David Snow, AICP, is a shareholder in the Public Law Department at Richards|Watson|Gershon. Dave specializes in advising public agencies on CEQA and land use matters. Dave joined RW&G in 2001 with over 10 years of local government experience including serving as the Deputy Director of Planning for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes while attending law school. Currently he serves as the City Attorney for the City of Yucaipa, Assistant City Attorney in Beverly Hills and Rancho Palos Verdes, and special counsel to many other public agencies throughout California. Dave, serves on APA California’s Amicus Committee, and is currently APA California's Vice President of Policy and Legislation.

Justin Meek, AICP, is a senior planner with 10 years of planning and CEQA experience for public and private sector clients. He presently works for the City of Marina and provides consulting services for the City of Pacific Grove. Previously, he managed the preparation of numerous environmental documents throughout California and authored geology and soils, recreation, visual resources, transportation and traffic, land use and planning, public services, and utilities and service systems sections for a variety of environmental documents. He also teaches at San Jose State University (SJSU) in the Urban and Regional Planning Department (URBP). Mr. Meek has a Bachelor of Science in Earth Sciences and Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Masters of Urban Planning from SJSU, where he was the recipient of the AICP Outstanding Graduating Student Award. He has been active in the American Planning Association since 2008, and is currently the Administrative Director for the California-Northern Section. He also serves on the SJSU URBP Alumni Committee.

Elizabeth Deakin is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Urban Design at UC Berkeley, where she also is an affiliated faculty member of the Energy and Resources Group and the Master of Urban Design group. From 1999-2009 she was Director of the UC Transportation Center, which she helped to found in 1989. In addition, from 2004-2008, she served as co-director of UC Berkeley's Global Metropolitan Studies Program. Deakin's research focuses on transportation and land use policy, the environmental impacts of transportation, and equity in transportation. She has published over 300 journal articles, book chapters, and research reports on topics ranging from environmental justice to transportation pricing to development exactions and impact fees. Her recent research projects have addressed these issues in China, the EU, and Latin America as well as in the US. Deakin has been appointed to a number of government posts including city and county commissions and state advisory boards. She has testified before Congress regarding every transportation bill since ISTEA in 1991, most recently appearing before the House Technology and Infrastructure Committee. She has taught courses at universities in Australia, Germany, Sweden, France, Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina and China, and has served as an adviser to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Council of Ministers of Transport, and MISTRA (the Swedish sustainable development foundation). She currently is a member of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Advisory Board. Deakin holds degrees in political science and CEE - transportation systems analysis from MIT as well as a law degree from Boston College. In fall 2010 she was honored with an honorary PhD from the Royal Institute of Stockholm for her contributions to the fields of transportation, the environment, and the institutional factors that shape policy responses to these concerns.

Thomas Pace is a Principal Planner, Long Range Planning Manager for the City of Sacramento Community Development Department. He has 17 years of expertise in municipal planning, including current planning, long range planning, housing policy, and community participation. His emphasis for the past ten years has been on revitalization of blighted and underdeveloped infill neighborhoods. Having recently managed the preparation of the Sacramento 2030 General Plan (www.sacgp.org), his current focus is on implementing planning policy through preparation of a climate action plan, incentive programs for green development, specific plans and area planning studies, zoning code updates, public facility finance planning, and extensive education and public information about the new plan and its benefits.

Valerie Knepper has been analyzing policies for the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission for 25 years. She was instrumental in developing requirements for local zoning to support regional transit investments in the Bay Area. She is currently focusing on reforming parking policies to support smart growth. She has a Masters in Public Policy from U.C. Berkeley.