Robert Brosnan is Planning Director for Arlington County, Virginia since 1988 and recently was appointed the Director of the Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development. Much of his career with Arlington has been focused on planning for two transit corridors that bisect the County and has been closely involved in planning for and developing land use and zoning tools to encourage development. The work was recognized when Arlington was awarded the first National Award for Smart Growth Achievement by EPA in 2005, a 2005 Sustainable Community Award from the National Association of Counties, and two of its main corridors were awarded Great Streets in 2008 as a part of its Great Places in America program. Brosnan received a Master’s of City and Regional Planning from Catholic University.

Peter Harnik, an expert on the many ways people use public open space, is Director of The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence in Washington, D.C. Previous to that he was co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Harnik has written numerous other books and articles about city spaces, from plazas to greenways, dog parks to waterfront promenades, ball courts to community gardens, and his most recent book is Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. Harnik’s research has resulted in two earlier groundbreaking booklets: The Excellent City Park System: What Makes it Great and How to Get There (2006); and Measuring the Economic Value of a City Park System (2009). He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and lives in Arlington, VA.

Stewart Schwartz is the Executive Director and a founder of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which he built into the leading smart growth organization in the Washington, D.C. region, addressing the interconnected issues of land use,transportation, urban design, housing, and energy. He serves on the board of the Virginia Conservation Network where he leads efforts to reform state transportation policies and funding. Schwartz is also a founder and board member of the Richmond Virginia Partnership for Smarter Growth. An attorney with experience in land use, transportation and the environment, Schwartz has worked for the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the Land Trust Alliance, and the Southern Environmental Law Center,and as a volunteer for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.