Tarik Abdelazim

Tarik Abdelazim is the Associate Director of National Technical Assistance for Community Progress. Tarik recently completed eight years of public service in Binghamton, New York under two different executive titles in City Hall. For four years, he served as Deputy Mayor, leading high-priority interdepartmental teams, driving innovative IT/IM reform, and directing award-winning blight prevention initiatives – which twice won first place distinction in Public Administration and Management from the New York Conference of Mayor's Local Government Achievement Awards. Tarik then served for nearly four years as Director of Planning, Housing and Community Development, and spearheaded a variety of cross-sector collaborations around a set of livability and sustainability goals, again winning national distinction for inclusive, bold community development programs. In his capacity as Director of PHCD, Tarik managed and oversaw the implementation of an expansive and diverse portfolio of federal and state grants awards from housing and community development programs, including Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnership, Emergency Solutions Grant, US Partnership for Sustainable Communities, and Neighborhood Stabilization Program. He was also instrumental in building interest in and support for the creation of the Broome County Land Bank, one of the first eight land banks established in NY under the state’s 2011 Land Bank Authorization Act. Tarik received his Masters in Arts and Humanities from New York University, with an interdisciplinary focus on politics, ecology, and philosophy. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College in biology.

Session(s):

Reliable, Recurring Funding for Land Banks: Successes to Date and Future Possibilities

Zakariyya Abdur Rahman

Zakariyya Abdur-Rahman was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from Martin Luther King High School, and later served six years in United States Armed Forces. He attended the Temple University Fox School of Business, studying Business Management. In 1999, Zakariyya founded and was elected as President of the Nicetown Community Development Corporation (NTCDC). Under Zakariyya's leadership, NTCDC fulfills its mission with a holistic approach that prioritizes: public health and safety, re-education and training, affordable housing development, commercial corridor revitalization, arts and culture, and land care. Since 2002, NTCDC has served low-moderate income residents in Northwest Philadelphia. Zakariyya was instrumental in securing NTCDC's first contract for Community LandCare from the City of Philadelphia in 2008, to maintain nearly 200 vacant parcels of land located in Nicetown and Northwest Philadelphia. NTCDC subcontracted the contract initially, until they developed their own crew. This was the impetus for NTCDC's LandCare program, and an affiliate for-profit company, that today maintains more than 400 vacant parcels and performs landscaping services for 8 schools and other properties in their community.

Session(s):

Lots of Opportunity: Incorporating a Reentry Initiative into the Philadelphia LandCare Program

Shanti Abedin

Session(s):

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, Moving to Opportunity, and Neighborhood Revitalization: Synergies and Tensions

Seal Alaback

Sean Alaback has had a diverse career including TV & film, politics, marketing, communications, talent management, and consulting. In 2015, Sean returned to school to complete his BLA with a focus in economics at the Harvard University Extension School. While at Harvard he became involved with the Kennedy School's Ash Center Innovation Field Lab as a course coach after creating CityNexus, a web-based municipal data centralization platform. In the summer of 2016, Sean was awarded an Ash Center Summer Fellowship to further the development and implementation of CityNexus with client cities.

Session(s):

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Identifying, Analyzing, and Prioritizing At-Risk Properties through Silo-Busting Data Analytics

David Allen

David Allen is the founding Executive Director of the Kent County Land Bank Authority (KCLBA). David has 20 years experience in urban community revitalization. Allen has founded 3 highly successful community based development organizations. David served on the Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education for 7 years, was the Board President for 2 years and is currently the City of Grand Rapids' 3rd Ward Commissioner. In his 20 year career in Community Development, Allen has been responsible for the development of over 1,100 units of residential and commercial properties resulting in over $75,000,000 in development.

Session(s):

Reliable, Recurring Funding for Land Banks: Successes to Date and Future Possibilities

Miriam Avins

Miriam Avins is the founder and director of Baltimore Green Space, a land trust that works with Baltimore neighborhoods to preserve community-managed open spaces. In her work at Baltimore Green Space, Miriam has published white papers on community-managed open space; stewardship practices of land trusts; and Baltimore's forest patches. In 2010 she was awarded the Aileen Hughes Award for Leadership in Land Conservation for her work with Baltimore City to establish a straightforward way to preserve community-managed open spaces. She also spearheaded efforts to provide access to municipal water for community gardens. Miriam serves on Baltimore City's Commission on Sustainability and gardens at her local community garden.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Terrell Bagby

Terrell Bagby began his career as a Social Worker at the Philadelphia Prison System (PPS) in November of 1996 after spending four years as a Youth Detention Counselor. Mr. Bagby provided direct services of counseling and case management to individuals who were incarcerated in Philadelphia County. In this position, he worked with every aspect of the population. In 2005, Mr. Bagby was promoted to Social Work Supervisor and managed a unit of Social Workers assigned to the PPS's Intake Unit. During that time, PPS was managing a record population. Mr. Bagby has twice been honored by the system as Employee of The Year as a Social Worker and a Supervisor. Mr. Bagby is currently the Interim Director of the Mayor's Office of Reintegration Services (RISE). Due to a change in the City Home Rule Charter, RISE was placed under the umbrella of the PPS and Mr. Bagby was selected to serve as the Interim Director at the agency. The Mayor's Office of Reintegration Services utilizes direct services and partnerships with other agencies to assist formerly incarcerated individuals through their reintegration back into the community. Mr. Bagby is a lifetime citizen of Philadelphia and is committed to helping returning citizens reintegrate and find opportunities to become productive citizens.

Session(s):

Lots of Opportunity: Incorporating a Reentry Initiative into the Philadelphia LandCare Program

Tracey Barbour-Gillet

Tracey Barbour-Gillett is a Program Officer for Community Development at the Abell Foundation, where her work focuses on stabilizing and revitalizing neighborhoods, increasing entrepreneurial opportunities, removing barriers to household financial stabilization, and supporting community-led efforts to use green space. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was project manager at a consulting firm focused on assisting nonprofit organizations with their organizational stability. She has also advocated for state-level implementation of housing and community development policies. Tracey is a graduate of American University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and has a master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore. A native Baltimorean, she resides in Baltimore City with her husband.

Session(s):

Tackling Property Tax Lien Sales: Forming a Broad Coalition to Stabilize Communities and Preserve Homeownership

Steve Barlow

Steve Barlow is a lawyer with Brewer & Barlow PLC in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a staff attorney for the City of Memphis.  His firm focuses on issues related to community development, social justice and civil rights.  His firm served as local counsel in the now-settled matter of Memphis/Shelby County versus Wells Fargo, in which Wells Fargo was charged with discriminatory, predatory lending practices that resulted in blighted and abandoned property across the community.  Steve has been involved in community organizing, legislative advocacy and community development efforts in Memphis, Tennessee since 1995, and has led efforts for the past eight years to use civil litigation in the Shelby County Environmental Court to enforce blight reduction and hold negligent property owners accountable.  He handles much of the public nuisance litigation for the City of Memphis and for the Downtown Memphis Commission, and is facilitator of the City of Memphis ?Opportunity Property Team.?  The Opportunity Property Team has recently announced the completion of the Memphis Neighborhood Blight Elimination Charter ? a framework for community wide engagement in the removal of vacant, abandoned properties.  Steve co-founded and now teaches the University of Memphis School of Law's Neighborhood Preservation Clinic, in which law students manage anti-blight cases on behalf of the City of Memphis.  Steve consults with local, statewide and national leaders on legislative and practical resolutions to the challenges of vacancy and abandonment, and is an advocate for creative, data driven, neighborhood-based community revitalization.  Steve graduated from the University of Memphis with a Masters in Anthropology, and in 2004 received his J.D., magna cum laude, also from the University of Memphis.

Session(s):

Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement

Carol Bebell

Session(s):

New Orleans’ Past, Present, and Future: Building a Shared Community Narrative through Historic Preservation

Karen Beck Pooley

Karen Beck Pooley is a Senior Associate at czb LLC and a Professor of Practice at Lehigh University. She was previously the Executive Director of the Allentown (PA) Redevelopment Authority and a Deputy Director with New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. She has a Ph.D. in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Both her research and professional work focus on neighborhood revitalization strategies and the evolution of federal, state and local housing policy.

Session(s):

Planning for Soft-Market Cities: Lessons from Erie and Danville

Adam Benesch

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Ian Beniston

Ian Beniston, AICP, HDFP is the Executive Director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). Prior to becoming Executive Director, Ian spent five years as YNDC's Deputy Director. Ian is responsible for the organization's consistent achievement of its mission and the day to day operations. Ian brings ten years of neighborhood planning, development, and finance experience in the private, non-profit, and public sectors. Previously, Ian served as Director of Policy for the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, where he worked to establish the YNDC. Ian holds a Master of City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Youngstown State University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a National Development Council Housing Development Finance Professional. He was a 40 under 40 award recipient in 2009, 25 under 35 award recipient in 2013, and a Next City Vanguard in 2014.

Session(s):

Doing a Lot with Little: Community-Based Stabilization Efforts

Kevin Bernhard

Kevin Bernhard is the Proprietor of Rust-N-Shine, a Baltimore based vintage retailer. In addition to running Rust-N-Shine, Kevin is also a Board Member for the Highlandtown Community Association, and an Architectural Designer for the Johns Hopkins Health System. After living in Baltimore for 10 years, Kevin enjoys walking through Patterson Park, attending music concerts, and hunting for the next treasure to sell in his store. Kevin has recently decided it is time to invest further in his community, and has purchased a 4,500sf building in the Highlandtown Main Street District and is rehabbing it to house 2 dwelling units, a workshop, a retail store front, and an upstairs art gallery.

Session(s):

Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site

Butch Berry

Butch Berry, a writer and graphic designer, grew up near a woods with a stream. As an adult, he explored the woods once again -- and discovered that it was full of trash and invasive plants, as well as majestic trees and of course the stream. As a volunteer, Butch works with neighbors and other volunteers to bring the forest patch back to health and to encourage neighbors to enjoy the woods.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Karen Black

Karen L. Black is the CEO of May 8 Consulting, Inc. a firm that performs policy research, analysis, coalition building and facilitation to form innovative and creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems facing urban, suburban and/or rural communities. Whether trying to revitalize a city, preserve open space, stop abandonment and blight, create environmental sustainability, or promote regional equity, her goal is to work with May 8's clients to create an action plan to address these issues that is innovative, collaborative, high-impact, and politically feasible. Black does not stop at creating the action plan, however; often, she works with clients to implement the necessary changes. Ms. Black has taught in the Urban Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania since 2002. In 2015, Ms. Black taught at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as well. Prior to beginning her consulting practice, Black was the founding director of the Metropolitan Philadelphia Policy Center, a region-wide policy center founded to re-search issues impacting the economy, environment and equity within the Philadelphia metropolitan region. Prior to that, Black spent 12 years as a practicing civil rights attorney. Black is the author of numerous reports and professional articles and a frequent commentator for television and radio programs. She received a Bachelor's from Williams College and a Doctorate of Law from the University of California at Los Angeles. For more information go to www.may8consulting.com.

Session(s):

Market-Informed Decision-Making for Strategic Code Enforcement Success Market-Informed Decision-Making for Strategic Code Enforcement Success Neighborhood Revitalization Impact of Scattered Site Rental Housing

Arthur Bogen

Mr. Bogen founded the Land Bank to address gaps in the reclamation of brownfield sites. Hundreds of contaminated sites remain abandoned due to municipal liability concerns and lack of management capacity. The Land Bank provides resources to municipalities to reinvigorate these sites so that taxes and jobs are created and ecological and human health environmental exposures are resolved. Mr. Bogen owned Down To Earth, LLC, an environmental strategy consulting company. Successes include arranging more than $17,300,000 grant funding, strategic consultation on over $20,000,000 of environmental cleanup projects, facilitation for more than 150 Brownfields assessment and community relations and educational outreach projects. He also serves part time as the Environmental Planner for the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

Session(s):

Adapting Land Banks to Address Brownfields and Economic Development

Amy Bonitz

Ms. Bonitz leads a non-profit development company whose mission is to provide affordable, safe and sustainable facilities for Baltimore's growing community of artists, designers, curators, performers, creative ventures, and nonprofit arts organizations. BARCO acquires, develops, leases, and manages properties in Baltimore's three Arts and Entertainment Districts that enable creative individuals and organizations to work, perform, exhibit, and thrive. Currently the NGO is managing the redevelopment of 58,000 sf of space in two buildings - the Motor House, a $6 million arts hub, and Open Works, a $10 million maker space.

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Lavea Brachman

Lavea Brachman currently serves as Vice President of Programs at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, located in Detroit, Michigan and dedicated to investing in the quality of life in the Southeast Michigan and Western New York regions. Brachman is a recognized expert on urban policy and practice, focusing on the older industrial cities that dominate the Midwest and Northeast of the United States. For nine years, she served as a founder and executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank and policy organization located in Columbus, Ohio, where she developed and led the organization’s research, advocacy and outreach efforts.  In Spring 2016, Brachman was a Resident Fellow at The University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, selected from an internationally competitive pool of candidates. Brachman has held working fellowships with national think tanks, including the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, the German Marshall Fund and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. In addition to speaking widely on urban revitalization issues, Brachman has authored numerous reports on issues pertaining to older cities, including on innovative policy solutions and practices around infrastructure, community, neighborhood, and economic redevelopment. Besides conducting field work in older cities across the United States, Brachman has worked internationally to identify best practices that lead to positive regeneration, including in Manchester, England; the Ruhr Valley, Berlin, and Leipzig in Germany; Barcelona, Spain; and Lisbon, Portugal. After practicing environmental law at Beveridge and Diamond, PC in Washington, DC, Brachman was a partner at a consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts advising Fortune 500 companies on brownfield property reuse and served in the Clinton Administration’s Department of Energy developing future land reuse policies for old nuclear facility sites. Before founding the Greater Ohio Policy Center, Brachman worked at the Delta Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit organization focused on sustainability issues in the Great Lakes states. She has also taught urban policy courses as an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Ohio State University. Brachman also serves on several community boards, including Columbus School for Girls, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and the Jewish Community Relations Committee. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Brachman holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, and received a law degree from The University of Chicago Law School and a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Session(s):

Creating State Policy Change to Support Blight-Fighting Innovation

Michael Braverman

With more than 25 years of experience as a prosecutor, as Director of Baltimore Housing's Code Enforcement Legal Section, and now as Deputy Commissioner for Housing, Michael Braverman has played a key role in crafting many of Baltimore's neighborhood revitalization strategies. As Deputy Commissioner, he has reengineered cleaning, boarding, and housing code enforcement operations, greatly reducing response times while increasing outputs. He currently oversees a strategic code enforcement initiative as part of Mayor Rawlings-Blake's Vacants to Value program, leading its innovative receivership and strategic demolition programs. Over the course of his career, Michael has been asked to share his expertise and passion for well-managed, data-driven government with a variety of cities and organizations, including the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Governors, the Center for Community Progress, and the Clinton Global Initiative. Michael has a J.D from the City University of New York and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University.

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement The Private Sector Perspective on Working in Transitional Markets

Brenda Breaux

Brenda M. Breaux is the Executive Director for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) where she is responsible for the day to day operations of the Agency. Brenda directly oversees the Land Stewardship, Real Estate Development, Disposition, Human Resources and Administrative functions. Previously, she served as Senior Chief Deputy City Attorney for the City of New Orleans where her duties included but were not limited to management of 37 staff attorneys and support staff with direct responsibilities for housing, development and finance matters, the Mayor's Blight Initiative, DCDBG and CDBG projects, liaison between City, State and Federal entities for downtown medical complex project and negotiations between the City and State regarding the former Road Home properties. Brenda has worked on large scale affordable housing and complex real estate development projects in New Orleans and Biloxi, MS, in addition to serving as Deputy Executive Director for the Housing Authority of New Orleans responsible for Development, Construction, Section 8, Procurement, Human Resources and Administrative Services and other executive level positions. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Spelman College, her Juris Doctor from Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law and has been practicing law for 19 years.

Session(s):

Creating State Policy Change to Support Blight-Fighting Innovation

Katy Brett

Katy Brett is the Executive Director of Renew Indianapolis, a landbank that exists to return vacant and abandoned property to productive use. To address the scale of vacant and abandoned properties in Indianapolis neighborhoods, Renew Indianapolis partners with Indianapolis’s Department of Metropolitan Development and the County Commissioners—agencies charged with the disposition of chronically vacant and abandoned properties—to make these properties available for redevelopment. Renew Indianapolis seeks to base its work on national and statewide best practices, utilizing land-banking as a tool for leveraging neighborhood assets, propelling the renewal of our city. Prior to her work with Renew Indianapolis, Brett served as the founding executive director a community development corporation, Indy-east Asset Development (now known as NEAR), serving Indianapolis’ Near Eastside. In this role, she oversaw the planning and development aspects of a large-scale urban neighborhood revitalization project as well overseeing the staff and operations of this growing community development corporation. During her four years at the organization, this work included the development of over 100 units of housing in the St. Clair Place neighborhood, including three multi-million dollar projects ranging from mixed-used, multi-family development to single family homes for sale. This work was recognized with the Monumental Award in 2011.

Session(s):

Making Room for Creativity: Building Community and Housing the Arts in Vacant Properties

Meredith Brickell

Meredith Brickell is an artist whose work is informed by particular sites, especially those that reflect the impermanent nature of places and the ways that these places are continuously shifting and being redefined. Brickell develops much this work through community-engaged projects, many close to her home in Indianapolis, and also exhibits nationally and internationally. Her interests in people and place led her to develop the House Life Project, an art-based initiative that facilitates collaborations between artists and local residents to enliven vacant properties in the Near Eastside of Indianapolis. Brickell has been an artist-in-residence at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, (Denmark), Watershed Center (Maine) and Threewalls (Chicago). In the last two years, Brickell was awarded an Indianapolis Arts Council Creative Renewal Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Foundation Fellowship and an Indiana Art Commission Grant in 2014. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a Bachelor of Art and Design from North Carolina State University and completed the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Crafts (NC). She is an Associate Professor of Art at DePauw University in Indiana.

Session(s):

Making Room for Creativity: Building Community and Housing the Arts in Vacant Properties

Ian Brown

Ian holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy and Affairs with a focus on environmental policy from the University at Albany: SUNY and a Bachelor's Degree in Conservation Science from Muskingum University. He has multiple years of experience working in the government and nonprofit sectors in land use planning, community development and environmental education in cities throughout the country. Ian brings experience managing youth based programs in the City of Pittsburgh and Raleigh, North Carolina. Ian is currently the Project Manager of the Green Playces initiative, a program linking vacant land in the city with youth based programming and environmental education, to build outdoor classrooms and educational environments in five communities of high vacancy throughout the region. Ian also sits on the Kingsley Association Environmental Justice Community Alert Matrix (EJCAM) initiative, Mount Lebanon's Environmental Sustainability Board and is on the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden's Environmental Committee.

Session(s):

Youth as a Catalyst for Broader and Deeper Community Engagement

Charles Brown

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Karla Bruce

Session(s):

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, Moving to Opportunity, and Neighborhood Revitalization: Synergies and Tensions

Charles Buki

Charles Buki has more than 20 years experience in the field of community development, from nonprofit housing development to policy work and served as project manager on recent comprehensive plans for Canton, Ohio and Erie, Pennsylvania. His work has focused on the intersection of housing affordability and neighborhood market strength and the challenge of addressing the housing needs of low income working households without weakening blocks and neighborhoods.

Session(s):

Boosting the Odds of Success: Matching Neighborhood Conditions to Problem Property Strategies Boosting the Odds of Success: Matching Neighborhood Conditions to Problem Property Strategies

Ellen Burke

Session(s):

The Private Sector Perspective on Working in Transitional Markets

Mark Cameron

Mark Cameron is the Watershed Liaison for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, where his responsibilities include planning, collaboration, and outreach to enable Baltimore to meet its MS4 water quality goals of reducing impervious surfaces, treating stormwater runoff, restoring streams, and greening neighborhoods. Previously, he was with the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Design Center, and Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at Morgan State University.  He is also a registered architect in the State of Maryland. He has a Bachelor?s Degree in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati and Master?s Degrees in both Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Session(s):

Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization

Sharon Canavan

Session(s):

Rebuilding Homeownership: Innovation in Financially Underserved Communities

Jeff Carroll

Jeff Carroll is a V.P. at Humanim and oversees Details Deconstruction, a social enterprise of Humanim. Details was designed to create sustainable employment for Baltimore's most difficult to employ.  Jeff led the start-up of the enterprise in 2012 and continues to lead the $3.5 million enterprise.  Details employs 55 people providing deconstruction in 8 states, and holds a contract with the City of Baltimore to deconstruct vacant row houses under Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's Vacant to Value initiative. Jeff has been successful leveraging his skills and background in commercial contracting and organizational development to grow small businesses and social enterprises in particular.  He is especially committed to job creation and economic development in the most challenged neighborhoods of Baltimore. He and his team were recently recognized as Maryland Innovators of the Year by the Maryland Daily Record for their Baltimore City business model.  Jeff lives in Baltimore with his wife Heather.  He holds an MBA,  M.Div. and is a LEED AP.

Session(s):

Breaking it Down: Demystifying Deconstruction

Maggie Cassidy

Maggie Cassidy is NHS Redevelopment Corporation's Program Coordinator for Vacant Building Strategy, responsible for the overseeing construction and compliance activity for the City of Chicago's Troubled Buildings Initiative (1-4 unit Receivership Program) and Micro Market Recovery Program. Maggie first joined NHS of Chicago as an Americorps VISTA in 2013. She holds a Master of Urban Planning and Policy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts from Marlboro College.

Session(s):

Go-Go Micro: Targeted Strategies that Have a Big Impact in Highly Distressed Neighborhoods

Sean Closkey

Session(s):

Community Investment in Community Change: Philanthropic, Faith-based, and Other Partnerships to Support Revitalization Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Abby Cocke

Abby Cocke joined the Baltimore Office of Sustainability in 2011. Prior to that, she got a BA in Environmental Studies with a Minor in Writing at UMBC, and worked for five years at the Parks & People Foundation, first as a Community Organizer, and then as the Manager of Community Greening Programs. Her current work focuses on urban agriculture, green school initiatives, and forest conservation. She is an Ednor Gardens resident, and grew up just outside the city in Baltimore County. Her hobbies include biking, growing things, and local theater.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Matt Cole

Matt Cole is a community development-oriented advocate, educator, planner, and builder.  For the past 10 years, Matt has managed the Chicago Greystone & Vintage Home Program, a preservation-based strategy of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago aimed at facilitating the rehab of older and historic homes in LMI neighborhoods.  Additionally, he provides technical guidance and support for returning vacant and abandoned homes to affordable re-occupancy for the City of Chicago's Micro Market Recovery Program and Trouble Building Initiative.  Matt has a Master in Urban and Environmental Planning degree from the University of Virginia and serves an advisor to the Preservation Rightsizing Network, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Landmarks Illinois.

Session(s):

Brick, Mortar, and More: Replicable Approaches to Rehab and Preservation for Neighborhood Transformations

Andrew Cook

Andrew Cook is an urban planner based in Baltimore City, MD. His work focuses on supporting small-scale manufacturing as a tool for sustainable redevelopment of American cities.  Cook has a background in fine arts and journalism, and came to urban planning through his work reporting on urban food systems in New Orleans, LA.  He holds an MA in City Planning from MIT and a BFA from Cooper Union.

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Erik Cribbs

Erik Cribbs is Senior Program Advisor in the Federal Housing Administration’s Office of Finance and Budget. As Senior Program Advisor, Erik is responsible for providing guidance and strategic direction for FHA’s Single Family Loan Sale Program, overseeing all aspects of the program from the acquisition and marketing of non-performing notes from Single Family servicers through the settlement and transfer of the loans to FHA’s buyers. A 15-year veteran of the housing finance industry, Mr. Cribbs began his career with Ernst and Young, after which he held various management positions in the home building sector, including serving as Managing Director at Emax Financial and Real Estate Advisory Services. Mr. Cribbs earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Maryland and a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Virginia.

Session(s):

Helping or Hindering Stabilization? Auctions of Non-Performing Loans

Martha Cross

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Kathleen Crowther

Kathleen H. Crowther has been Executive Director/President of the Cleveland Restoration Society since 1987. The Cleveland Restoration Society is a regional preservation organization that preserves Cleveland's heritage through loans, technical assistance, education and advocacy. During Ms. Crowther's tenure, the Society has grown and flourished. In 2013, the organization received the highest honor in its field from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Society is focused on aligning historic preservation with local economic development goals. Its Heritage Home Loan Program is a national model operating in over 40 communities. It has provided technical assistance to over 7,800 property owners with rehabilitation projects valued at $63 million and has financed and additional 1,200 projects through its loan program for $46 million. Ms. Crowther has served in leadership capacities at state and national levels, in particular with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is an appointed Advisor to the Trust from Ohio and was selected as the first local director to chair the Trust's Partners Program. Ms. Crowther is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an organization that advises UNESCO on world heritage, and serves on one of its committees. In addition to her work as President of the Cleveland Restoration Society, she is a Guest Lecturer at Cleveland State University, teaching the class "Contemporary Issues in Historic Preservation." Kathleen is a Clevelander, and grew up and was educated at Case Western Reserve University (BA cum laude, Art History & English) and Cleveland State University (MS, top honors, Urban Affairs). She has been an Arts Fellow at Stanford University and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome.

Session(s):

Brick, Mortar, and More: Replicable Approaches to Rehab and Preservation for Neighborhood Transformations

John Cullen

John is CEO of LockUpLead, the developer and manufacturer of patented LockUpLead™ products, which transform poisonous lead compounds on a molecular level to neutralize their toxic impact. This EPA-tested breakthrough is now commercially available and being used by families, contractors, and cities to more easily and effectively eliminate lead hazards while also saving up to 98% of the cost of outdated methods. John is an active civic volunteer, focused on building equitable prosperity through community building, environmental health, early childhood education, job training for young adults and those returning from incarceration, and healthy, affordable, and safe housing. Here is a 2-min video of pilot project with Louisville, KY Councilperson, Mayor, local nonprofit, and neighborhood interns addressing lead poisoning, blight, and vacant property hazards: https://youtu.be/7YWXHXN0jbQ

Session(s):

Knocking it Down, With Care: Strategies to Reduce Lead Hazards in Abandoned Property Demolitions

Patrick Dandridge

Patrick M. Dandridge is the City of Memphis’ Deputy Director of Public Works, Neighborhood Improvement Department. Prior to becoming the Deputy Director, Patrick was the Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Memphis. As an Assistant Attorney, he was assigned to the Division of Public Works which houses the City of Memphis Code Enforcement Department. He has advised the Division concerning Code Enforcement policies and practices, reviewed and modified the current City of Memphis Code of Ordinance, implemented many different policies and strategies to address the growing problem of blight in the City of Memphis, and has represented the City of Memphis in Court involving different cases from inverse condemnation proceedings to nuisance litigation. Patrick graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (Bachelor of Arts in Government) in 1987; Georgetown University Law Center (Juris Doctorate Degree) in 1991; and Christian Brothers University (Masters in Business Administration) in 2012. He is currently licensed to practice law in both the states of Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Patrick has been a City Attorney for the City of Memphis for over 15 years and has practiced law for almost 25 years. Patrick began his legal career at the Department of Education in Washington, DC in 1991. He became a City Attorney for the City of Memphis in 1996 and became involved with Code Enforcement and blight initiatives in 2007. He works as an Adjunct Professor on occasions, serves on several nonprofit organizations and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Patrick has been married for 22 years to his wife, Phyllis, and is the father of three beautiful children, Lauren, Alyssa and Patrick, Jr.

Session(s):

Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement

Clyde M. Davis-El, Jr.

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Julie Day

Julie Day is the Deputy Commissioner of Baltimore Housing for the Land Resources Division. She manages the staff responsible for acquisition, asset management, and disposition of city owned properties. She is a key member of the leadership team of Vacants to Value, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake's blight elimination initiative. Julie joined Baltimore Housing nearly twenty years ago as a staff attorney and served as Director of the Code Enforcement Legal Section for several years prior to her current assignment. She is a native Baltimorean, a member of the Maryland bar, and a lifelong Orioles fan.

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Jorrit de Jong

Jorrit de Jong is Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).  He is also Academic Director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research and teaching focus on the challenges of making the public sector more responsive and more resilient through innovation.

Session(s):

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Identifying, Analyzing, and Prioritizing At-Risk Properties through Silo-Busting Data Analytics

Aziz Dehkan

Session(s):

Growing, Green, and Equitable: Practices and Policies to Support Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture

Margaret Dewar

Margaret Dewar is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan.  Her research focuses on cities that have lost large amounts of population and employment and have experienced extensive property disinvestment.  She has published numerous articles on what neighborhoods in such cities become and how programs and policies affect such cities.  Her most recent book, co-edited with June Manning Thomas, is The City After Abandonment (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).  Dewar teaches courses where students work in Detroit or Flint to develop plans that advance community agendas.

Session(s):

Doing a Lot with Little: Community-Based Stabilization Efforts

Tim Dolan

Tim Dolan is the Program Manager at Hilltop Alliance. Hilltop Alliance is structured as a collaborative organization comprised of community-based organizations from eleven South Pittsburgh Hilltop neighborhoods, as well as Mount Oliver Borough. As an umbrella organization, the primary goal of Hilltop Alliance is to connect neighborhood-based organizations and leverage their individual efforts, creating a shared vision and voice for the Hilltop, thereby preserving and creating Hilltop assets. His main focus is to lead the Property Stabilization Program which works to address problematic properties through direct outreach to property owners to connect them to available resources and by convening monthly community-driven meetings. He also manages the organization's portfolio of vacant properties for implementing future real estate projects that align with community consensus. Tim graduated with a B.A. in Urban Studies and a B.A. in Germanic Languages & Literature from the University of Pittsburgh.

Session(s):

Hit the Ground Running: Mobilizing Actionable Vacant Land Toolkits

Don Donahue

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Charlie Duff

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Peter Duvall

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Sarah Edelman

Sarah Edelman is the Director of Housing Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP). Her work focuses on foreclosure prevention, single-family rental, and promoting access to affordable housing, and her publications are frequently cited both by leading media outlets and by other advocacy and community groups. Prior to CAP, Ms. Edelman worked in community development, community organizing, and consumer protection at Public Citizen, Community Legal Services, the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and the FDIC’s Division of Consumer Protection. Early in her career, Ms. Edelman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador and an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Philadelphia. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University.

Session(s):

Helping or Hindering Stabilization? Auctions of Non-Performing Loans

Dan Ellis

Dan Ellis began serving as Executive Director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore (NHS), a community based community development organization, in September 2011. Since arriving at NHS, Dan has refocused the organization through an extensive strategic planning process. Dan focused on external relationships and fundraising resulting in over $15,000,000 of revenue. Under his leadership, NHS received over $10,000,000 of new revenue from funding sources not previously supporting NHS. Dan provides strategic leadership to the work of NHS developing new programs in response to market needs. A rising industry leader, Dan has been a speaker and subject matter expert on urban housing issues across the country. Dan is recognized as one of the top executive directors among NeighborWorks America member organizations. Dan is a 2014 graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee LEADERship Program. Prior to joining NHS, Dan served as Director of Development for the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies (ICJS). Dan also served as Executive Director of Arundel Habitat for Humanity (AHH) from 2006-2009 where he oversaw a fifty percent growth in homebuilding production over a three year period. Prior to his work with AHH, Dan served as the first Executive Director of Pen Lucy Action Network (PLAN) working in the Pen Lucy neighborhood of north Baltimore from 2000-2006. During his tenure with PLAN, Dan oversaw the growth of the organization from start-up status into a robust organization working in partnership with community leaders. Dan holds a Master of Divinity degree from Alliance Theological Seminary and a Bachelor's degree in Religion and Education from Bucknell University. He has received numerous awards for his professional work.  Dan and his wife Sarah have two children.

Session(s):

Tackling Property Tax Lien Sales: Forming a Broad Coalition to Stabilize Communities and Preserve Homeownership

Ryan Flanigan

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Eli Flushman

Mr. Flushman is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law. At USF, he was the President of the Jewish Law Student Association and a member of the USF Trial Team. Mr. Flushman received his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, where he played a year on the baseball team. Prior to his employment with the City of Vallejo, he worked in the City Attorney's Office in Redwood City and in Berkeley, and as a Staff Attorney for the League of California Cities. Mr. Flushman joined the City Attorney's department as one of the initial two Neighborhood Law Attorneys working with community organizations, City staff, and elected officials to identify concerns that impact entire neighborhoods, prioritizing problems and devising creative solutions to neighborhood nuisances. Mr. Flushman was promoted to Deputy City Attorney in February 2015.

Session(s):

Takin’ [Lawyers] to the Streets: Community-Based Approaches to Nuisance Abatement

Frank Ford

Frank Ford chairs the Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council of Cuyahoga County. He is an attorney and former CDC director who was Senior Vice President for Research & Development at Cleveland's Neighborhood Progress, Inc. At the Thriving Communities Institute he follows the housing crisis in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County closely.

Session(s):

Beyond Property Surveys: Using Point-In-Time Surveys for Action and Research

Gus Frangos

Gus Frangos graduated with honors from Cleveland Marshall College of Law in 1982. He worked at the law firm of Ulmer and Berne after law school, then went on to serve as a Cleveland City Councilman and later as a Municipal Court Magistrate-Judge. He now also serves as President and General Counsel of the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation. Mr. Frangos was the primary drafter of Ohio’s House Bills 293, 294, S.B. 353 establishing enhanced county land banks and expedited tax foreclosure policy and the recently passed S.B. 172 expanding the reach of county land banks in the Community Development field. Mr. Frangos’ areas of concentration include Constitutional, real estate, transactional and administrative law.

Session(s):

Land Banks and Community Land Trusts: Natural Partners?

Andy Frank

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Carrie Fry

Session(s):

Knocking it Down, With Care: Strategies to Reduce Lead Hazards in Abandoned Property Demolitions

Marlee Gallagher

Marlee Gallagher's background is in nonprofit fundraising, marketing, and community development. She currently works at the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation (WCDC) in Wilkinsburg, PA. Last year, she organized the effort to lift the community's 80-year ban on liquor licenses, encouraging economic development in the borough's commercial core, and also helped bring the first-ever Vacant Home Tour to Wilkinsburg, raising awareness of community blight and connecting residents to tools to address vacant properties. An independent borough just east of the City of Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg is considered a distressed community with a total vacancy rate of 18 percent borough-wide and 40 percent in the borough's historic business district. Because of this, the Vacant Home Tour was and continues to be an important community event that sparks critical conversations around blight through storytelling, art, and action. Once one of southwestern PA's most affluent communities, Wilkinsburg has experienced a dramatic decline, but due to the tireless efforts of dedicated residents and community organizations like the WCDC, Wilkinsburg is in the midst of a comeback. As such, Marlee's primary role is promoting the community and the work of the WCDC, including engaging residents and business owners, organizing events, and branding and marketing the business district, in an effort to continue shifting the negative perception of Wilkinsburg. In addition to her work, Marlee serves on the board of Observatory Hill Inc. in Pittsburgh and co-manages her own nonprofit, Free Store Wilkinsburg, an alternative store that connects people in need to free goods and resources to create stability and self-reliance.

Session(s):

Communities as Change Agents: Taking an Assets-Based Approach to Vacant Properties through Social Innovations

Anita Gardner

Anita Gardner is a community leader, organizer and activist. She is the Executive Director of Concerned Citizens Community Council (Concerned Citizens) in Cleveland’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Ms. Gardner is a graduate of Jane Adams High School and a lifelong Cleveland resident. She worked as a heavy duty machinist and welder for TRW for 30 years. After retirement, her home went into foreclosure. She found strength in grassroots direct-action community organizing through Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP), under the direction of the late Inez Killingsworth. It was through community organizing that she saved her home and continued to grow as a leader. She later was named Treasurer of ESOP and began tackling issues in her community in 2009, forming the Concerned Citizens and building grassroots leadership in her neighborhood. Ms. Gardner’s efforts since then have been recognized on a local, statewide, and national basis. She has worked to combat predatory lending in poor and middle-income communities throughout the State of Ohio, and was a featured speaker at the 2015 National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) Conference in Washington D.C., one of the nation’s largest gatherings of community nonprofits, policymakers, government officials, small businesses, banks, and academia. Ms. Gardner was featured prominently in the Emmy-Award winning film, “Fleeced,” addressing the need to protect seniors from predatory lending and poor property conditions. Locally, Ms. Gardner she has been instrumental in forming lasting ties between community members and the City of Cleveland’s Fourth District Police, leading to raids and drug-busts in neighborhoods on the southeast-side. Through direct-action organizing, she has faced down owners of slum properties in her neighborhood during public meetings and direct-actions, leading to property clean-ups and the repair of derelict properties in her community. She also led her community in holding publically elected officials accountable to promises made regarding the demolition and clean-up of vacant and abandoned properties in Cleveland’s neighborhoods. Because of her organizing efforts, in her neighborhood alone, over 50 properties were demolished in her neighborhood and many more condemned by the City. Through the Concerned Citizens Community Council’s Court Watch, Ms. Gardner regularly offers testimony in Cleveland Housing Court regarding properties in her neighborhood that are before the Court. She brings a community perspective to the issues; she believes that the most important voice is that of residents in the communities still feeling the effects of the Housing Crisis. To maximize the impact of her testimony, Ms. Gardner has participated in Neighborhood Stabilization Team (NST) training at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, focusing on code enforcement partnership guidelines, entering and generating data from the web app, and using the online maps to prioritize inspections. Ms. Gardner also is an artist; she has aided in neighborhood street beautification through the creation of murals and artwork with Mt Pleasant neighborhood youth. She also teaches arts and crafts classes at Cleveland-area libraries in her spare time.

Session(s):

Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement

Amy Gilder-Busatti

Amy's primary areas of responsibility include overseeing the City's Critical Area Management Program and representing the Office of Sustainability on issues and initiatives related to water quality, greening, and urban design.  She has served as the project manager for the development of the City's new Landscape Manual and currently overseeing the update of the City's Critical Area Manual.  Before joining the Office of Sustainability, Amy worked as a landscape architect and land planner with several Baltimore area architecture and engineering firms.  Her landscape architecture and land planning experience includes site design and master planning for residential, mixed-use, and senior living development, educational campuses, and national parks.  She holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from Ball State University and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Morgan State University.  Amy is also a licensed landscape architect in the state of Maryland.

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

Ira Goldstein

Mr. Goldstein joined Reinvestment Fund in 1999 and as President of Policy Solutions leads all research on economic development issues related to Reinvestment Fund's organizational goals and mission. Prior to joining Reinvestment Fund, Mr. Goldstein served as the director of fair housing and equal opportunity for the Mid-Atlantic region at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also teaches a quantitative research methods course for the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the Research Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Lending and the Governor of Pennsylvania's Housing Advisory Committee. Mr. Goldstein also serves on the board of the HOPE LoanPort and completed a term on the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board. Recently, Mr. Goldstein was named to the National Leadership Cabinet of Neighborhood Centers, Inc. and the Advisory Panel for a forthcoming volume edited by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute. He holds a PhD, MA, and BA in sociology from Temple University.

Session(s):

Neighborhood Revitalization Impact of Scattered Site Rental Housing

Kim Graham

Session(s):

Image and Impact: The Role of Neighborhood Marketing in Community Stabilization

Kim Graziani

Kim Graziani serves as Vice President and Director of National Technical Assistance for the Center for Community Progress where she oversees, coordinates and helps deliver a diverse range of technical assistance and capacity building services to communities across the country. Prior to joining the Community Progress team, Kim served as the Director of Neighborhood Initiatives and Project Director of Operation Weed and Seed for the City of Pittsburgh. Focused on developing and implementing policy, programming and initiatives that bring about neighborhood revitalization, she targeted innovative strategies for the productive reuse of tax delinquent and abandoned properties. In addition to leading a citywide land banking initiative, Kim was instrumental in the creation of Green Up Pittsburgh, a blight reduction program that transformed hundreds of publicly-owned vacant lots into productive green spaces through community partnerships. Prior to her work with the City of Pittsburgh, Kim spent several years working for community development corporations, foundations and social service agencies in Pittsburgh, Atlanta and New York City. Kim received her Master's Degrees in Public Administration and Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh where she served as part-time faculty.

Session(s):

Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking Land Banks and Community Land Trusts: Natural Partners? Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking

Lois Greco

The Wells Fargo Regional Foundation & CDC concentrates its resources on the creation and implementation of resident-driven neighborhood plans, which focus on a neighborhood's physical and economic revitalization, improved access to quality and affordable housing, and the development of the neighborhood's leadership and civic involvement.  Since taking this position in 2001, Lois has managed the Foundation's portfolio of performance-based grants with an approximate award value of $80 million. Lois joined Wells Fargo & predecessors in 1994 and has served in various training and management roles in the commercial bank. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, she served as Goodwill Industry of Eastern North Carolina's first Director of Development. She began her career in banking in 1988 at Chemical Bank New York?s Not-For-Profit Group, a specialized commercial banking group.  Lois is on the Board of the Community Foundation of South Jersey, is on the Finance Committee of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers (CNJG), co-chairs CNJG's Place Based Funders Affinity Group, is a leader of the Haddonfield United Methodist Church Missions Team, and serves as a local coordinator of Wells Fargo's Reading First program.  Lois earned a BA with Highest Honors in economics from Rutgers College

Session(s):

Making Room for Creativity: Building Community and Housing the Arts in Vacant Properties

Keith Green

Keith Green is the Associate Director of Landscape Management, which includes the Philadelphia LandCare Program at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). PHS is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1827 that offers programs, activities, workshops, and publications for gardeners of all levels and interests. Mr. Green oversees all program development activities of the Philadelphia LandCare program, which includes the "clean and green" initiative and Community LandCare. Mr. Green manages the strategic planning process through which target neighborhoods are selected and determines the scale of the work to be performed in each area. This work includes determining site selection criteria, selecting sites, and overseeing site evaluations and audits. Additionally, Mr. Green serves as the main point of contact for all landscape contractors hire by the program and is responsible for increasing and diversifying the pool of qualified landscape contractors. In this role, Mr. Green maintains close communication with contractors, which includes advertising new contract work opportunities, updating all work standards, and monitoring contract compliance. The Philadelphia LandCare Program is recognized as a national model for reversing the ravages of blight in the core of many cities through its "clean and green" treatment of vacant land, which installs thousands of well-maintained park-like spaces. The LandCare program currently manages close to 12 million square feet of vacant land through its ?clean and green? program and Community LandCare partnership.

Session(s):

Lots of Opportunity: Incorporating a Reentry Initiative into the Philadelphia LandCare Program

Tamar Greenspan

In her role as Senior Manager for Community Stabilization at NeighborWorks America, Tamar Greenspan develops resources and implements programming to support the effectiveness of the NeighborWorks network and the community development industry.  Prior to joining NeighborWorks, Tamar served as the Director of Policy and Program Development at the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.  She has also worked for a range of housing organizations, doing everything from writing grants for several chapters of Habitat for Humanity to structuring preservation transactions for affordable housing non-profits in New York City.Tamar holds a Master's in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas and an undergraduate degree in Poverty Studies, a major she designed, from Wesleyan University.

Session(s):

Image and Impact: The Role of Neighborhood Marketing in Community Stabilization

Maggie Grieve

Since Success Measures joined NeighborWorks in 2004, Maggie has directed all aspects of overseeing and scaling the social enterprise. Her work with Success Measures began in 1998 at the McAuley Institute, where she co-directed creation and testing of new collective impact measures for the community development field and helped develop data system to streamline their use by nonprofits and funders. Prior to working on Success Measures, Maggie was the director of research and evaluation at McAuley and manager of Arlington Virginia’s Neighborhood Improvement Team. She has also provided a range of services to community-based organizations and others to design and implement innovative planning, evaluation, community revitalization and action research initiatives. Maggie holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota and studied urban planning at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania.

Session(s):

Making Room for Creativity: Building Community and Housing the Arts in Vacant Properties

Shelly Griswold

Shelly Griswold, AICP, is a private practice planner employed by Fehr Graham, an engineering and environmental firm with locations throughout Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Griswold's primary focus areas include brownfields assessment, remediation, and redevelopment; infrastructure planning and funding; and economic development.

Session(s):

Building Just Communities: Capacity Building Tools to Foster Equitable Development

John Groene

John Groene has served as NHS Neighborhood Director in West Humboldt Park since Fall 2010.  Mr. Groene joined NHS in 1997 and served as the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Director from 2000 to 2004.  He served in the Neighborhood Strategy and Planning Division of NHS from 2004 to 2010.  During this time he was heavily involved in forming NHS response to predatory lending by initiating a study of foreclosure trends in Back of the Yards, testifying on predatory lending before the state legislature, and assisting in the creation of the NHS foreclosure prevention counseling program and loan intervention strategy.  Mr. Groene returned to his neighborhood roots in West Humboldt Park in the fall of 2010, as the West Humboldt Neighborhood Director. Mr. Groene received his bachelors degree in economics and international studies from the University of Dayton. He also served in the United States Peace Corps in Paraguay and Uruguay.

Session(s):

Go-Go Micro: Targeted Strategies that Have a Big Impact in Highly Distressed Neighborhoods

Rob Grossinger

Rob Grossinger (Moderator) is the president of the National Community Stabilization Trust, a non-profit organization that aims to restore vacant and abandoned properties to productive use and protect neighborhoods from blight. Prior to NCST, Mr. Grossinger served as Vice President at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., focusing on community stabilization and the intersection of health care and housing, and before that, he served as Senior Vice President in the corporate social responsibility group at Bank of America, where he oversaw the bank's neighborhood stabilization efforts. He has also worked at LaSalle Bank in Chicago, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Mr. Grossinger began his career as a legal aid attorney representing low-income households, and he holds a law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.

Session(s):

Helping or Hindering Stabilization? Auctions of Non-Performing Loans

J. Morgan Grove

J. Morgan Grove is a social scientist and Team Leader for the USDA Forest Service's Baltimore Urban Field Station. Morgan has worked in Baltimore since 1989 (that's a long time ago), with the Forest Service since 1996, and has been a Co-Principal Investigator in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) since its beginning in 1997. In 2001, Morgan received the Chief's Early Career Scientist Award for his work in urban areas and interdisciplinary research. Morgan has been the lead for the Urban Tree Canopy Development team since 2006. Morgan is the lead author for The Baltimore School of Urban Ecology: Space, Scale, and Time for the Study of Cities.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Bradley Guy

Brad is an Assistant Professor in the Masters in Sustainable Design program, School of Architecture and Planning, The Catholic University of America (CUArch), Washington, DC. Brad is the past-Chair of the USGBC LEED Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group, and currently a member of the LEED Social Equity Pilot Credit Working Group. Brad recently organized the Reclaim + Remake International Symposium, April 2013, at CUArch, which hosted speakers from 23 universities and 8 countries on the themes of building materials reuse. Current teaching and research focus on sustainable materials through life cycle assessment, prefabrication and modular design, design to use reclaimed materials, and productivity studies for deconstruction training in Detroit, MI. Brad also teaches an annual course at the Yestermorrow Design / Build School on Design for Deconstruction and Reconstruction. He has received The Tides Foundation Environmental Leadership Program Fellowship and The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Research Fellowship and numerous grants from the US EPA, DoD, NSF and state and local governments and private foundations. Mr. Guy was a co-editor for the book Construction Ecology, and co-author of a book on building deconstruction titled, Unbuilding: Salvaging the Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses. Mr. Guy also wrote the on-line Design for Disassembly in the Built Environment? guide for King County, WA. Brad has a MS in Architectural Studies from the University of Florida, and a B.Arch. from the University of Arizona. He is an Associate of the American Institute of Architects and an USGBC LEED Accredited Professional BD+C.

Session(s):

Breaking it Down: Demystifying Deconstruction

Gregg Hagopian

Gregg Hagopian graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he was admitted to the Law Review and Order of the Coif.  After law school, he practiced at one of the nation's oldest and largest firms, Foley & Lardner, concentrating in real estate and corporate matters.  In 1994, he moved to the public sector, to the Milwaukee City Attorney's Office.  He received the Public Policy Forum's Normal Gill Award for individual excellence in local government for development of an efficient property-tax-collection alternative to foreclosure (in personam), for his work regarding detection and prevention of illegal property flipping and mortgage fraud, and for coming up with an idea that is now Wis. Stat. 75.106 - a tool that allows government to get tax-delinquent, brownfield property into the hands of those who will remediate and improve.  He also received innovation awards from the City of Milwaukee, and awards from the International Association of Assessing Officers and the Wisconsin Association of Assessing Officers for his published articles and reports, and for service.  In 2012 and in 2013, he completed executive education courses at the Harvard Kennedy School.  To those courses, he brought ideas focused on retooling blighted urban real estate, including new models for housing.  In 2014, Gregg attended an EB-5 financing program at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Community Progress Leadership Institute at the Harvard Law School.  Gregg has helped the City of Milwaukee develop a number of programs to move City-owned, property-tax-foreclosed, parcels back into productive reuse, and he is working on local, state, and federal efforts to combat zombie foreclosures, including at the administrative and legislative levels and in the courts.

Session(s):

The Accidental Landlord: Managing Occupied Tax-Foreclosed Properties and Creating Homeownership Opportunities

Glendean Hamilton

Glendean Hamilton is a first year Master in Public Policy Candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with an interest in holistic social policy and community development. Prior to HKS, Glendean was a Research Assistant at the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in Quincy, MA. At Nellie Mae, Glendean awarded grants to organizations to promote research-practice partnerships between research think thanks and school districts to evaluate the effectiveness of school reforms. She also taught 6th grade English in Lawrence, MA at Spark Academy before working at Nellie Mae.

Session(s):

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Identifying, Analyzing, and Prioritizing At-Risk Properties through Silo-Busting Data Analytics

Regina Hammond

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Matthew Hampel

Matt Hampel is a co-founder of LocalData, a company that helps people collect and manage local information. Matt He has worked with nonprofits, newspapers, universities, and other organizations to build tools for the public good. Before joining LocalData, he was a Fellow at Code for America working with the City of Detroit.

Session(s):

Communities as Change Agents: Taking an Assets-Based Approach to Vacant Properties through Social Innovations

Dale Hargrave

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Karim Harried

Karim Harried first became involved in real estate in the late 1990’s as a real estate investor, buying, rehabbing and selling properties. He eventually obtained his real estate license in 2000, and since then has built a lustrous career of assisting hundreds of Clients buy or sell homes. Karim possesses a wealth of experience and knowledge about real estate, and goes above and beyond the call of duty to deliver exceptional customer service to all of our Clients. He truly believes, that as a real estate professional, he is an advocate for our Clients, and works hard to ensure that their interests are protected during each transaction.

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination The Private Sector Perspective on Working in Transitional Markets

Pastor Elder CW Harris

Session(s):

Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood

Kadija Hart

Session(s):

Image and Impact: The Role of Neighborhood Marketing in Community Stabilization

Dr. Roger Hartley

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Margaret Henn

Session(s):

Tackling Property Tax Lien Sales: Forming a Broad Coalition to Stabilize Communities and Preserve Homeownership

Tom Hetrick

Tom Hetrick is the Neighborhood Planner for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). He collaborates with a team of professional staff to provide general planning services for the City of Youngstown, Ohio. The planning services include: resident engagement, development of neighborhood action plans, grant writing, and management of neighborhood action teams. Tom holds a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor's in Spanish Education from Youngstown State University. In addition to his work and studies in Ohio, he spent two years living in Asia followed by a year in Europe teaching ESL.

Session(s):

Go-Go Micro: Targeted Strategies that Have a Big Impact in Highly Distressed Neighborhoods

Nicole Heyman

Nicole is the Vice President and Director of Louisiana Initiatives at the Center for Community Progress. In her role she provides technical assistance to New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, as well as code enforcement technical assistance nationwide. Nicole previously worked as the Director of the New Orleans Vacant Property Initiative, launched by LISC in 2008 in response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In her role there, she helped the city of New Orleans with the reclamation, acquisition, disposition of its vacant properties. In 2008 she obtained her Master of Laws degree in environmental and energy law at Tulane University School of Law, where she studied legal issues related to vacant property reclamation in New Orleans. In addition to an LLM degree, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University and a Law degree from Loyola University School of Law where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review.

Session(s):

Encouraging Responsible Landlords: The Role of Rental Housing Regulation Encouraging Responsible Landlords: The Role of Rental Housing Regulation

Toni Hirst

Toni Hirst is the Chief Administrative Officer for New Opportunities, Inc. a non-profit community action agency/social service community based organization in Waterbury CT, with over 35 years of experience. Lead facilitator for the revitalization of 4 mill buildings listed on the National Registry for Historic Buildings containing typical inner city pollutants and radium. Oversaw the development of an inner city site requiring extensive soil removal, air sparging sytem, air quality and ground water monitoring. Experience in quilting together multiple funding sources, managing community expectations and requirements from funding sources, as well as the selection and coordination of LEPs, General Contractor/Construction Manager within a highly regulated local and State Government environment. MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy New York

Session(s):

Adapting Land Banks to Address Brownfields and Economic Development

Ellen Lurie Hoffman

Ellen Lurie Hoffman is the Federal Policy Director of the National Housing Trust (“the Trust”). The Trust is a national leader in “preserving and improving” affordable housing, focusing on ensuring that privately owned rental housing remains in our affordable housing stock and is sustainable over time. Ms. Lurie Hoffman is responsible for federal housing policy spanning the HUD Budget, fair housing, the Clean Power Plan, housing finance reform, and maintaining and improving the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. She represents the Trust before congressional staff, federal officials, and other housing advocates and stakeholders, and facilitates the National Preservation Working Group, a coalition of over 40 nonprofit organizations dedicated to the preservation of affordable rental housing. Prior to joining the Trust, Ms. Lurie Hoffman worked for the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) for nine years, where she analyzed and advocated for federal multifamily housing policy issues on behalf of the nation's state Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs). She holds a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Vassar College.

Session(s):

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, Moving to Opportunity, and Neighborhood Revitalization: Synergies and Tensions

Walker Holmes

Walker Holmes leads The Trust for Public Land's Parks for People program in Connecticut. She works with community members and leaders in Connecticut's largest cities to build and restore parks, aiming to achieve The Trust for Public Land's goal that every urban American live within a ten-minute walk of a high-quality park, playground, or natural open space. Walker has 15 years of experience in the field of urban revitalization as a non-profit professional, a board member, and an environmental consultant.

Session(s):

Youth as a Catalyst for Broader and Deeper Community Engagement

Janice Jacobs Hudson

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

Seema Iyer

Seema D. Iyer PhD is associate director and research assistant professor for the Jacob France Institute in the University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business. Dr. Iyer oversees the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance (BNIA), which has been dedicated to providing reliable, community-based indicators for Baltimore's neighborhoods since 2000. BNIA is part of the Urban Institute's national partnership of sites that provide longitudinal data on demographics, housing, crime, education and sustainability. Dr. Iyer is a recognized expert on strategic planning in community development; recent projects include the McElderry Park Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Plan, the Baltimore Regional Housing Plan for the Opportunity Collaborative, and strategic planning for the Grow Baltimore Initiative.

Session(s):

Data Alone Doesn’t Change Anything: Stories from Three Cities Working with Data to Eliminate Blight

Beth Jacob

Beth Jacob is a preservation architect who leads the firm's preservation design and planning projects, including feasibility studies, building assessments and documentation, and materials research. Prior to co-founding Clio Associates, Beth worked as a project manager in the Urban Design and Planning Studio at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in Chicago. She has also served as the project architect on several adaptive reuse, renovation, and restoration projects in Chicago and northern California. She possesses a Master of Architecture degree from University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Preservation Studies degree from the Tulane School of Architecture, where she is also an adjunct lecturer. Beth meets the Secretary of the Interior?s professional qualification standards in architecture and historic architecture.

Session(s):

New Orleans’ Past, Present, and Future: Building a Shared Community Narrative through Historic Preservation

Ellen Janes

Ellen Janes began her career in Baltimore at the Neighborhood Design Center, where she served as Executive Director from 1989 to 1995. During her tenure, she tripled the size of the organization and managed over a 100 projects a year – Projects that ranged from transforming vacant lots into new playgrounds, to creating community and commercial district master plans. She next served as the first Assistant Secretary for Neighborhood Revitalization in the history of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development under Governor Parris Glendenning. Under Janes’ leadership, a series of innovations in Maryland redevelopment was introduced, including the Neighborhood BusinessWorks loan program, the Community Investment Tax Credit and the Community Legacy grant program. In 2003, Ms Janes joined the legendary Senator Barbara Mikulski’s office, where she supervised a staff of 20 in 5 regional offices with responsibility for instate: project, legislative and constituent service and outreach activity. She did that until 2008, when she moved over to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Baltimore Branch. Among her achievements there were Redefining Rust Belt, a two-year series of video conference discussions involving community leaders from Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia that she conceived and directed; and the Maryland Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Roundtable – which she launched in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the National Opportunity Finance Network. Since the advent of the CDFI Roundtable, just over two years ago, CDFI lending and program activity in Baltimore has more than tripled. Ms. Janes outstanding work was recognized by 1,000 Friends of Maryland in 2014 when she was declared a Smart Growth Hero. Also in 2014, she was the recipient of the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission’s Leadership and Service Award for exemplary community development efforts. In 2009, she received the Citizens Planning and Housing Association’s prestigious Frances Morton Froelicher Civic Statesmanship Award.  

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Airic Jerrod

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Jeremiah Jones

Jeremiah Jones, 38, was born in Baltimore County. He lived all over the states after high school from Boulder CO to Brooklyn NY. He found his way back to Maryland in 2009 with his now wife and business partner Cecilia Grimm. They have a daughter who just turned 4, Adrienne aka Addy aka Pippi, and a dog named Freya. He began sewing and constructing around 1998. Shortly after beginning an apprenticeship, he developed a mindset that centered around the question ... “Why buy something if I can make it?” Hence, SewLab was born. Our vision for SewLab was to create a space that is simple, clean, healthy, centered around family values, and most importantly, a teaching environment. We have strategically and purposefully built a team of very talented individuals who also have independent ventures. We want SewLab to be a catalyst for for job creation, education, and creativity. We are a reminder of an industrial spirit that once was widespread throughout Baltimore. We are small, but our heart is huge and we will continue build onto our rich foundation and the international enthusiasm for quality goods Made in U.S.A.

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Kellie Jones

Session(s):

Encouraging Responsible Landlords: The Role of Rental Housing Regulation Encouraging Responsible Landlords: The Role of Rental Housing Regulation

Sache Jones

Saché is an organizer, farmer, chef and food systems advocate. A native of Baltimore, she is committed to creating an equitable and just food system that is integrated in the very fabric of area residents, community organizations, and businesses. Her interest in food has been a lifelong journey starting way before her on the backs of her family members who worked as sharecroppers and migrant workers in the rural south in the late 30s, 40s, and 50s. As a returning generation farmer and nurturer, Saché uses the ancestral knowledge of those before her in addition to research and current best practices to shape how she interacts with the land and the communities it helps to create. She was educated in the Baltimore public school system and traveled on to Spelman College where she pursued a degree in International Studies with a concentration in Sustainable Development and a minor in Spanish. In addition to formal education, she has learned extensively through doing. Saché has demonstrated a dedication to action based service through her involvement as Fundraising Chair with NLLC, founding member of the Baltimore City Youth Commission, 5th District Commissioner, role as Senior Youth Organizer with Baltimore Safe and Sound Campaign and many others. However, it was through travel to Nicaragua and other countries that brought new awareness to her desire for public service via conversations of the intersection of poverty, environment, justice, agriculture, government, race, climate instability and economics.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Andrew Kahrl

Andrew W. Kahrl is assistant professor of history and African-American Studies at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in real estate, taxation, and racial inequality in 20th century America. He has written extensively on the history of discriminatory property tax assessments and the impact of predatory tax lien investing in urban America. He is the author of The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South, which won the 2013 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award for best book in civil rights history from the Organization of American Historians, and is the past recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University.

Session(s):

Missed Opportunity: How the Sale of Tax Liens Contributes to Neighborhood Decline

Jelani Karamoko

Session(s):

Missed Opportunity: How the Sale of Tax Liens Contributes to Neighborhood Decline

Mary Keenan

Session(s):

Tackling Property Tax Lien Sales: Forming a Broad Coalition to Stabilize Communities and Preserve Homeownership

Pastor Calvin Keene

Session(s):

Community Investment in Community Change: Philanthropic, Faith-based, and Other Partnerships to Support Revitalization

Natallie Keiser

With 25 years of experience in housing and community development, Natallie Keiser leads the Foundation’s neighborhood transformation efforts in the Atlanta Civic Site. Before joining the Foundation, Keiser ran a community development consulting practice for strategic planning, project management, group facilitation, fundraising, interim leadership and board governance. She coordinated Atlanta’s NeighborhoodLIFT down-payment assistance program, helping 375 people become homeowners, and served as interim chief executive officer of the Center for Working Families Inc., guiding the organization through a transition. Keiser previously worked at a nonprofit community development corporation specializing in housing development, homebuyer and financial education and community building. She has also supervised microenterprise and workforce development projects for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and United Way of Metro Atlanta. Keiser has a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Session(s):

Community Investment in Community Change: Philanthropic, Faith-based, and Other Partnerships to Support Revitalization

Cliff Kellogg

Session(s):

Rebuilding Homeownership: Innovation in Financially Underserved Communities

Erin Kelly

Erin Kelly, ASLA, is the Innovative Landscapes Program Manager at Detroit Future City, where she has worked largely on the partnered implementation of green infrastructure and land stewardship initiatives in Detroit. Ever the matchmaker, she has previously staged demolition projects with geologists, brought the first dog park to Detroit, and through the Buzz, is currently working to pair Detroit based barbers and mowers to develop new mowing patterns for vacant lots. Erin lead the development of the Field Guide to Working With Lots (www.DFC-lots.com), and believes transforming space with materials is a privilege.

Session(s):

Hit the Ground Running: Mobilizing Actionable Vacant Land Toolkits Breaking it Down: Demystifying Deconstruction

Amy Keyes

Amy Keyes is the Government Liaison Officer for Suffolk County’s Department of Economic Development and Planning, where she oversees the Department’s Division of Community Development. Additionally, she is the Executive Director of the Suffolk County Landbank, a non-profit agency formed by the Suffolk County Legislature in 2013 to facilitate the return of environmentally distressed and underutilized properties within Suffolk County to productive uses consistent with the comprehensive plans of the jurisdictions in which they are located. In 2014, the Landbank expanded its mission to include the rehabilitation of zombie houses and has secured $1.9 million in grant funding from the Office of the Attorney to establish a pilot program for the purchase, rehabilitation and resale of blighted foreclosed residential properties. She previously served as a Legislative Analyst in Suffolk County Executive Bellone’s Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Chief of Staff for Suffolk County Legislator Robert Calarco, and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Town of Islip. Amy holds a B.A. in Political Science from Stony Brook University.

Session(s):

Adapting Land Banks to Address Brownfields and Economic Development

Larry Kilmer

As the manager of housing development and rehabilitation for the Milwaukee Dept. of City Development, Larry oversees staff and programs that assist Milwaukee property owners to make repairs and improvements to their homes.  His staff is responsible for the property repair component of the T3OP program.  Prior to joining the department, Larry directed housing rehabilitation activities for a local non-profit organization that assists low-income individuals to become home owners.

Session(s):

The Accidental Landlord: Managing Occupied Tax-Foreclosed Properties and Creating Homeownership Opportunities

Amber Knee

Amber Knee is a city planner and serves as the program manager for the Philadelphia LandCare program at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). The LandCare program stabilizes vacant land in underserved neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia and currently manages close to 12 million square feet of vacant land through its "clean and green" program and Community LandCare partnership. Prior to graduate school and joining PHS, Ms. Knee worked for the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School as a program coordinator. At the Center, she collaborated with academic researchers and community organizations on action research projects that helped build capacity and work towards systems-oriented change in the areas of education, criminal justice, and community development. During graduate school, Ms. Knee work for the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), an organization that acts as a steward for the Delaware River waterfront to provide a benefit to all of the citizens and visitors of Philadelphia. Ms. Knee is a graduate of the Master's of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Pennsylvania and has an M.S. in Landscape Design from Columbia University. Her graduate work focused primarily on vacant land reuse and increasing public health in urban areas through planning and design interventions.

Session(s):

Lots of Opportunity: Incorporating a Reentry Initiative into the Philadelphia LandCare Program

Nancy Kohn

Session(s):

Growing, Green, and Equitable: Practices and Policies to Support Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture

Demi Kolke

Demi Kolke is the Community Development Manager and NPP Manager for Operation Better Block, Inc. (OBB).  OBB serves the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood, one of the most blighted in the entire city.  Her primary job is to work towards neighborhood revitalization through resident engagement, homeowner stabilization, and vacant property remediation.  After developing and leading the effort to complete the first community-wide land use plan in decades, Demi is now overseeing the $2.7 million grant for implementation the resident-driven cluster plan for Homewood with a focus on identifying, securing, and coordinating development activities.  Recently, she co-authored a community development "how-to manual" that has created the foundation for OBB's data-driven services.  Demi graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from NDSU and a Master?s of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh.

Session(s):

Data Alone Doesn’t Change Anything: Stories from Three Cities Working with Data to Eliminate Blight

Matthew Kreis

Matt is based in Chicago, Illinois and serves as the Assistant General Counsel for National Initiatives at the Center for Community Progress, primarily working with the National Technical Assistance team. Prior to joining the Center for Community Progress in November 2015, Matt spent more than nine years as an attorney at the City of Chicago’s Department of Law. During his time at the City of Chicago, Matt focused on identifying, developing and implementing effective code enforcement tools to combat blight and problem properties.  For example, he facilitated the efforts of multiple City departments to create a mobile, electronic code enforcement tool, which enabled inspectors from the City’s Department of Streets and Sanitation to more quickly and efficiently identify blight and related health and safety violations.  Matt also worked with City and elected officials to craft and propose legislation designed to improve property conditions and efficiency throughout the City, routinely trained inspectors on the proper use of local law in enforcement efforts, and served as an advisor to the Commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation in various matters.  In addition, he was instrumental in the creation and supervision of an in-house group of attorneys and law clerks dedicated to the completion of tens of thousands of annual title reports used to support ownership and due process requirements for the majority of the City’s building and sanitation code enforcement.  Ultimately, it was Matt’s exposure to the neighbors and residents most affected by problem properties that led him to recognize how critical it is for communities to have access to the right tools and strong leaders required to revitalize neighborhoods impacted by vacancy, abandonment and blight. Before working at the City of Chicago, he was a law clerk for a mid-size Chicago-area firm that represented various municipal entities, including fire protection districts, villages and pension boards. Matt earned his J.D from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and his B.A. from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.  

Session(s):

Missed Opportunity: How the Sale of Tax Liens Contributes to Neighborhood Decline

Allison Krusky

Allison Krusky is from the Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Ms. Krusky managed four years of data collection in the city of Flint to capture indicators of blight and investment. Ms. Krusky conducts geographical spatial analyses regarding greening efforts and neighborhood outcomes such as crime and property conditions.

Session(s):

Engaging Community Partners in Reclaiming Vacant Properties to Support Measurable Public Health and Safety Improvements

Ken Larking

Kenneth “Ken” F. Larking, City Manager, received his B.A. and M.P.A. from Appalachian State University in 1995 and 1999, respectively. He worked as the Budget and Performance Manager for the City of Hickory, North Carolina, from April 1999 to January 2003 before serving as Town Manager of Yadkinville, North Carolina, from January 2003 to February 2010. He subsequently served as Assistant County Manager of Moore County, North Carolina, from February 2010 to March 2013. Mr. Larking was appointed Danville’s Deputy City Manager in March 2013, and served as Interim City Manager from December 1, 2015 until April 5, 2016, at which time he was appointed City Manager. Mr. Larking is an ICMA Credentialed Manager, a member of the Virginia Local Government Management Association (VLGMA), a VLGMA Program Committee Member, and Past President of the Appalachian State University Local Government Alumni Association.

Session(s):

Planning for Soft-Market Cities: Lessons from Erie and Danville

Katie Lautar

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Fred Lazarus

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Melissa Lee

Melissa S. Lee is the Senior Advisor for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA). In this capacity, Ms. Lee is responsible for funding and planning support to help revitalize commercial corridors throughout the City of New Orleans. As part of her responsibilities, Ms. Lee is managing NORA's first facade improvement and placemaking grant program stimulating investments opportunities to redevelop commercial spaces for active use, support small business retention and growth, and create walkable neighborhoods. Prior to joining NORA, Ms. Lee served at the Managing Director of the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant (CIBS), a Brooklyn based nonprofit member association of two dozen organizations dedicated to enhancing an sustainable community. Prior to joining CIBS, Ms. Lee worked at the New York City Mayor?s Office of Comprehensive Neighborhood Economic Development (CNED) where she lead an interagency initiative building capacity and community assets for the resident and business communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She has also worked at the Lower East Side Business Improvement District (LES BID) managing the Lower Manhattan Small Business and Workforce Retention Program aiding area small businesses in the September 11th recovery, and then as Director of Economic Development for Pratt Area Community Council overseeing local commercial revitalization strategies in Central Brooklyn. Ms. Lee received a B.S in International Relations from the University of Redlands and a M.P.A with a concentration in Urban Community and Economic Development from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.

Session(s):

New Orleans’ Past, Present, and Future: Building a Shared Community Narrative through Historic Preservation

Jim Levin

Session(s):

Neighborhood Revitalization Impact of Scattered Site Rental Housing

Fred Lewis

Fred Lewis founded The Dominion Group in the Fall of 2001.  Since entering Baltimore real estate, Fred has been one of the most active purchasers of distressed properties in Baltimore City and has overseen the renovation of hundreds of projects. Prior to The Dominion Group, Fred was a real estate investor in Washington, DC, working closely with local real estate developers on renovation projects. Prior to his full-time endeavors into real estate, Fred was the President of Logotel, Inc., a licensed clothing and design company. Fred graduated cum laude from the George Washington University with a B.S. in Business Finance. In the October 1993 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, Fred was named one of the top entrepreneurs under 30 for his accomplishments in the apparel industry.

Session(s):

The Private Sector Perspective on Working in Transitional Markets

Calvin Lewis

Calvin Lewis, Manager of the CivicWorks Community Lots team, has worked in nearly every aspect of the landscape industry, from nursery and field team management to residential and commercial design, installation, and maintenance of gardens, ponds and water features, lighting and hardscapes. He helped establish residential landscape divisions for Signature Landscapes and RAR Landscaping, was salesman/designer at Maxalea, was landscape manager at Simonds Nursery, and spent nearly 15 years as a successful independent landscape designer/contractor. In the past 10 years, his particular focus has been on collaborating with nonprofit partners to develop interactive landscapes for teaching. He brings decades of experience negotiating the needs of diverse stakeholders to the development of green spaces that enhance the lives of Baltimoreans and the health of our communities. Calvin studied landscape design at CCBC Dundalk and is a Certified Professional Horticulturalist. A lifelong Baltimore resident, Calvin lives and gardens in Govans.

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

An Lewis

An Lewis is a public administration professional with over 20 years of experience. Ms. Lewis currently serves as the Executive Director of Steel Rivers Council of Governments which represents 19 municipalities in Allegheny County’s Monongahela Valley. She has been a leader in the team to focus of blighted properties and to form a multi-municipal land bank in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She serves on several boards and committees devoted to community and neighborhood economic revitalization. In addition, Ms. Lewis is skilled in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She teaches various GIS and community development courses at several local universities.

Session(s):

Reliable, Recurring Funding for Land Banks: Successes to Date and Future Possibilities

Alexander Loveless

Session(s):

EB-5: An Innovative Financing Tool to Spur Foreign Direct Investment in Economically Distressed Communities

Alan Mallach

Alan Mallach is a senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress in Washington DC. A city planner, advocate and writer, he is nationally known for his work on housing, economic development, and urban revitalization, and has worked with local governments and community organizations across the country to develop creative policies and strategies to rebuild their cities and neighborhoods. A former director of housing & economic development in Trenton, New Jersey, he currently teaches in the graduate city planning program at Pratt Institute in New York City. He has spoken on housing and urban issues in the United States, Europe, Israel and Japan, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the 2010-2011 academic year.  His recent books include A Decent Home: Planning, Building and Preserving Affordable Housing and Bringing Buildings Back: From Vacant Properties to Community Assets, which has become a resource for thousands of planners, lawyers, public officials and community leaders dealing with problem property and revitalization issues. He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and holds a B.A. degree from Yale University.

Session(s):

Boosting the Odds of Success: Matching Neighborhood Conditions to Problem Property Strategies Boosting the Odds of Success: Matching Neighborhood Conditions to Problem Property Strategies

Sarah Malpass

Sarah Malpass is an associate planner at Skeo Solutions, where she provides collaborative planning and design services in the areas of area-wide brownfield revitalization, Superfund site reuse, and equitable development. She has a special interest in supporting under-resourced communities and environmental justice communities. Her work focuses on building local capacity for leading revitalization efforts, addressing long-standing divides around race, class and the environment, and designing equitable development solutions that provide a foundation for healthy, fulfilling and vibrant community life.

Session(s):

Building Just Communities: Capacity Building Tools to Foster Equitable Development

Thibault Manekin

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

David Mann

David Mann is the President of the Lucas County Land Bank, an innovative organization based in Toledo, Ohio whose twin goals are to strengthen neighborhoods and preserve property values in a challenged Midwestern legacy city. The Land Bank has made impressive strides in the 6 years since its creation, returning more than 3,000 vacant properties to productive use, including thousands of side lots, hundreds of renovated homes, and even a massive solar field providing clean power to the Toledo Zoo. In his role as President, David manages a staff of 10 accomplished professionals and an annual budget of more than $8 million. David has been actively involved in housing, redevelopment, public policy, and land banking issues for over a decade. A recipient of numerous awards including Toledo’s 20 Under 40, David also serves as an of counsel member of a local law firm and graduated from the University of Toledo College of Law, summa cum laude. He lives with his partner, Eugenio, in one of Toledo’s great neighborhoods, Library Village.

Session(s):

Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking

Todd Marcus

A native of New Jersey, Todd Marcus has lived in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester community since 1997 where he has focused on his community work and music. Marcus is currently the Executive Director of Intersection of Change (IOC), a nonprofit he helped build with C.W. and Amelia Harris. The organization's community development work is dedicated to providing programs that enrich the economic, social and spiritual lives of those dealing with poverty related issues in the Sandtown-Winchester and surrounding communities of west Baltimore. Work to date has resulted in significant neighborhood revitalization of the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue through the full renovation of six previously vacant and dilapidated buildings, transformation of 18 vacant lots into community green spaces and meditative gardens, and the creation of a dozen neighborhood murals. Programs at IOC include: Martha's Place, a recovery program for women overcoming drug addiction and homelessness that offers both six-month transitional and long-term independent housing phases. The program helps women achieve sobriety while maintaining a job and housing and serves approximately 50 women per year. Jubilee Arts: A comprehensive art program that offers alternatives to the dangers of drugs and violence in the community through art classes and projects that serve over 2,000 people annually. As a musician, Marcus is a bass clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He is one of the few jazz artists worldwide to focus exclusively on use of the bass clarinet as a solo instrument. He actively leads several ensembles including his Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra, Quartet, Trio, and Duo and performs both nationally and internationally. intersectionofchange.org & toddmarcusjazz.com

Session(s):

Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood

Walker Marsh

Walker Marsh, a Baltimore native, got his start in farming at Civic Works Real Food Farm as a production assistant and very quickly fell in love with farming. After being a production assistant he was able to become a off-site field manager at Real Food Farm's Aisquith Street lot. Once having gained more skills he felt the desire to start his own farm. Entering the City's 2014 Growing Green Design Competition he succeeded in being awarded $63,000 to start "Tha Flower Factory". Navigating the ins and outs of Baltimore City's permitting process took a full year, but now Tha Flower Factory is in its first growing season and will be blossoming soon!

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

Deborah McCollum-Gathing

Session(s):

The Accidental Landlord: Managing Occupied Tax-Foreclosed Properties and Creating Homeownership Opportunities

Kevin Meadocroft

Session(s):

Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site

Dekonti Mends-Cole

Dekonti Mends-Cole serves as the Director of Policy for the Center for Community Progress. Prior to joining Center for Community Progress in September 2015, Dekonti worked in Detroit as the Deputy Director of Dispositions for the Detroit Land Bank Authority overseeing disposition, property management and compliance programs. In addition, she served as a fellow with the White House Strong Cities, Strong Communities Initiative embedded in the City of Detroit’s Law Department. Dekonti brings international experience and best practice having previously worked on local economic development projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa including infrastructure investment strategies in Iraq and Zambia for the United Nations and community development projects tied to the 2012 London Olympics. She holds an MSc from London School of Economics in Urban Regeneration and Affordable Housing, a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law Center, and a BA from University of Miami in International Studies and Economics.

Session(s):

EB-5: An Innovative Financing Tool to Spur Foreign Direct Investment in Economically Distressed Communities

LeVar Michael

LeVar Michael is a Program Officer with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nationwide community development finance institution. Mr. Michael works in the community safety division of LISC where he assists in providing technical assistance and training to over 60 Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) sites across the country.

Session(s):

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: More Than Just Locks and Lights

Jennifer Mielke

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Vernice Miller-Travis

Vernice Miller-Travis is a senior associate at Skeo Solutions and a leading practitioner in the fields of environmental justice and equitable development. She has served as lead facilitator for integrated planning and equitable development projects for dozens of distressed and environmentally overburdened communities across the country. She is also a lead trainer for organizations and community groups wishing to build capacity around cross-cultural conflict mediation and consensus building. Vernice is sought after for her expertise in community revitalization, collaborative problem solving, multi stakeholder design and environmental justice. She also serves on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to U.S. EPA.

Session(s):

Building Just Communities: Capacity Building Tools to Foster Equitable Development Youth as a Catalyst for Broader and Deeper Community Engagement

Maureen Milligan

Maureen joined the Dallas City Attorney’s Office in 2007 and currently serves as the Chief of the Community Prosecution and Community Courts Section and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. Previously, she served as the Deputy Chief of the section and as the Jubilee Park Community Prosecutor. Maureen received her law degree from American University, her master’s degree in education from the University of Virginia and her undergraduate degree from Duke University. Prior to joining the City Attorney's Office, she worked as a federal law clerk and as a public school teacher through the Teach for America program. Maureen is a member of the North Texas Crime Commission, the Dallas Rotary Club and the Junior League of Dallas. She is a graduate of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Leadership Program, the T. Boone Pickens Leadership Institute and the Caruth Police Institute’s Executive Leadership Series.    

Session(s):

Market-Informed Decision-Making for Strategic Code Enforcement Success Market-Informed Decision-Making for Strategic Code Enforcement Success

Mike Molla

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Liz Monk

Liz Monk is a research specialist for University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research where she manages the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Profiles - a neighborhood indicators project. She recently graduated from University of Pittsburgh with a Professional Science Master's degree in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing.  Prior to her work at Pitt, she worked as a GIS analyst for Purple Land Management and interned at Fracktracker Alliance.  Liz also served as an environmental volunteer for the United States Peace Corps in Romania.

Session(s):

Data Alone Doesn’t Change Anything: Stories from Three Cities Working with Data to Eliminate Blight

Breanna Morrison Hawkins

Session(s):

Growing, Green, and Equitable: Practices and Policies to Support Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture

Patrick Morrissy

Pat Morrissy is the founder and Executive Director of HANDS, Inc., a neighborhood-change nonprofit working in Orange and East Orange, NJ. HANDS' real estate strategy revolves around high-impact development for long-term sustainable neighborhood change. The strategy is built around clearing title to and redeveloping pivotal eyesore properties that are eroding the quality of neighborhood life. HANDS has redeveloped 106 problem properties in Orange and East Orange and purchased defaulted mortgages on 47 vacant properties from one Lender and is clearing title and redeveloping them as affordable homeownership along with four CDCs. In Orange HANDS has led a comprehensive planning process for two neighborhoods and is creating an Arts District in a former industrial area called the Valley. Morrissy is a founder of Shelterforce magazine and the National Housing Institute and was a Member of the NJ State Planning Commission. He is the national Chair of the Community Stabilization Committee for NeighborWorks America.

Session(s):

Making Room for Creativity: Building Community and Housing the Arts in Vacant Properties

Liz Murphy

Liz Murphy is the Director of Housing and Development in the City of Fitchburg. Fitchburg was one of the the inaugural cities to address problematic properties with the Innovation Field Lab.

Session(s):

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Identifying, Analyzing, and Prioritizing At-Risk Properties through Silo-Busting Data Analytics

Joe Napier

Joseph Napier is the Neighborhood Canvasser assisting with the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Project on the South Side of Youngstown. He assists with property research and analysis of crime data, as well as door to door canvassing, and community outreach efforts. Joseph is also a Youngstown native who recently graduated with a Bachelors in Criminology from Kent State University. Joseph believes that community engagement and collaboration is the key to problem solving neighborhood issues.

Session(s):

Doing a Lot with Little: Community-Based Stabilization Efforts Go-Go Micro: Targeted Strategies that Have a Big Impact in Highly Distressed Neighborhoods

Chelsea Neblett

Chelsea Neblett is the Program Manager for Sustainable Communities at Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation (GRDC). Chelsea fell in love with community development by way of Chicago. Inspired by the work of community organizers in the Cabrini Green Housing Project, Chelsea quickly became passionate about neighborhood quality of life issues and equitable approaches to neighborhood stabilization. Chelsea earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from Michigan State University with a concentration in “economics” and her master’s degree in Urban Planning from Wayne State University with a concentration in “community development.” Chelsea joined Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation (GRDC) in 2013 and spends her days working toward a safer, more vibrant Grandmont Rosedale, specifically overseeing several community-based programs such as the Vacant Property Task Force, Community Security Program and the Northwest Detroit Farmers’ Market. In her free time, Chelsea co-founded Lots of Love, a mobile tool lending library, on the weekends she is usually volunteering on her neighborhood association board of directors, or mowing vacant lots in her neighborhood.

Session(s):

Doing a Lot with Little: Community-Based Stabilization Efforts Hit the Ground Running: Mobilizing Actionable Vacant Land Toolkits

Chris Norman

Mr. Norman, Executive Director of the Fulton County/City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority, Inc. (“LBA”), has served in various leadership roles with the LBA over the past ten years, including Chair and Vice-Chair. He has been instrumental in leading the restructuring of the LBA, expanding its programmatic initiatives and significantly increasing its funding. Prior to being retained as Executive Director in August 2010, Mr. Norman served as the co-founder and Managing Partner of Dunwoody Asset Management, LLC, which is a boutique investment banking firm. Mr. Norman has over seventeen years of experience in the financial sector having provided capital raising and corporate finance advisory services to private and public companies during his corporate/investment banking career. Mr. Norman also serves as the President of the Georgia Association of Land Bank Authorities (GALBA). Under Mr. Norman’s leadership, GALBA was instrumental in facilitating the passage of the Georgia Land Bank Act by the Georgia Legislature in 2012. Additionally, Mr. Norman currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative that is pursuing the implementation of the community land trust model in Atlanta. An Atlanta native, Mr. Norman holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from Emory University and a Masters of Management in Finance, Management & Strategy, Operations and Decision Sciences from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He also completed the NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence program in conjunction with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Norman sits on various boards and is also actively involved in various civic and professional organizations.

Session(s):

Missed Opportunity: How the Sale of Tax Liens Contributes to Neighborhood Decline

Victoria Olivier

Victoria Olivier is Deputy Director for Neighborhoods for the Detroit Future City (DFC) Implementation Office, working on neighborhood and capacity building initiatives with a focus on vacant land reuse, community planning, arts and culture, and building renovation and reuse. Victoria was selected as a 2013-2015 Detroit Revitalization Fellow at Detroit Future City where she helped connect neighborhood leaders and residents to the Strategic Framework through information and resources, and through specific projects like Blight Bootcamp, Ideas for Innovation and New Urban Places. Prior to moving to Detroit, Victoria lived in New Orleans for eight years where she worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Louisiana Recovery Office as a historic preservation specialist and the project manager for the implementation of the $1.8 billion FEMA funded master plan for the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District. Victoria has a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of New Orleans and a bachelor's degree in urban and environmental planning and American studies at the University of Virginia. Victoria is also a certified urban planner and a member of the City of Detroit?s Historic Designation Advisory Board.

Session(s):

Communities as Change Agents: Taking an Assets-Based Approach to Vacant Properties through Social Innovations New Orleans’ Past, Present, and Future: Building a Shared Community Narrative through Historic Preservation Hit the Ground Running: Mobilizing Actionable Vacant Land Toolkits

Carol Ott

Carol Ott is the director of Housing Policy Watch, a nonpartisan housing advocacy and research organization in Baltimore City, and the founder of the successful Baltimore Slumlord Watch project, an online effort to hold property owners accountable for the damaged caused to communities by their neglect.

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Krysta Pate

Krysta Pate holds bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University in Public Administration and has over 15 years of experience in the banking industry including community development, commercial and retail lending. She is a life-long Detroiter and local real estate market expert. Krysta began her finance career at Michigan National Bank and then moved on to manage NSP programs for 17 municipalities. She has served as the senior advisor on mortgage regulatory matters to the Detroit Land Bank Authority and played a key role in the development of their core disposition programs. In her role as Program Director with Community Reinvestment Fund USA, Krysta leads efforts in utilizing the innovative DHM program to help solve the appraisal gap and normalize Detroit’s homebuyer ecosystem.

Session(s):

Rebuilding Homeownership: Innovation in Financially Underserved Communities

Evans Paull

Evans Paull is Principal at the consulting business, Redevelopment Economics, which offers services to businesses and state/local governments in the areas of brownfields and sustainable urban redevelopment. Redevelopment Economics has current or recent involvement in: the development of brownfields plans and strategies for state and local governments; economic and fiscal impacts of redevelopment investments; tax increment financing feasibility analysis; development of green job strategies; analysis of redevelopment incentives; and quantification of the climate change benefits of smart growth redevelopment projects. Evans has also served as the Executive Director of the Smart Growth America/National Brownfields Coalition, a 150-member body that promotes brownfields redevelopment through federal policy and advocacy work. In other prior positions Mr. Paull served as a Senior Policy Analyst for Northeast-Midwest Institute, and the Director of Policy Analysis and the Brownfields Initiative for Baltimore Development Corporation. Mr. Paull has received the National Phoenix Award (for brownfield redevelopment), the (Maryland) Governor's Smart Growth Award, and the Professional Achievement in Economic Development Award (from the American Planning Association's Maryland Chapter). Paull received his Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster and a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Illinois.

Session(s):

Adapting Land Banks to Address Brownfields and Economic Development

Raymond L. Pianka

A lifelong resident of the City of Cleveland, Judge Pianka was educated in the Cleveland public school system and received his Bachelors degree in Political Science from Cleveland State University. He earned his Juris Doctor from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Pianka was the first Director of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, a position he held for ten years. He also was a founding member of Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition and President of that organization for two years. He served as councilman of Cleveland's Ward 17 for ten years. Judge Pianka began serving as the City's Housing Court Judge in 1996. Since that time, Judge Pianka has instituted several innovative programs, including a Selective Intervention Program for first time offenders in the Housing Court, a Warrant-Capias Program to eliminate an inherited backlog of outstanding warrants and capiases, and a Placarding Program designed to provide information to neighborhood residents regarding the legal status of vacant and abandoned property. In addition to these programs, the Judge has instituted the Corporation Docket, for criminal cases where business entities fail to appear. Judge Pianka has developed several public education forums. The Court, in partnership with the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association, sponsors a series of seminars designed to educate landlords about their rights and responsibilities. The Court sponsors a quarterly Neighborhood Advocates Forum, in addition to publishing a series of newsletters and "How To" videos designed to educate the public on topics concerning home maintenance, the law and the Housing Court.

Session(s):

Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement

Linda Pompa

Session(s):

New Orleans’ Past, Present, and Future: Building a Shared Community Narrative through Historic Preservation

Mike Posko

As Chief Executive Officer at Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, Mike Posko values and rewards creative thinking, initiative, teamwork, commitment and performance. He draws on his training as executive coach and certified mediator to gain consensus and build motivation. Driven by challenge and undaunted by obstacles, Mike has been enthusiastically received by staff and community alike since joining the Baltimore-based Habitat affiliate in February 2012. Mike’s career encompasses over thirty years of supervisory and management experience. His background is diverse as he has worked in government, public and private sectors and industries of security and defense, finance, retail, real estate development and construction. Most recently, he was a principle of commercial real estate firm, Cross Street Partners, LLC, based in Baltimore. With a passion for serving both the local and global community, Mike has served on several boards of directors over the last several years, including CASA of Baltimore (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children), St. Frances Academy and Civic Works. He has served on the committees for BOOST (Baltimore Out Of School Time) and Maryland Sister State Committee for Liberia. In 2008, Mike facilitated a trip to Liberia as a representative of the Maryland Sister State Committee for Liberia. He enlisted Engineers Without Borders to perform and infrastructure study in the devastated Liberian counties of Bong and Maryland. In November 2011, Mike was traveling to Nepal to participate in a Habitat International Global Village trip when he received a request from the Baltimore affiliate’s board chair to interview for the CEO position at Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake. The rest, as they say, is history….and a new beginning. Mike holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and is a graduate of Maryland Banking School, Greater Baltimore Leadership 2004 and Maryland Leadership 2006. He received his certification from Baltimore Mediation as a certified mediator.

Session(s):

Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood

Anthony Pressley

Session(s):

Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization

Ilana Preuss

Ilana Preuss is the Founder of Recast City LLC, a consulting firm that works?with real estate developers, city and other civic leaders to integrate manufacturing space for small-scale producers into redevelopment projects and place-based economic development. She is passionate about making great places and sees that small-scale manufacturers are a missing piece in today?s mixed-use development and commercial property repositioning. With nearly 20 years of experience in city development, Ms. Preuss works with real estate developers and other local leaders to go from idea to plan to action to build great places. Most recently, Ilana served as Vice President and Chief of Staff at Smart Growth America. Ms. Preuss brings a wealth of experience with federal, state and local real estate policy, creating national networks, and engaging local elected, business and other community leaders to bring projects to life. Through her work at Recast City, Ms. Preuss works with business leaders to understand the local small-scale manufacturing sector, discover the potential for expansive growth, and tap state and federal resources to support this sector. She works with real estate developers to integrate small-scale manufacturing businesses into new and rehab products to increase a project?s value and draw people to the target neighborhood.

Session(s):

Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy Maker Magnets: Transforming Industrial Vacancy to Support the Growing Maker Economy

Natalie Pruett

Ms. Pruett's work centers on urban revitalization, focusing on vacant property maintenance and reuse, tax foreclosure policy, land banking, and neighborhood stabilization. Ms. Pruett guided Clean & Green management for five years.

Session(s):

Engaging Community Partners in Reclaiming Vacant Properties to Support Measurable Public Health and Safety Improvements

Eve Pytel

Eve manages Delta’s programs focusing on sustainability, new markets and waste material. Before joining Delta, she served the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus in Chicago as the director of environmental initiatives and led the Clean Air Counts Program. Pytel has won numerous awards and published nearly a dozen papers, including several regarding the devastating effects of emerald ash borer. She earned a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and received a B.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Hailing from Boston, Eve arrived to Chicago in 1999 attracted by great culture, the lake, and food. She truly believes it is cooler by the lake.

Session(s):

Breaking it Down: Demystifying Deconstruction

Denise Richards

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

Francisca Richter

Francisca Garca-Cobin Richter is a Research Assistant Professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. A native of Peru, she earned an undergraduate degree in statistics from the Universidad Catlica del Per (1994). Her M.S. in statistics (1997) and Ph.D. in agricultural economics (2000) are both from Oklahoma State University. Prior to coming to CWRU, she was a Research Economist in Community Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She is currently affiliated with the Bank in the same role, on a project-basis. Dr. Richter's research focuses on the analysis of social interventions and the environments in which they operate. Her recent work is centered on low-income housing programs, mobility in low-income neighborhoods, and neighborhood effects. Her current projects include (1) an evaluation of the effects of social services and neighborhood context on child maltreatment rates, (2) an analysis of housing quality and instability experienced at an early age, and its relationship to school readiness, (3) the evaluation of a social investment experiment that aims to improve outcomes for families in the foster care system. Dr. Richter is also associate director of the Math Corps at Cleveland State University, a branch of Wayne State University's highly successful program for middle and high-school students, providing academic enrichment and mentorship in a community-oriented setting.

Session(s):

Beyond Property Surveys: Using Point-In-Time Surveys for Action and Research

Shana Roth-Gormley

Shana joined Community Law Center as a Legal Fellow in 2014. Now the Pro Bono Coordinator, she manages Community Law Center’s Pro Bono Program, leading workshops on nonprofit startup and connecting nonprofit organization clients with volunteer attorneys across Maryland. She is also involved with Community Law Center's efforts around vacant, nuisance properties. These efforts include representation of six community associations in litigation against the owners of vacant, nuisance properties that were acquired through tax sale; the development of a data and mapping tool to increase community access to information about properties in Baltimore City; organizing to create a Baltimore City-wide alliance of communities to address vacant properties and the harms they cause to neighborhoods; and advocacy to address vacant properties and increase access to data as part of the Tax Sale Workgroup. She advocates for increased transparency of limited liability companies, and represents nonprofit clients on legal matters including nonprofit organizational startup and compliance.

Session(s):

Community-Led Code Enforcement: Mobilizing Neighborhoods to Utilize Cutting-Edge Legal Tools to Transform Vacant Properties Community-Led Code Enforcement: Mobilizing Neighborhoods to Utilize Cutting-Edge Legal Tools to Transform Vacant Properties

Chris Ryer

Chris Ryer has spent over 25 years in community development and planning in the Baltimore area. Over half of that time has been spent at the Planning Department of the City of Baltimore, while much of the rest of his career has been spent in community-based organizations in the Baltimore area. Originally a community planner for the City of Baltimore, he rose to Chief of Comprehensive Planning and Deputy Director of the Department, with responsibility for the day to day operations of the Department as well as directly supervising its environmental, community and capital planning sections. Mr. Ryer has also worked for the Trust For Public Lands and the Maryland Main Street program, the latter providing him with a state-wide perspective. Along with five years with a community-based organization in the Baltimore Empowerment Zone, Mr. Ryer has been the President and CEO of the Southeast Community Development Corporation, one of the oldest and most successful CDC?s in the Baltimore area, since 2007. The Southeast CDC is located in Highlandtown, a traditional immigrant community near Johns Hopkins Hospital in Southeast Baltimore. The Southeast CDC, originally created by SECO, the Southeast Community Organization, a group that includes Senator Barbara Mikulski as one of its founders, has been developing affordable housing and providing commercial and community revitalization services since 1975. Its Board of Directors is chaired by lifelong resident and retired State Delegate Carolyn Krysiak.

Session(s):

Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site Vacant Lots, Placemaking, Community Building, and Youth Engagement— Transforming an Abandoned Industrial Site

David Sann

David Sann has been employed by St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, a Baltimore-based housing non-profit, since May 1995. Originally hired as a Development Officer, Mr. Sann currently serves as Director of Housing Development. Through years of hands-on experience, Mr. Sann has developed a broad knowledge in housing development and management. In addition to his duties managing housing development for St. Ambrose, Mr. Sann is the Real Estate Broker for Charm City Realty, St. Ambrose’s in-house real estate sales firm. Since October 2000, St. Ambrose has concentrated its neighborhood revitalization and housing development work primarily in Baltimore’s outer-city neighborhoods. During this period, St. Ambrose has developed 538 houses: 508 homes for high-quality, affordable homeownership and 30 homes for low-income rental opportunities. Furthermore, St. Ambrose has partnered with NeighborWorks and Belair-Edison Neighborhoods Inc. to effect positive change in the community through strategic home renovation/resale, main street improvements, civic art, resident leadership development and marketing. In addition to his work at St. Ambrose, Mr. Sann has served on the Board of Directors of non-profit Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. since 1992, including eight years as Board President. Mr. Sann is also active in his own community association, planning numerous community events and serving as president for six years. Mr. Sann received his BS from Towson State University in 1991, and has completed the coursework toward a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from Morgan State University.

Session(s):

Image and Impact: The Role of Neighborhood Marketing in Community Stabilization

Robert Saxon, Jr.

Mr. Saxon has over twenty-three (23) years of professional experience with fifteen (15) as a licensed Architect. For the last 2-1/2 years, he has served as the Detroit Land Bank Authority's Chief Architect. His professional experience includes 13 years as a Senior Project Architect with Hamilton Anderson Associates, 1-1/2 years as a Senior Project Architect with the Ann Arbor Architects Collaborative (A3C) and 5 years as an Intern Architect with Saxon/Capers Architects. His professional career includes active involvement in all phases of the construction process: design, project and team management, assembling construction documents, material specification and construction administration. He has extensive experience working with community and governmental organizations. His interests are specifically focused on the promotion of sustainable, healthy and energy-efficient construction. In 2007, he created and began teaching an after-school program introducing high school students to the profession of architecture. The program is currently being taught in partnership with the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP), Lawrence Technological University and the Detroit Climate Action Collaborative. Mr. Saxon is licensed in the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, is NCARB Certified and is a LEED Accredited Professional with a specialty in Building Design and Construction. He's earned Master degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Engineering from Princeton University.

Session(s):

Brick, Mortar, and More: Replicable Approaches to Rehab and Preservation for Neighborhood Transformations

Joseph Schilling

Professor Schilling leads the Institute's Sustainable Communities and Urban Regeneration Initiatives that explore the intersection of policy, planning and collaboration. When it comes to the study of sustainability and urban regeneration Schilling leverages his national and international networks of practitioners and policymakers to serve as a living laboratory for research, technical assistance, and studios by extracting and disseminating model programs and practices through case studies, roundtables and planning studios. Schilling is an accomplished public policy facilitator having led dozens of research, policy, and community forums. Since joining Virginia Tech in the fall of 2004, Schilling has generated over $1 million in sponsored research grants and contract work and provided dozens of community and non-profit organizations, government and business leaders with strategic policy guidance and programmatic assessments.

Session(s):

Fueling Change through Proactive, Neighborhood-Driven Code Enforcement

Michael Schramm

Michael Schramm is the Director of Information Technology and Research at the Cuyahoga Land Bank as well as a Research Associate at the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development in the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. At the Cuyahoga County Lank Bank, Michael is currently developing information tools to help the corporation use data to make strategic acquisition decisions as well as track property status from acquisition to demolition to disposition. Recognized as a national expert in property data systems, Michael is also extensively involved in the development and maintenance of the neighborhood information system, NEOCANDO (Northeast Ohio Community and Neighborhood Data for Organizing). Michael has B.S. degrees in Geography and Meteorology from Penn State University and a M.A. in Geography from Syracuse University.

Session(s):

Beyond Property Surveys: Using Point-In-Time Surveys for Action and Research

Neb Sertsu

Session(s):

Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore Planning, Strategizing, and Implementing Among Anchor Institutions and Stakeholders in Central Baltimore

Laura Settlemyer

Laura serves as Assistant General Counsel for Michigan Initiatives for the Center for Community Progress. Laura moved to Michigan and began her work with the Center for Community Progress in January 2015. Before moving and working in Michigan, Laura lived in New Orleans where she worked in the City Attorney’s Office and the City’s Code Enforcement & Hearings Bureau, handling all lien foreclosures and overseeing and managing the City’s strategy with respect to blighted commercial properties. During her time with the City Attorney’s Office, Laura served as counsel to the Director of the Code Enforcement & Hearings Bureau, the Director of Housing Policy and Community Development, and the Director of the Capital Projects Administration. Laura also spent three years practicing with a large New Orleans law firm, working on a range of commercial litigation matters, including federal government contracts, title-insurance defense, and commercial foreclosures. Laura first became engaged in vacant properties issues when she traveled to New Orleans in January 2006 as a first-year law student to volunteer as part of the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Laura earned her J.D. from Emory University School of Law and her A.B. in Economics from Harvard University.

Session(s):

Creating State Policy Change to Support Blight-Fighting Innovation

Hon. Joyce Shepard

Rising from experience as chair of her Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU X) and other community organizations, Atlanta City Councilmember Joyce Sheperd is in the full swing of her third term as council representative for District 12. She is a champion for community education, neighborhood safety, economic development, jobs and more. Sheperd is a listener, a community advocate, and friend. Sheperd holds leadership positions and board appointments all over the City of Atlanta. Dedicated to service on City Council, Sheperd is the Chair of the Community Development and Human Resources committee, a member of the Committee on Council and the Public Safety committee. Sheperd holds membership on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Development Authority (where she serves as Vice Chair with Mayor Kasim Reed), the Board of Directors for the Atlanta BeltLine Inc, the Board of Directors for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Board of Directors for the Fort McPherson Implementing Land Authority (where she serves as the founder and Chair of the Community Engagement Committee). In addition to local appointments, Sheperd also serves her constituents on a state and national level. Locally, Sheperd is a member of the Georgia Municipal Association and serves on their Economic Development and Black Caucus committees. Sheperd is a proud and active member of the National League of Cities (NLC) where she serves on the board of Women in Municipal Government, the Community and Economic Development steering Committee, the Large Cities Committee and more. Sheperd’s state and national presence and involvement has brought great programs to the City of Atlanta including the launch of the NLC CVS/Caremark Prescription Discount Card program which helps reduce the cost of prescription for Atlanta residence and NLC Utility Service Partners Warranty program which offers residents options to reduce the high costs of home utility repair on water infrastructure. Sheperd is also the recipient of numerous awards recognizing her dedication to the Atlanta community, including the National Common Cause Public Service Achievement Award, Atlanta City Council President Community Service Award, and the John C. Birdine Distinguished Leadership Award. She is also a graduate of the Regional Leadership Institute class of 2007. Raised in the City of Atlanta, Joyce Sheperd is a graduate of Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Public School System, a fifty two year resident of the City of Atlanta, and a thirty two year resident of District 12. She is also a proud mother and grandmother. She has served as a voice in the Atlanta community for years and is dedicated to continuing to improve the quality of life in the City of Atlanta for years to come.

Session(s):

Community Investment in Community Change: Philanthropic, Faith-based, and Other Partnerships to Support Revitalization

Daryl Shore

Session(s):

Rebuilding Homeownership: Innovation in Financially Underserved Communities

Carl Simon

Session(s):

Building Just Communities: Capacity Building Tools to Foster Equitable Development

Evaine Sing

A registered landscape architect and LEED Associated Professional, with a Masters in Public Policy & Management from the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University, Evaine focuses on Community and Economic Development and the issues that affect communities looking to stabilize or grow. She primarily works toward engaging individuals to take ownership of their surrounding environment and creative, sustainable solutions that can lead to larger changes. Evaine also works at the policy and decision-making level to ensure pathways for change exist.

Session(s):

Hit the Ground Running: Mobilizing Actionable Vacant Land Toolkits

Mark Sissman

Session(s):

Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination Vacants to Value: A Comprehensive Approach to Blight Elimination

Joyce Smith

Joyce Smith serves as the president of Operation ReachOut Southwest, Inc. (OROSW), an umbrella organization of community associations interested in improving the quality of life in Southwest Baltimore. Joyce became a community leader because she wanted to improve the neighborhood for her family and friends.  A longtime community partner with the Center for a Livable Future, Joyce now works with the Center as a staff member. Her role there is to provide a community perspective in implementing programs, and helping to ensure that interventions directly benefit neighborhood residents.

Session(s):

Community-Led Code Enforcement: Mobilizing Neighborhoods to Utilize Cutting-Edge Legal Tools to Transform Vacant Properties Community-Led Code Enforcement: Mobilizing Neighborhoods to Utilize Cutting-Edge Legal Tools to Transform Vacant Properties

Mabel Smith

Mabel Smith, a long-time resident of the Wilson Park neighborhood, lives by a small forest patch. A threat to a significant portion of the forest (nearly 5,000 feet were cleared in the end) led her to become a champion of the forest patch. Ms. Smith's activism was the starting point for research showing that one-fifth of Baltimore's tree canopy is in forested areas outside parks. Ms. Smith and her neighbors have transformed Wilson Park woods from a patch endangered by vines to a beautiful and welcoming place.

Session(s):

Farms and Forests: At Home in the City Farms and Forests: At Home in the City

Raynetta Speed

Session(s):

Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking

Janice Spells-Bell

Session(s):

Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood

Scot Spencer

Scot Spencer leads the Foundation’s work in advancing community-focused policies, practices and strategies that increase opportunities for children, families and the places where they live and foster their success. Spencer also coordinates Casey’s local advocacy efforts in Baltimore. Before taking on these roles, Spencer managed Casey’s investments in East Baltimore, where the Foundation seeks to strengthen community and economic development in a historic, low-income neighborhood next door to the Johns Hopkins University medical campus. He previously was a transportation specialist at the Environmental Defense Fund, where he focused on state-level smart-growth policy and Commuter Choice, a local tax incentive for people who use transit. He also served as deputy director for Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition. There, he led the federal Bridges to Work demonstration, which provided job training and placement services for residents in East and West Baltimore, as well as transportation from their neighborhoods to employment centers in the suburbs. In addition, he worked for several years in private architectural practice, community development and university relations in upstate New York. Spencer serves on a number of local and national boards, including The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and the Orton Family Foundation. He was the founding chair of the Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities and served as co-chair of the Opportunity Collaborative, Baltimore’s regional plan development through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Initiative.

Session(s):

Community Investment in Community Change: Philanthropic, Faith-based, and Other Partnerships to Support Revitalization

Aris Stalis

Aris is the founding principal of Aris Land Studio, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His 27-year career includes a diverse range of projects including urban design, ecological restoration, educational spaces, parks, playgrounds, and passive recreation areas. His work brings him before the public on a regular basis, building consensus oriented solutions, while remaining true to his goals for strong design and a sustainable approach. A guiding principle is that well designed landscapes help create healthier communities.

Session(s):

Youth as a Catalyst for Broader and Deeper Community Engagement

Eric Stein

Eric Stein currently serves as Special Advisor to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin L. Watt. Eric previously served as Senior Vice President of Self-Help, a nonprofit community development lender that creates ownership and economic opportunity, and Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy affiliate organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth. Eric has testified in Congress on predatory mortgage lending, foreclosure prevention and housing finance reform, and he worked at Self-Help for 17 years. From 2009 to 2010, Eric served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consumer Protection in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Eric holds a law degree from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Williams College.

Session(s):

Helping or Hindering Stabilization? Auctions of Non-Performing Loans

Diane Sterner

Ms. Sterner joined New Jersey Community Capital in August, 2013 as Community Strategies Advisor. In this role she serves as a liaison between NJCC and local governments, community-based developers, and other local stakeholders. In doing so, Ms. Sterner is able to help devise successful revitalization strategies and approaches for local communities, and to help identify and access the resources needed to implement these strategies. Prior to joining NJCC, Ms. Sterner served for 23 years as founding director of the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ. Over that time period, she built one of the strongest associations of community based development organizations in the country, enhancing the capacity of such organizations in New Jersey to create housing and economic opportunities and revitalize communities. As a James A. Johnson Fellow in 2006, Ms. Sterner also helped found the National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) as a voice for community development practitioners at the national level and as a vehicle for bringing together state and local CDC associations to support the field. Her contributions have immeasurably strengthened the community development sector in New Jersey and nationally, and helped bring about state-level policy reforms critical to urban and lower-income communities.

Session(s):

Creating State Policy Change to Support Blight-Fighting Innovation

LaVerne Stokes

Session(s):

Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood Turning Around Sandtown: How Nonprofits and Residents are Resurrecting a Neighborhood

Christopher Swan

Dr. Chris Swan is a community ecologist with general interests in how and why species assemblages are maintained in space and time. His research and outreach program takes a broad approach to understanding how biodiversity is organized in both natural and urban ecosystems. This is accomplished through interdisciplinary collaborations with scientific and community partners, as well as informal education. A major goal of the work is to understand how biodiversity is maintained through time in the urban environment so as to better inform sustainability plans. His wildflower meadow projects is actively informing City strategies for vacant lot and park maintenance and ecosystems study.

Session(s):

Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization

Stephanie TenBarge

Session(s):

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: More Than Just Locks and Lights

Jeff Thompson

Session(s):

Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization Green Tracks: Using a Rail Corridor as a Guide for Greening and Revitalization

Lou Tisler

Lou Tisler has been involved in community and economic development for the past 24 years. In 2005, Mr. Tisler became the Executive Director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland. As the fifth chartered member of NeighborWorks® America, a network of over 235 organizations working in nearly 4,400 urban, suburban and rural communities nationwide working together for stronger communities. The mission of NHS of Greater Cleveland is to provide programs and services to achieve, sustain and preserve the American dream of homeownership. In over 10 years, Mr. Tisler has substantially increased operational funding, programming, services and staffing, leading to expanded resources to the residents of Greater Cleveland and northeast Ohio. Mr. Tisler played an integral role in developing, implementing and securing funding for a statewide collaborative of organizations in Ohio focusing on foreclosure intervention and homebuying education. Mr. Tisler has garnered organizational visibility that has included The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the USAToday and other various media outlets allowing for exposure and awareness of NHS of Greater Cleveland’s mission, programs and services. Also, Mr. Tisler recently held the position of Board President with the National NeighborWorks® Association, a national, DC- based, trade association that unites housing and community development practitioners to advocate for affordable housing and economic opportunities for individuals, families, communities and neighborhoods across the country. In this role, Mr. Tisler has led the organization to successfully secure $70 million for a national rehabilitation program. Mr. Tisler was awarded the National NeighborWorks Association’s Emerging Leader Award, chosen as “One to Watch” by the Plain Dealer in 2015, as well as one of the 50 “Fascinating Alumni” by Cleveland State University for their 50th Anniversary. Mr. Tisler was previously chosen by Crain’s Cleveland Business as one of 40 up-and-coming professionals under 40 and highlighted by Inside Business as One-2-Watch. Mr. Tisler is an alumnus of the charter class of the Cleveland Bridge Builders, an organization identifying, training and channeling emerging leaders for effective civic engagement and of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute program of Cleveland State University. Mr. Tisler has also been previously awarded an American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, providing a unique opportunity for policy and opinion leaders from 14 European countries and the US to gain an in-depth understanding of societies, institutions and peoples across the Atlantic, including an immersion of the European Union in the countries of Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Poland and Germany. Mr. Tisler, as well as currently serving on the eHome America National Advisory Board, the Ocwen Financial Services National Community Advisory Committee, also vice chairs the NeighborWorks® America’s National Homeownership Programs Steering Committee and serves on the boards of Home Matters and PLACE (Practitioners Leveraging Assets for Community Enhancement) . Mr. Tisler previously served on the boards of the Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Cleveland, Leadership Center, Center for Community Solutions, the Governor’s Taskforce on Foreclosure Prevention, Neighborhood Progress, Inc., Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition, the West Side Industrial Retention and Expansion Network and other boards across northeast Ohio. Mr. Tisler has resided in Greater Cleveland for over 30 years with his wife and two beautiful daughters.

Session(s):

Land Banks and Community Land Trusts: Natural Partners?

Sara Toering

Sara serves as General Counsel to the Center for Community Progress and is a Fellow at the Project on Affordable Housing and Community Development at Emory University School of Law. Sara began her work with the Center for Community Progress after several years in practice at a large Atlanta law firm where she litigated a wide range of complex business matters, and also defended men detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and on Georgia’s death row. Sara currently works with state and local governments and community leaders throughout the country in the areas of land banking, code enforcement, tax foreclosure reform and other issues related to neighborhood stabilization. Sara received a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, a Masters in Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a B.A. from Calvin College.

Session(s):

Tackling Property Tax Lien Sales: Forming a Broad Coalition to Stabilize Communities and Preserve Homeownership

Ashley Traut

Ashley Traut is a conservation biologist with over 15 years of experience working with threatened and endangered species, urban ecology, and sustainable design. As Senior Manager for Innovative Stormwater Projects, Ashley develops and leads programs focused on community-wide stormwater reduction strategies, through broad, collaborative programs such as Blue Water Congregations and Deep Blue. Ashley earned a Bachelor of Science in terrestrial ecology from University of Vermont and a Master of Science in wildlife ecology and conservation from University of Florida.

Session(s):

Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization

Amy Turim

Amy was named manager of real estate development services for the Milwaukee Dept. of City Development in September 2015.  In that position, Amy is responsible for the management of staff and programs that manage and market Milwaukee's large inventory of tax-foreclosed improved properties and vacant lots.  Prior to her appointment to the DCD position, Amy was vice president of one of Milwaukee's largest rental property management firms.

Session(s):

The Accidental Landlord: Managing Occupied Tax-Foreclosed Properties and Creating Homeownership Opportunities

Sarita Turner

Sarita Turner, Associate Director, has over 20 years of experience working in the non-profit sector raising awareness around, and supporting strategies to address institutionalized racism and the disinvestment of people and communities. Ms. Turner has extensive experience in direct services, policy advocacy, community organizing, government, community development, and philanthropy. She has successfully led implementation of infrastructure investments, business improvement district pilots, community development, and crime and safety initiatives. Currently, Ms. Turner serves as an associate director for PolicyLink, where she works to further equity-focused federal, state, and local policies and place-based strategies. Her personality type is that of a spirited explorer. She loves the outdoors and since relocating to California has added hiking, golf, and white-water rafting to the list of things she loves doing.

Session(s):

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, Moving to Opportunity, and Neighborhood Revitalization: Synergies and Tensions

April Urban

April Urban, M.S.S.A from Case Western Reserve University, is a research assistant specializing in property research and consultation, focusing on code enforcement, foreclosure and REO properties and works closely with the community development industry to provide data and technical assistance in neighborhood stabilization. She most enjoys projects where she can work to aid communities in building their capacity to work with data, helping teach them how to use information to improve their practices and better the lives of people impacted by their work. She currently serves on the executive committee of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, on the board of FutureHeights and volunteers with Open Cleveland, Cleveland?s Code for America brigade.

Session(s):

Beyond Property Surveys: Using Point-In-Time Surveys for Action and Research Data Alone Doesn’t Change Anything: Stories from Three Cities Working with Data to Eliminate Blight

Ernst Valery

Ernst Valery is the founder and president of Ernst Valery Investments Corp. (EVI). He has extensive experience in affordable and market rate housing development and investment, including providing due diligence capabilities and extensive skills in budget planning, design development, marketing, and the supervision and guidance of contractors, architects and engineers. He is responsible for the securing and structuring of financing, including expertise in securing Historic and New Markets tax credits. He has successfully invested in and developed real estate in Maryland; Washington, DC; Pennsylvania; and New York. For the past 14 years, he has been involved with development projects ranging from multi-tenant rental properties, single-family renovations and condominium conversions. Mr. Ernst Valery is also a principal of EVI affiliate SA+A Development and shares overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations and execution of SA+A projects and relationships. He is also active in social entrepreneurship and volunteer work, including a collaboration with a team of professionals and graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oxfam UK to address housing finance needs in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, as well as efforts at incubating businesses around the world that help alleviate poverty and increase the earning potential of low income individuals, families, and communities.

Session(s):

The Private Sector Perspective on Working in Transitional Markets

Ernesto Vigoreaux

Ernesto J. Vigoreaux is the Chief Development Officer of Asian Americans For Equality (AAFE), overseeing the development of AAFE's Hardesty Renaissance project in Kansas City, MO, a 20-acre formerly vacant, GSA military site now slated for adaptive re-use as a regional food hub, culinary school, and the country's first urban agricultural degree program in partnership with a Missouri state university. Prior to joining AAFE, Mr. Vigoreaux was the Director of Housing Development for Comunilife, Inc., a supportive housing and health care services provider serving low-income New Yorkers, and served on the Board of Directors for AAFE before joining as full time staff in 2011. Mr. Vigoreaux has extensive experience in community economic and supportive housing development, beginning his career in 1998 as Director of Housing and Community Economic Development for the Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC) in Los Angeles. Mr. Vigoreaux later joined the Hudson Planning Group in NYC as Project Manager and Real Estate Development Consultant, working with various citywide not-for-profit organizations in the development of supportive and affordable housing. He earned his Master of Urban Planning degree with a specialization in community development from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Los Angeles. He is also a graduate of Neighborworks America's Achieving Excellence Program at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Session(s):

EB-5: An Innovative Financing Tool to Spur Foreign Direct Investment in Economically Distressed Communities

LaShonne Watts

LaShonne Watts is currently an Assistant City Attorney and Southeast Community Prosecutor for the City of Dallas. She has been in this position since November 2011. Prior to joining the City Attorney's Office, Ms. Watts worked as a Staff Attorney for the Children's Law Center in New York City for 5 years, where she represented children in custody, visitation, guardianship, paternity and abuse & neglect cases in Bronx Family Court. Ms. Watts has also worked for the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop as a litigation associate, at the Close Up Foundation as a Program Instructor, and as a contract attorney with various firms in New York City and Washington, D.C. Ms. Watts received her Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley.

Session(s):

Takin’ [Lawyers] to the Streets: Community-Based Approaches to Nuisance Abatement

Laura Wheaton

Laura Wheaton manages community-initiated conceptual design projects leveraging the support of volunteer design professionals in Baltimore. Ranging from vacant lot gardens to community structures and neighborhood plans, these projects document residents' vision so that community associations and nonprofits can better communicate with potential partners and pursue funding. The Neighborhood Design Center is an independent non-profit organization founded in 1968 with offices in Baltimore City and Prince George's County, Maryland. Laura has been with NDC for three years, previously working at architectural firms in Chicago and as Co-Chair of the Board at AFH Chicago. She has spoken at AIA Illinois, Association for Community Design, and Structures for Inclusion conferences.

Session(s):

Experimental Fields: Water Quality, Vacant Land, and Community Revitalization

Gavin White

Gavin grew up in Mars, PA, graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with degrees in History and Architecture. He comes to GTECH by way of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and splits his time between the two organizations. Prior to working for the Parks, he designed sets for film, installations, performances and other events in collaboration with artists from all over the world. He is generally interested in spaces and places: How do they define us? How do we best shape them? What does it take to make and maintain them? At GTECH, he applies these skills and passions to help communities own, improve and respect their environment. As a Community Outreach Coordinator for the Parks, he ensures that all Parks Conservancy projects are based on community-developed priorities and desires, while at the same time advocating for broader use of the park system to improve personal and community health. When he's not on the job, you might find Gavin working on his home or his art in Hazelwood. Gavin has experience leading student run art projects, including assisting with a Pittsburgh Glass Center class as well as curator for Village in the Woods on a Hill in a City at the Crossroads of the World project.

Session(s):

Youth as a Catalyst for Broader and Deeper Community Engagement

Brad White

Bradford J. White was appointed by President Barack Obama as a General Public Member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 2011; he was reappointed in 2014. Brad is the Associate Director of the Alphawood Foundation, a Chicago-based private foundation working for an equitable, just and humane society. Responsibilities include researching and analyzing major project opportunities, providing funding recommendations, and leading implementation efforts. Previously, Brad focused on affordable housing and community development. He is the former Chair of Landmarks Illinois, the statewide not-for-profit historic preservation organization, and Preservation Action, the national grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to furthering public policy related to the preservation of our historic resources. Brad is a graduate of the University of Michigan; he received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law.

Session(s):

Communities as Change Agents: Taking an Assets-Based Approach to Vacant Properties through Social Innovations Brick, Mortar, and More: Replicable Approaches to Rehab and Preservation for Neighborhood Transformations

Nancy Williams

Session(s):

Knocking it Down, With Care: Strategies to Reduce Lead Hazards in Abandoned Property Demolitions

Katelyn Wright

Katelyn Wright is the founding executive director of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank and president of the New York Land Bank Association. Prior to working for the Land Bank, Katelyn was a land use planner for the City of Syracuse where she was the lead author of their most recently adopted land use plan and comprehensive plan update. She hails from the west coast where she attended the University of Washington and she holds a masters of regional planning from Cornell University.

Session(s):

Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking Land Banking 101: Everything You Want to Learn About Land Banking

Tom Wyatt

Tom Wyatt is the project manager for Kettering University where he manages Renew The Avenue, a $1M Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant from the Dept. of Justice. Prior to working for Kettering, Tom worked for Habitat for Humanity in the areas of community outreach and neighborhood planning. Tom has a professional designation in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design; is trained in charrette management and facilitation; and in placemaking as an economic development tool.

Session(s):

Engaging Community Partners in Reclaiming Vacant Properties to Support Measurable Public Health and Safety Improvements

Kathy Wyrosdick

Kathy joined the Erie County Planning Department as its director in 2015 and served on the project steering committee for the recent Erie comprehensive plan. She previously served as the director of planning and development in Fairmont, WV, and has also practiced community planning in Michigan and Ohio.

Session(s):

Planning for Soft-Market Cities: Lessons from Erie and Danville