development review and zoning; park, recreation, and open space planning; urban design strategies; facility and capital improvement planning; smart growth; and multi-modal transportation solutions that incorporate pedestrian, bicycle, transit and auto transportation investments. Ms. Dembner’s experience spans the public, private sector and non-profit sectors with a focus on improving the built and natural environment. She has led and executed integrated land use and transportation studies at the neighborhood, city, county and regional levels. She is particularly adept at designing and implementing public participation processes and moving stakeholders and diverse groups towards consensus. Ms. Dembner has worked as a planner at the local and federal government levels; as a consultant planner for small and large private firms; and she is currently director of Community Building and Sustainability for the Columbia Association, a non-for-profit public benefit corporation that provides services and community facilities for Columbia, Maryland -- the nation’s most well-known planned city. Ms. Dembner’s work has been honored by ten state and national awards for innovative urban planning, public participation, and policy work related to smart growth, revitalization, and targeting infrastructure investments to advance policy objectives. As CA’s Director of Community Building and Sustainability, Ms. Dembner is leading planning, design and the related capital improvement program to make Columbia a more livable, walkable and vibrant place to live, work and play as it approaches its 50th anniversary. Responsibilities include oversight of watershed management initiatives, landscape improvements/management, capital improvements, and long-term planning related to capital improvements and community development. Her current focus is on enhancing Columbia’s transportation and pathway network to support enhanced pedestrian and bicycle mobility for everyday activities (Connecting Columbia), the design and implementation of Symphony Woods Park -- Downtown Columbia’s central park; providing assistance to Columbia’s Village Associations on their village center community plans; and liaison with Howard County on planning and transportation initiatives. Ms. Dembner is active in a number of volunteer and civic endeavors. She is a member of the Champions Council (Board of Directors) of the Coalition for Smarter Growth; a member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB), a member of the Board of Directors of the Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center (MCRC) of Howard County; and a volunteer driver with Neighbor Ride, a non-profit organization that provides door-to-door transportation for senior citizens of Howard County. Ms. Dembner received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Oberlin College, with urban design and planning studies in Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, and Great Britain; and her Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

John E. DeWolf is Senior Vice President for The Howard Hughes Corporation leading strategic developments in Baltimore, MD. Alexandria, VA. and Princeton N.J. Mr. DeWolf reports to Grant Herlitz. Mr. DeWolf has over 30 years of real estate experience including leading his own consulting practice guiding real estate strategy, portfolio management and start-up guidance for multi-billion dollar businesses. Mr. DeWolf was Executive Vice President Real Estate/Strategic Initiatives for New York & Company where he oversaw the addition of 225 stores, the closing of 100 stores, and downsizing of over 250 stores. Previously, Mr. DeWolf had senior positions with New England Development, Woolworth Corporation and The Disney Stores, Inc. Mr. DeWolf began his career as real estate counsel for Pyramid Companies and spent over 10 years with The Limited as their first in-house attorney. He eventually co-led The Limited’s real estate department reporting directly to the company’s CEO, Les Wexner. In one year he oversaw the addition of 700 new stores and added over two million square feet to the company’s retail base. Mr. DeWolf graduated from Syracuse University earning his B.S. in 1977 and J.D. in 1979.

Cecily Bedwell, LEED BD+C has over 15 years of experience at Design Collective in architecture and planning. She has completed many urban, housing, and mixed-use master plans, including large-scale, mixed-use projects, affordable infill housing, mixed-income housing, and senior housing projects for the firm, as well as campus master plans. Additionally, she has prepared urban and architectural design guidelines for nearly all of Design Collective’s large, mixed-use master plans. Ms. Bedwell has been involved in and managed numerous participatory planning projects and design charrettes. She is exceptionally skilled at working within a public process, with a particular focus on urban design and in developing appropriate and contextual site plans, conceptual architecture, and urban and architectural design guidelines. Over the years, Cecily has lectured and presented the principles of Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) to various groups including developers, community groups, and public officials, advocating the benefits of mixed-use development. Cecily has been involved in the New Urbanism movement for more than 16 years and brings to each of her projects an understanding of the importance of pedestrian- and transit-friendly design, advantages of integrating uses and building types, and the importance of good architecture and urban design. Cecily has assisted municipalities in analyzing and revising their zoning regulations, has prepared and assisted with overlay zoning ordinances and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) language, as well as prepared and administered design guidelines for county, city, and private development.

Bill Mackey, AICP is Howard County’s project manager for the process that initiated the Downtown Columbia Plan. He has worked in the Department of Planning & Zoning for seven years and is currently facilitating the County’s general plan update. Bill has a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters of Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

James Palma, AICP, is the Senior Manager of Research and Information at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) and has fourteen years of planning, fiscal, and economic development experience. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters of Regional Planning (M.R.P.) from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Jim was a planner for the Maryland Department of Planning, where he worked to support Census 2010 and PlanMaryland. Previous to this, Jim worked for a private planning and engineering firm in Florida and was a researcher for the UMass Donahue Institute, a public policy research institute at the University of Massachusetts. He has performed economic impact analyses on the impact of affordable housing on communities, Federal spending in Maryland, and on various proposed development projects. Jim has presented at various conferences on topics such as the use of Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data in Smart Growth measurement and predicting future land use needs for industrial development, as well as researching and authoring numerous articles and studies. He was also a co-presenter at a session on preserving industrial land at the 2008 American Planning Association National Planning Conference.

Julie Herlands, AICP, is a Principal with TischlerBise and has fifteen years of planning, fiscal, and economic development experience. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Buffalo and a Masters of Community Planning (M.C.P.) from the University of Maryland. She is the Chair of the Economic Development Division of the APA (April 2012-2014). Prior to joining TischlerBise, Ms. Herlands worked in the public sector in Fairfax County, VA, for the Office of Community Revitalization and for the private sector for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in their Advisory Services and Research Department. For IEDC, she conducted a number of consulting projects including economic and market feasibility analyses and economic development assessments and plans. For TischlerBise, she has conducted economic impact and fiscal impact analyses using the case-study marginal approach to evaluate multiple land use scenarios, specific development projects, and annexations in fifteen states. In addition, she has prepared over 80 impact fees, cash proffers, and other one-time fees for communities across the country. She is a frequent presenter at national and regional conferences including serving as co-organizer and co-presenter at a half-day AICP Training Workshop entitled “Fiscal Impact Assessment” at the American Planning Association National Planning Conference. A session on impact fees and cash proffers presented at the APA National Conference is available through the APA training series, Best of Contemporary Community Planning 2005.

William R. Atkinson has worked as a Regional Planner for the Maryland Department of Planning since 1989. The main responsibility of the job is the supervision of the regional office. Provide technical assistance, coordination and liaison activities with elected officials and local jurisdictions within Western Maryland (Allegany, Garrett, Washington and Frederick Counties) on State Smart Growth issues and Policies. Provided assistance with the Appalachian Regional Commission program in implementing goals and objectives of the federal program and provide grant assistances to local jurisdictions. In June 2009 assigned the duties of the Coordinator of the Trail Town Program for Allegany County Maryland. The Trail Town Program is an economic development program along the Great Allegheny Passage working to revitalize trailside communities and reap the economic benefits of trail-based tourism and recreation as part of a larger, coordinated approach to regional economic development. Graduate of Frostburg State University, July 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Management Concentration

Dave Ager, AICP, ASLA, LEED AP ND, is the founding principal of Townscape Design, a Maryland based town planning firm focused on sustainable town planning and the integration of clean energy. He has provided town planning and detailed project design for private sector clients throughout the mid-Atlantic region, at all scales of development from historic village infill to large-scale planned communities and TODs. He is a member, and the only planner, on the Maryland Clean Energy Center's Advisory Board.

Brian Levite is a Certified Energy Manager from PRIZIM, Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi Consulting. Mr. Levite is an expert in organizational energy planning. He has provided strategic planning around energy for clients ranging from schools and local governments to Federal agencies and large corporations.

W. Paul Farmer, FAICP, is Chief Executive Officer of the American Planning Association (APA) and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). Previously, he served in senior management positions as Director of the Minneapolis Department of City Planning and Deputy Planning Director in Pittsburgh. He has also had academic positions at the University of Oregon, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Mr. Farmer has consulted in Asia, Europe and North America, and has written and lectured extensively. Mr. Farmer has both B. Architecture and B.A. degrees from Rice University and a master's degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University. Mr. Farmer received a Design Excellence Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Progressive Architecture award. He also was a Hayden Fellow in Architecture and a Baker Distinguished Student Fellow at Rice University and a Richard King Mellon Fellow at Cornell University. A Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a recipient of the Dale Prize from Cal Poly Pomona, he has been awarded the status of Hon. ASLA by the American Society of Landscape Architects and Hon. RTPI by the Royal Town Planning Institute.