Experience

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  Smart Growth America

  • Vice President, Land Use and Development

    • Aug 2021 - Present

    As VP for Land Use and Development, my role includes:-Leading Smart Growth America's land use and development portfolio, including advocacy, technical assistance and thought leadership dedicated to advancing sustainable, equitable development. -Overseeing SGA's land use and development programs and sub-brands including LOCUS, the preeminent coalition for real estate developers and investors committed to smart growth and triple bottom line outcomes, the Form-Based Codes Institute, a center for zoning innovation, and the National Brownfields Coalition.-Identifying and forging effective partnerships and fundraising.-Managing staff, finance and program operations.

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  Urban Land Institute

  • United States
  • Real Estate
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Vice President, Urban Resilience

    • Oct 2018 - Jul 2021

    As lead for ULI's Urban Resilience program, my work included:-Leading strategy for ULI's Urban Resilience program, which engages ULI's membership of 45,000 real estate and land use practitioners on the topics of resilience and climate risk.-Overseeing staff team, budget and Urban Resilience program of work, including research, technical assistance for cities, convenings and partnership projects.-Leading research and editing reports, articles and publications on topics related to resilience, which have been featured in the NYT, CNBC, Washington Post, Bloomberg and other media sources. Co-authored, authored and oversaw key reports including "Climate Risk and Real Estate Investment Decision-Making," "Scorched: Extreme Heat and Real Estate" and "Harvesting the Value of Water: Stormwater, Green Infrastructure and Real Estate."-Directing strategy for ULI's resilience-related technical assistance work for cities and community based organizations. -Supporting locally-initiated resilience projects - such as planning workshops, research initiatives, demonstration projects, etc - in partnership with ULI District Councils.-Delivering national convenings focused on urban resilience, including ULI's annual Resilience Summit.--Identifying partnership and funding opportunities, managing relationships with foundation and corporate partners and grant reporting.-Leading outreach for the Urban Resilience program and integrating urban resilience into other ULI programs and activities.

  • Director & Senior Director, Urban Resilience

    • Jan 2016 - Oct 2018

    The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is a non-profit research and education organization with 45,000 members worldwide. Members represent the full spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines, working in real estate development, planning, design, policy and public service.ULI’s Urban Resilience program helps buildings, cities and communities be more prepared for the impacts of climate change. The program shares best practices with ULI members and the industry at large, and harnesses the knowledge of the ULI member network for research and technical assistance projects for cities. The topics addressed include real estate, land-use planning, infrastructure, transportation strategy, building design, energy efficiency, urban design and the support of social and economic networks.

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  Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program

  • Berlin, Germany

  • Fellow (Urban Planning)

    • Jul 2014 - Dec 2015
    • Berlin, Germany

    The Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program is a transatlantic initiative that offers fifteen Americans under 40 the opportunity to complete a mid-career professional development program in Germany. The program includes Fellows specializing in urban planning, public policy, economics, cultural management and business administration, among other fields. Fellows receive language training, participate in seminars and work in their fields of expertise.During the Fellowship year, I contributed to masterplanning, policy research and community engagement projects in Berlin and elsewhere, while also conducting personal research on German planning policy. My professional placements included work at Berlin's Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment and in the private sector, at the Buro Happold Cities Group. Work at the Berlin Senate included participation in and exposure to major urban design competitions, the neighborhood management program, the design review process and public engagement processes. Work at Buro Happold included participation in German and international urban strategy projects, including a major project sponsored by the German development bank, GIZ. I also pursued freelance projects, including writing for Planning Magazine (circulation approx. 40,000).

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  Landscape Architecture Foundation

  • Washington, D.C.

  • Program Manager

    • Mar 2013 - Jul 2014
    • Washington, D.C.

    The Landscape Architecture Foundation is a non-profit organization that seeks to advance the design professions' body of knowledge and support innovative landscape, design and development projects and initiatives. The organization's mission is to support the preservation, improvement and enhancement of the environment. As Program Manager, I oversaw LAF's research programs, including the Landscape Performance Education Grant program and the Case Study Investigation research program (CSI). CSI is an initiative which seeks to quantify the environmental, social and economic benefits of exemplar landscape projects, including urban parks, public spaces and others from the regional to the household scale. The program is highly collaborative with the goal of better integrating the innovative work being done by academia and practitioners, and encouraging the routine collection of performance data. My work included collaborative research with 30+ academics, graduate research assistants and designers; advising on research strategy and methods; writing and editing; managing contracts and documentation; leading webinars; and promoting this and other LAF initiatives via outreach to designers, non-profit organizations and other partners.

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  Turnberry Consulting Limited

  • London, UK (5 years) + Washington, DC (5 mo)

  • Senior Consultant

    • Oct 2007 - Mar 2013
    • London, UK (5 years) + Washington, DC (5 mo)

    As an urban planning and design consultant at this boutique consulting firm, I supported a range of public and private sector clients, including some of the UK's leading universities and land-owning estates. My work included project management, policy research, writing of urban design-related publications and Estate Strategies, business development and community outreach for major urban design workshops or charrettes. Areas of focus included:Large-scale development: I wrote and managed publications, Design Codes, exhibitions and planning application documents for numerous large-scale mixed-use developments in the UK, including Chapelton, a new town in Aberdeenshire which is the largest proposed new settlement in Scotland (4,000+ homes plus retail, office, parks, civic buildings), and Grandhome, an urban extension (7,000+ homes plus retail, office, parks, civic buildings).University masterplanning: I wrote University masterplans, public realm strategies and Estate Strategies, working for numerous institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, Cranfield, Coventry and the Inverness Campus, an entirely new site for the University of the Highlands and Islands.Sports facility masterplanning: I provided development strategy advice, authored Development Frameworks and managed architectural competitions and RFPs for major sports organizations in the UK and the US, including the New York Racing Association.Community engagement: I managed numerous public design workshops across the UK, including the the Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative (SSCI) Charrette Series, a Scottish Government initiative which was attended by 1,000+ people and held at three sites selected as national exemplars for sustainability. I also taught a professional development course on community engagement for the National Charrette Institute and the University of Hertfordshire's Centre for Sustainable Communities.

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  Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

  • Director's Fellow and Gulf Coast Project Coordinator

    • Aug 2005 - Aug 2007

    As lead project coordinator for DPZ's public urban design workshops held in communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, I led community outreach, research and charrette coordination for cities and towns across Louisiana and Mississippi. These initiatives generated masterplans and rebuilding strategies for 20+ devastated communities and involved over 3,000 local policymakers, planners, community organizations and local residents. Efforts included the Mississippi Renewal Forum, sponsored by the Mississippi Governor's Commission for Recovery and Renewal; the Louisiana Speaks Charrette Series, sponsored by the Louisiana Recovery Authority; and the Unified New Orleans Plan. My work also included writing, editing, business development and publications management for a range of private and public sector-driven developments across the U.S. and abroad.

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  Williams College

  • Florence Chandler Research Fellow

    • Aug 2004 - Aug 2005

    As a Florence Chandler Fellow, I completed a one-year-long research project entitled ‘Design After Crisis: Wartorn Cities and their Architectural Solutions,’ sponsored by the Williams College Dean's Office. Research included site visits, archival work and interviews in London, Berlin, Warsaw, Sarajevo, Hiroshima and Hanoi, as well as three months of volunteer work at the Tsunami Volunteer Centre in Khao Lak, Thailand.

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  DC Preservation League

  • Intern

    • 2003 - 2003