Necessary Elements for Safe, Walkable Streets

Bio: Marisa joined the Metropolitan Planning Council in 2011. She manages technical assistance and support to communities facing development challenges related to housing, transportation, environment, and economic development. Her work directly assists communities to promote revitalization, housing in job-rich areas, sustainable development and conservation, and interjurisdictional and corridor planning. Prior to MPC, Marisa spent a year in Milan, Italy, completing her master’s degree in urban planning with a focus on international community development. Her studies were informed by years of work on the ground in Chicago, most recently as the senior project manager for Lawndale Christian Development Corporation. There, she directed more than $30 million in affordable rental and for-sale housing development in the North Lawndale neighborhood. She also worked in community development at the Steans Family Foundation and Carole Robertson Center for Learning, where her efforts on a Welfare to Work initiative first sparked her passion for affordable housing as a justice issue.

Education: Marisa has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology, master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, certificate in affordable housing finance, development and management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and master’s in urban planning from the Istituto Politecnico di Milano, where her master’s thesis explored the role that an intermediary could play in advancing the community development field in northern Italy.

Key Publications: http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6587 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6539 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/6404 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6506 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6370 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6367

Past Assignments: Congress for New Urbanism 2012, presentation on Chicago Union Station, Presentation to the School of the Art Institute on placemaking work in Miller Beach, Multiple lectures to the University of Illinois at Chicago graduate planning program students, Moderator for a Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs event on the role of artists in placemaking

Bio: Project Manager | Associate, Sam Schwartz Engineering.

Education: B.S.E, University of Pennsylvania, Systems Engineering - Transportation

Bio: Principal & Founder, Interface Studio LLC

Education: Master of City Planning, University of Pennsylvania School of Design, 1996 Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Georgia Tech, 1993

Other Publications: "The Diagram: A Designers Definition." Published: Diagrammatically, Urban Infill Volume 5, 2012. “Urban Design as Interface Design.” Published: Crossover: Urbanism, Architecture, Technology, 2006. “By Design: Editing the City.” Published: 306090.06, Spring 2004. “The Millennium City: Making Sprawl Smart through Network Oriented Development.” Published: Volume 10 No. 3 Journal of Urban Technology, December, 2003. “Representing the Information City.” Published: Volume 8 No 1 City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, April, 2003.

Past Assignments: National American Planning Conference, 2009 & 2010. Design on the Delaware Conference, 2009-2012 Oklahoma State Department of Architecture Lecture, 2009 Kean University’s Second Annual Technology Transfer Conference, 2006 Inaugural Conference on Design, Delft University, Netherlands, 2004. Annual Association of Geographers Conference, 2004 ACSP-AESOP Joint Congress, 2003 Digital Communities, 2001. Cities in the Global Information Society: An International Perspective – University of Newcastle, U.K., 1999.