John has been employed for 32 years with the City of Overland Park holding a variety of positions in what is now called the Planning and Development Services Department. He was involved in the initial development of the Greenway Linkages Plan and Guidelines in 1991 and in all updates since, including the 2006 expansion of the plan into northern part of Overland Park. For the last seven years, John has been Manager of the Community Services Division. His division is responsible for property maintenance code enforcement, zoning code enforcement, comprehensive planning, demographics, greenway planning , bike route planning, neighborhood programs including the Neighborhood Conservation Program, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, and housing programs, food service establishment licensing and inspections, pool and spa licensing and inspections, and environmental programs including several recycling programs and the annual streamway cleanup. John has a BA in Geography and Urban Studies from Augustana College (Rock Island, IL) and a MUP from Michigan State University.

Leslie has been employed for 17 years with the City of Overland Park, Planning and Development Services Department. For the last 6 years she has been the Manager of the Current Planning Division. Her division oversees the review of development proposals throughout the city and was responsible for the adoption of the Downtown Form Based Code, one of the first implementation pieces of the City’s Vision Metcalf Plan. Prior to the City of Overland Park, she worked as a planner for the City of Kansas City, MO; the Wichita-Sedgwick County Planning and Zoning Department and Leavenworth County, KS. She is a graduate of Missouri State University.

Sara Copeland, AICP is the City Planner for the City of Grandview, Missouri, where she oversees current and long-range planning activities as well as historic preservation and GIS. She has professional experience in both the public and private sectors and has managed planning projects from coast to coast, including plans in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Georgia. Sara is an adjunct professor in the Bloch School of Management at UMKC, teaching urban planning for the Lewis White Real Estate Center. She is the president of the Kansas Chapter of APA and previously served as the Chapter’s vice-president and newsletter editor. She holds the Master in City Planning and Bachelor of Science in Planning degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tom Hester is the Urban Design Practice Leader for the PlaceMaking group at Parsons Brinckerhoff. Tom has earned a national reputation for his ability to help public and private sector clients strategically position development projects and improve their overall performance and viability. Tom brings skills in zoning, design guidelines, public and private partnerships, real estate finance and development, community planning, and transportation planning and design to his projects. Tom earned a bachelor of architecture from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona and a master of architecture in urban design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He has taught at Cal Poly Pomona and Otis College of Art and Design, and has lectured on the integration of Land use and Transportation. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute where he has participated in a number of forums and Advisory Services Panels as well as taught at their Real Estate School.

Robert McKay, AICP is the Director of Planning & Development for the City of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, providing management and direction to Current and Long Range Planning efforts for the community of 92,000. He has over 35 years of professional planning experience providing planning services to 7 different communities. Robert earned both bachelor and master degrees from South Dakota State University.

Elizabeth Garvin, AICP is a Senior Associate in the Denver office of Clarion Associates. She is an attorney and land use planner with more than 15 years of both public and private sector experience. Prior to joining Clarion Associates, Ms. Garvin practiced law with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne in Kansas City, Missouri. She has a juris doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Law and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Design. She has published many articles on planning topics, most recently exploring the application of planning law to form-based codes. She is licensed to practice law in Missouri and Kansas.

Mr. Wagoner is responsible for the day to day activities of BIA Heartland’s Local Government Policy Program. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geography from Northwest Missouri State University and a Master of Science in Community and Resource Planning from Missouri State University. Mr. Wagoner’s background includes fifteen years of planning at the local government level including five years as the Senior Planner for the City of Waterloo, IA and four years as the Community Development Director for Kearney, MO. He became a member of the American Institute of Certified Planner’s in 2007 and an accredited LEED Green Associate in 2011. He has been with Heartland Brick since 2006

Mr. Steele oversees the implementation of BIA Heartland’s marketing program and is the regional director of the Heartland Region which covers eight Midwestern States. He holds a B.S. degree in Community and Regional Planning and a Master of Business Administration, both from Iowa State University. Mr. Steele’s background includes a dozen years of community planning in local government settings. He has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners since 2002. Mr. Steele joined Heartland Brick in 2005

Thomas D. Treharne is the Planning and Development Director for the City of Marion, Iowa. Tom graduated from Iowa State University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Community and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Environmental Planning. Tom received certification by the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2000. Upon graduating from college Tom worked for South East Iowa Regional Planning Commission (SEIRPC) as a Transportation Planner. Tom accepted a position with the City of Burlington, Iowa, as Senior Planner in 1997 where he worked until 2001. While in Burlington Tom assisted with the development of the Burlington Comprehensive Plan and worked to establish zoning within two miles of the community. Tom accepted the Planning and Development Director position with the City of Marion in 2001 and currently maintains this position. He has been actively involved in Marion Chamber of Commerce and Marion Economic Development Company and he is currently serving as the Networking and Leadership Co-chair of the Iowa Chapter of the American Planning Association. Upon starting with Marion his work focused on the acquisition, cleanup and redevelopment planning for an abandoned railroad line through Marion. The property was acquired in 2007 and the Marion Central Corridor Plan was approved in 2009. The project focused on developing a new east-west major arterial through town along the old railroad line including; trails, extensive pedestrian amenities, and incorporating 12 blocks of brick streets in “Uptown Marion”. The first phase of this exciting project is under construction; including the first three blocks of brick Streets. In his free time he competes in bicycling events and triathlons; however, he primarily enjoys spending time with his wife Jodi and their two boys, Clayton and Thomas.

John is a Lead Planner with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Citywide Planning Division specializing in long range planning and urban design issues. Over the past 16 years, he has successfully managed and implemented a variety of projects ranging from adopted planning documents, streetscape design, revision of zoning text related to urban design overlay districts, and economic development plans. John’s additional ongoing duties include extensive outreach and public service activities with citizen groups, business association, non-profit organizations, community development corporations and a variety of government agencies.

Larry is a Lead Planner with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Development Management Division specializing in current planning. Over his 25+ year career Larry has worked in long range planning and current planning for communities in Wisconsin, Alaska and Missouri. His experience includes dealing with tax incentive projects, crafting development code, review and negotiation of high profile projects for the city. Larry holds a Bachelors of Geography from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Missouri - Kansas City.

Korey Schulz is a Senior Project Manager at Ochsner Hare & Hare Planning Consultants and Landscape Architects. He has over thirteen years of experience in site planning, master planning and landscape architectural design. His work has included park planning and design, commercial and office site planning, retail and entertainment development design, streetscape design, irrigation design and green design solutions. He is a Iowa State University Graduate with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and is registered in six states. He has worked on multiple retail, entertainment and mix-use projects that have won awards including; The Legends at Sparks Marina, The Legends at Village West, Summit Fair, and The Falls at Crackerneck Creek. He also received the Alton B. Thomas Award in 2004 for Promoting/Enhancing the Image of Landscape Architecture. He is currently Past President for the American Society of Landscape Architects – Prairie Gateway Chapter.

Gerald Williams is a Lead Planner in Kansas City, Missouri’s City Planning Department with over 15 years of experience in long-range and comprehensive planning. Specializing in land use and transportation planning, Gerald has managed the creation and implementation of numerous long range planning projects and was most recently the project manager for Greater Downtown Area Plan. His experience with public engagement, public involvement and consensus building is extensive. Gerald received a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science in 1994 and a Master of Urban Planning degree in 1996, both from the University of Kansas. Gerald spent 2 years in Baltimore working for a private firm on planning projects for US military facilities in Europe and the states. Gerald then returned to his home state of Kansas to work for the City of Topeka as a long range planner before eventually moving to the City of Kansas City, Missouri in 2000 where he remains today.

Elise is passionate about positively impacting the built environment to steward the earth’s natural resources and encourage people to live life healthier and more aware of the world beyond them. Through collaborative processes, Elise uses her training in Landscape Architecture to create more integrated, comprehensive design solutions that help clients develop sustainable patterns for development. Enthused by nature, sketching, and painting, Elise has developed expertise in graphic communication. She excels in expressing design ideas through a variety of computer and hand graphics. Elise’s interest in sustainable design led her to BNIM, where she has collaborated on many urban design and planning projects including Kansas City’s Grand Boulevard Streetscape Plan, Kansas City’s Municipal Farm Sustainable Reuse Plan, Missouri State’s Garst Plaza, Edmonton’s City Center Airport Redevelopment (Canada), Fargo’s Comprehensive Plan, and Lincoln’s Greening America’s Capitals

Mr. Bracker is the Brownfields Coordinator for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. Since 1997, he has administered for the City over $25 million in brownfield grants and incentives for the assessment and cleanup of contaminated properties. Mr. Bracker received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Politics in 1986 from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his J.D. in 1990 from Harvard Law School. Before his present position, Mr. Bracker practiced environmental law in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California with private law firms in the fields of Superfund cost recovery and environmental regulatory compliance. He is the executive director of the Kansas City Brownfields Commission and serves as Vice-Chair of the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commission. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals.

Scott Schulte is a Senior Environmental Planner and natural resource discipline leader for Vireo (formerly Patti Banks Associates). Vireo is a regional planning, landscape architecture, natural resource management and public engagement consulting firm that serves both private and public sector clients in the 4-state region. Scott has over 20 years experience in the environmental field, including 13 years experience in watershed management, stormwater best management practice planning and design, environmental policy, training and public involvement. Scott is currently President of the Heartland Conservation Alliance, a not-for-profit formed to help regional organizations conserve land for natural and community benefits. He was a Lecturer at the University of Kansas from 2010 to 2011, teaching Environmental Planning Techniques; and was on the Board of the Blue River Watershed Association from 2007 to 2009. Scott earned a Master of Urban Planning with an Environmental and Land Use Planning emphasis from the University of Kansas in 2002.

Katherine grew up working on her neighbor’s row crop and livestock farm outside of Wichita and became a backyard and community gardener when she moved to the Twin Cities and then Boston in the eighties and early nineties. She started her farming career as a field worker on organic farms in 1991 in the Boston area. She moved back to the Midwest in late 1996, where she started and ran Full Circle Farm for eight years. In 2005, she co-founded the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, now Cultivate Kansas City. She has worked professionally since the early 1980s with grass roots community organizations in the Twin Cities, Boston, and Kansas City, doing program management, fundraising, marketing, financial management, and organizational development consulting. She co-founded the Growing Growers Training Program and the Farmers Community Market at Brookside.

Beth Low is the Director of the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition, a collection of individuals, organizations, businesses and government representatives committed to ensuring that there is a healthy, sustainable, affordable and accessible food system for Greater Kansas City. Prior to her work with the Food Policy Coalition, Beth served six years as a State Representative in the Missouri Legislature from 2005-2011, and as a PRN Social Worker for the Hope House. Beth has a Master of Social Welfare from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Dina Newman, Advocate for Change, Grown in Ivanhoe Project, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, Nutter Ivanhoe Neighborhood Center Dina Newman is the Advocate for Change and Organizer for the Grown in Ivanhoe Project. Grown in Ivanhoe is a grassroots community initiative that aims to empower residents of the Ivanhoe community of Kansas City, Missouri to grow healthy fruits and vegetables. Grown in Ivanhoe combines education and resources for growers as well as coordinate community garden locations, facilitate a network of residents selling foods through farm stands, and establish a farmers’ market.

Wendy Griswold is a project manager at the Center for Hazardous Substance at Kansas State University. She has been involved with public education and outreach services since 1995, working with communities in urban, rural, and tribal settings on environmental issues and sustainability. She holds a Ph.D. in adult education and specializes in community education for social change.

Huston Gibson is an assistant professor of planning, in the Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning, in the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at Kansas State University. Some of the courses he currently teaches include Infrastructure and Plan Implementation, Community Research Methods, and Collective Decisions. He holds a Ph.D. in planning and has worked in both the public and private sectors of planning and development. His research focus centers on sustainable community infrastructure.

Jim Lawson Jr. has served as the Planning Director for Branson since April 2009. After graduating with a B.A. from Arkansas State University in 1971 he attended Texas A&M where he graduated with a Masters in City Planning in 1973. He began his career in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1973 where he held many positions, including Planning Director for over 15 years, before retiring in 2003. Since that time, and prior to his current position, he served as the Executive Director for the Arkansas Homebuilders in 2004 and the Planning Director in Orange Beach, Alabama from 2005 until 2008.

Joel Hornickel is the Senior Planner for the City of Branson, a position he has held since August of 2009. During his time in Branson, he has assisted the community with the adoption of their Community Plan 2030 and the formation of three neighborhood organizations. Joel graduated with a Landscape Architecture degree from Kansas State University in 2004. His creative design background has provided a unique perspective to the planning department which has also been utilized for several design projects throughout the community. Prior to arriving in Branson, he was a design associate for Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates in Toledo, Ohio.

Sheila Shockey is President of Shockey Consulting Services, LLC. With offices in the Kansas City and St. Louis regions, she and her 10 staff members help communities make better decisions by providing management, planning and public participation services to government agencies. She has worked in local government as a staff person or consultant for over 20 years. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Washburn University.

Erin Ollig is a planner with Shockey Consulting Services, LLC in Lenexa, KS. She has worked for Shockey since 2005 after working for the City of Gardner Community Development Department. Erin has worked on a lot of interesting projects ranging from community visioning plans, comprehensive plans, wastewater and stormwater management plans, and transportation projects. If you’ve ever wondered how a sewer works, Erin can probably answer your questions. Erin has a master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Before becoming a planner she worked as a case manager for people with disabilities. She is an At-Large Representative for the Kansas Chapter of the American Planning Association and is a proud resident of Olathe. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two kids, Avery and Griffin.

Samuel Arbesman is a senior scholar in Research and Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Arbesman was a research fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School where he used network science and applied mathematics to study innovation, scientific discovery, and prosocial behavior. He also was a research fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and an instructor in biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health. Arbesman is the author of several journal articles, including articles in PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS ONE, and Scientometrics. His research and writings have appeared in several major media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Atlantic, New Scientist, Wired, and The Economist, and he is a regular contributor to the Ideas section of The Boston Globe. He has been invited to speak at organizations and universities across the United States and is the recipient of several awards, fellowships, and grants, including the National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship in Nonlinear Systems. He currently is working on a book about how knowledge changes over time, titled The Half-Life of Facts. Arbesman earned a BA in computer science and biology from Brandeis University and a PhD in computational biology with minors in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University.

Matt Tapp was appointed Director of the Planning & Zoning Department for Clay County, Missouri in February 2008. Prior to his appointment, Matt served as a Solutions Manager for one of the top national full-service GIS consulting firms. He brings over 12 years of experience serving the public, including a diverse mix of local governments such as the cities of Olathe, Kansas and Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

Brian Hiller joined ESRI in October 2008 as an Account Manager, where he helps local governments across Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri select and successfully implement ESRI GIS solutions to meet a variety of needs. Prior to joining ESRI Brian worked as a GIS Application Developer for Johnson County, Kansas AIMS. While at Johnson County, Brian maintained GIS datasets, managed a variety of aerial imagery accusation projects, and developed GIS internet solutions. Throughout his career Brian has also worked as a GIS Technician in the Municipal Services department at the City of Olathe, Kansas, and as a GIS intern for the United States Department of Agriculture.

Doug Johnson has over 33 years of community planning experience, 25 of which has been for the City of Overland Park, Kansas Planning & Development Department where he currently serves as the GIS Manager. Prior to working for Overland Park, Doug worked as a Planning Consultant for Bucker, Willis & Ratliff for 8 years. Doug is a member of the American Planning Association and American Institute of Certified Planners.

Scott Allen has been a local government planner for 17 years, of which the last 9 have been in Blue Springs. Mr. Allen has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, with a Minor in Environmental Studies, from St. Olaf College (MN), and is completing a Master’s Degree in Community and Economic Development from Penn State University.

Gail Porter has 13 years of experience working in the Geographic Information Systems field at the City of Blue Springs and prior to her time with the City she had 22 years working in drafting and design at the Kansas City engineering firm Burns & McDonnell. Gail’s educational and professional experience is supported with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from University of Missouri Kansas City (Cum Laude) and a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional designation through the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Gail’s current position is GIS Coordinator for the City of Blue Springs where she works with all City departments and external agencies to maintain and develop the City’s GIS capabilities. She is a member of the Kansas City Arc/Info Users Group and the KC Metro GIS Committee.

Heather Eisenbarth was introduced to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While working as a consultant at the Land Information Computer Graphics Facility (LICGF), she had the opportunity to collaborate on a variety of innovative uses for GIS at all levels of government and non-profits through research, instruction and outreach. One such project, 'Shaping Dane', was awarded a community demonstration grant from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. The pilot sought to encourage public participation in sustainable land use planning by providing citizens with data visualization tools to evalulate the impacts of proposed policy. She now serves as GIS Specialist and Coordinator for the City of Raymore, Missouri with over 10 years of technical proficiency applying GIS in support of government operations, strategic planning, and accountability. Her major contribution has been in advocating web mapping applications in support of daily operations.

Robert Case joined the City of West Plains in June of 2010 and has over 10 years of economic development and urban planning experience in both the public and private sectors. He has managed multi-million dollar economic development projects and developed several master and strategic plans for communities throughout the Midwest. Robert is responsible for attracting new businesses as well as encouraging expansion and retention of businesses in West Plains. Robert holds a Masters in Geography along with a Masters Certificate in Regional and Urban Planning from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.