Conference 2009: Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Carol Coletta, CEO, CEOs for Cities

Carol Coletta is president and CEO of CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City.

Previously, she served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis. In addition, she served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation.

Carol was a Knight Fellow in Community Building for 2003 at the University of Miami School of Architecture and completed coursework toward a Master of Design Methods at the Institute of Design at IIT and at the University of Houston in Future Studies. She is a highly sought after speaker on the success formula for cities and creative communities and is frequently interviewed as an expert on urban issues by national media.

In 2008 she was named one of the world’s 50 most important urban experts by a leading European think tank.

For more information about CEOs for Cities, click here

Damon Rich, Founder, Center for Urban Pedagogy; Urban Design and Waterfront Planner, City of Newark, NJ

Damon Rich is an artist and designer. His exhibitions use video, sculpture, graphics, and photography to investigate the political economy of the built environment. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Storefront for Art and Architecture and SculptureCenter (New York City), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Liepzig), and Netherlands Architecture Institute (Rotterdam).

In 1997, Rich founded the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people understand and change the places they live, where he served as Creative Director for 10 years. Damon has taught design at institutions including the Parsons School of Design, Heritage High School, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Queens Library Adult Learning Center. He writes about architecture and politics for publications including the Village Voice, the Nation, Metropolis, and Architecture magazine.

Damon has been awarded a New York State Council on the Arts award for his work with adult literacy and architecture, as well as a fellowship from the MacDowell Colony for his work on the history of urban renewal. In 2007, Damon was selected as a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Artist-in-Residence at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, where he developed a exhibition on architecture, real estate, and finance.

He currently lives in Newark, New Jersey, where he works as an Urban Design and Waterfront Planner for the city government.

Critics Panel - Invited Speakers

Jonathan Glancey, Architecture and Design Editor, The Guardian

An Honorary Fellow of The Royal Institute of British Architects, Jonathan Glancey is the Architecture and Design Editor of The Guardian newspaper, a post he previously held at The Independent.

Prior to this, he was assistant editor of the Architectural Review, editor of The Architect and a founding editor of the architecture and design magazine, Blueprint.

Described as a 'wonderful communicator' by Norman Foster, Jonathan is a talented, provocative and stimulating writer. He is the author of several books on architecture, a contributor to architecture and design magazines, as well as a regular television and radio broadcaster.

When he's not voicing his opinions on architecture past and present, Jonathan spends his spare time flying light aircraft (he is currently writing a book on the subject) and driving his small fleet of classic cars - he is especially fond of his red Jaguar. He lives in London, a city which combines both his favorite dome; St Paul's, which he can see from his flat in the Barbican, and his pet-hate; the mass of tourists who click away with their cameras in buildings of beauty and serenity!

Paul Goldberger, architecture critic, The New Yorker

Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of Parsons school of design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.

He is the author of several books, most recently his chronicle of the process of rebuilding Ground Zero, entitled Up From Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York, which was published by Random House in the fall of 2004, and brought out in a new, updated paperback edition in 2005. Up From Zero was named one of The New York Times Notable Books for 2004. Paul Goldberger has also written The City Observed: New York, The Skyscraper, On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age, Above New York and The World Trade Center Remembered.

He lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities, and he has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President’s Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called “the nation’s most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design.” In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York. In 1993, he was named a Literary Lion, the New York Public Library’s tribute to distinguished writers.

He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Pratt Institute, the University of Miami, Kenyon College, the College of Creative Studies, and the New York School of Interior Design for his work as a critic and cultural commentator on design. He appears frequently on film and television to discuss art, architecture, and cities, and he has served as a special consultant and advisor on architecture and planning matters to several major cultural and educational institutions, including the Morgan Library in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, and Cornell and Harvard universities. He is a graduate of Yale University, and is a trustee of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.,; the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, and the New York Stem Cell Foundation. He is married to Susan Solomon, and they are the parents of three sons: Adam, a composer for film and television in Los Angeles; Ben, a journalist in Chicago, and Alex, an undergraduate at Yale.

Sarah Williams Goldhagen, architecture critic, The New Republic

Sarah Williams Goldhagen is a historian and theorist of modern architecture, is The New Republic's architecture critic. Before deciding to devote herself full-time to writing, she was, for ten years, a professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. She writes books, lectures nationally and internationally, and consults to cultural and other institutions on the architect selection process. Her articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The American Prospect, and Art In America, and she has contributed scholarly essays to many publications, including Assemblage, the Harvard Design Magazine, and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Goldhagen is a co-founder and co-editor of a new scholarly journal, Positions: On Modern Architecture and Urbanism/ Histories and Theories.

Blair Kamin, architecture critic, Chicago Tribune

Blair Kamin is the architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune, a post he has held since 1992. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism and continues a tradition of accessible but authoritative criticism begun by the Tribune's first modern-day architecture critic, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Gapp. Kamin also serves as a contributing editor of Architectural Record magazine and was part of a team of editors, writers, photographers and critics for the magazine which in 2003 won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

Born in Red Bank, N.J., Kamin is a graduate of Amherst College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in 1979, and the Yale University School of Architecture, from which he received a Master of Environmental Design in 1984. He has lectured widely and has discussed architecture on programs ranging from ABC's "Nightline" to WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight." In 2001, the University of Chicago Press published Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago, a collection of his Chicago Tribune columns. He also wrote the commentaries for Tribune Tower: American Landmark, a guide to the newspaper's neo-Gothic skyscraper published in 2000.

Kamin is the recipient of 30 awards, including the Pulitzer, which he received in 1999 for a body of work highlighted by a series of articles about the problems and promise of Chicago's greatest public space, its lakefront. Among his other honors are the George Polk Award for Criticism (1996), the American Institute of Architects' Institute Honor for Collaborative Achievement (1999) and the AIA's Presidential Citation, conferred in 2004 in appreciation of the "rhapsodies and scoldings" that have brought architecture to the attention of Chicago's public.

Edward Lifson, cultural critic

Edward Lifson is a frequent contributor on architecture and urbanism to National Public Radio, Dwell Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, and he blogs on architecture at EdwardLifson.com. Currently, Lifson is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and an Assistant at the American Academy in China. In 2008 he was an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California, and he held a Loeb Fellowship in 2007 – 2008. Prior to that he held a Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship in summer 2007. Lifson has been very active with National Public Radio since 1988. A regular contributor to Morning Edition, and All Things Considered, he reports on architecture and urbanism. From 2001 – 2007, he was the creator and host of Hello Beautiful!, an award-winning weekly one-hour radio show about the arts, architecture, and culture. From 1996 – 2001, Lifson worked to establish the NPR Berlin bureau and served as Bureau Chief. He covered the rebuilding of Berlin following the end of the Cold War, the move of the German capitol from Bonn to Berlin, as well as the conflict in Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania. From 1988 to 1996, Lifson was the Bureau Chief and Reporter for the Midwest Bureau of NPR. Lifson has won Peter Lisagor and Edward R. Murrow awards for radio programs and commentaries on architecture and urbanism, as well as a George Foster Peabody Award for his work helping to conceive and write Studio 360 American Icons: Melville`s Moby Dick. Lifson is co-chair of the Mies van der Rohe Society at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and works to raise money to restore Mies’ buildings in Chicago. Lifson is a graduate of Institute of European Studies / University of Paris IV / Institut d’art et archaeology, and Boston College.

Other Speakers

Jimmie Alford, CFRE, Founder and Chair of The Alford Group

Jimmie R. Alford, CFRE, is Founder and Chair of The Alford Group. Throughout his 40 year career in the nonprofit sector, Jimmie has provided leadership in improving the quality of life, assisting hundreds of clients in all aspects of not-for-profit management. Prior to founding The Alford Group, Jimmie was a senior executive with a major not-for-profit organization in Chicago.

Recognized by The NonProfit Times as "one of the 50 most influential people in the nonprofit sector" in both 1998 and 1999, Jimmie plays an active leadership and stewardship role in the not-for-profit sector. He was Chair of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel (AAFRC) and has served on the boards of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Foundation and the Fund Raising School of Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. He is Chair of the Board of the Alliance for Children & Families, in addition to serving on the following boards: the Advisory Board of North Park University's Center on Nonprofit Management, Alice Lloyd College, the Barat Education Foundation, and El Valor. He also serves as a faculty member for the Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations.

Jimmie frequently writes and lectures on issues affecting the nonprofit sector. He served as editor and chapter author for the book, Building and Managing an Asset Base, published under the auspices of Indiana University Center on Philanthropy's New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising program.

Jimmie has a Master of Science Degree in Administration and Organizational Behavior and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive.

For more information about The Alford Group

Rick M. Bell, FAIA, Executive Director, AIA New York/Center for Architecture

Rick Bell serves as executive director of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects where he was instrumental in the creation of the New York New Visions design and planning coalition, which has helped to catalyze and critique the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. Since starting at the AIA in 2001, Rick has raised the profile and involvement of the architectural community on policy issues, including accessibility, affordable housing, sustainable design, and waterfront use. The AIA’s storefront Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village marks the shifting of priorities to a greater engagement with the public.

Previously, Rick worked in the public sector as Chief Architect and Assistant Commissioner of Architecture & Engineering at New York City’s public works agency, the Department of Design & Construction. A registered architect in New York, New Jersey, and California, Rick was elected a Fellow of the AIA in 2000 for his work in public facility design. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), the Forum for Urban Design, and the Institute for Urban Design. Rick holds degrees from Yale and Columbia and has received numerous awards for civic activities and design excellence, including a “Newsmaker of the Year” award from Engineering News Record. He currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of the national American Institute of Architects.

Angie Blumel, Manager of Volunteer Services, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Angie Blumel is Manager of Volunteer Services with Chicago Architecture Foundation. She is responsible for the recruitment, training, supervision, and recognition of the organization’s more than 450 volunteers. Prior to her work at CAF, she spent over a decade working in non-profits as a volunteer manager and director of programs. She is a certified volunteer manager through the Volunteer Management Institute and a graduate of the Pew Charitable Trust Leadership Plenty leadership training program. She has a B.S. in Family Studies and Human Services from Kansas State University. Believing strongly in volunteerism herself, she has served on numerous non-profit boards, task forces, and fundraising committees.

Maurice Cox, Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts

Maurice Cox was appointed Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts in October 2007. Cox supervises the NEA grantmaking process in design, oversees the Mayors' Institute on City Design, Governors' Institute on Community Design, and Your Town: The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, and provides professional leadership in architecture and design to the nation.

On leave from the University of Virginia, School of Architecture where he is an Associate Professor of Architecture, Cox most recently led graduate students in the development of award-winning proposals for the rebuilding of affordable housing in New Orleans following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

Cox served as Mayor of Charlottesville from 2002-2004. As mayor, architect, and urbanist he was widely recognized as the principal urban designer of his city.

He was a founding partner of RBGC Architecture, Research and Urbanism from 1996-2006 in Charlottesville, Virginia. RBGC's groundbreaking use of design as a catalyst for social change in the rural town of Bayview, Virginia has received national acclaim and has been featured on 60 Minutes and in Architecture magazine.

Maurice Cox is currently on leave as a partner with Ken Schwartz in Community Planning + Design WORKSHOP (CP+D Workshop). A recipient of the 2004-05 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the 2006 John Hejduk Award for Architecture, Cox has lectured widely on the topics of democratic design, civic engagement, and the designer's role as leader. He received his architectural education from the Cooper Union School of Architecture, has taught at Syracuse University's School of Architecture and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and has held the 2006 Kea Visiting Professorship at the University of Maryland's School of Architecture.

Erin Cullerton, Assistant Director, AIA San Francisco; Curator/Founder, Architecture and the City Festival

Erin Cullerton is the Assistant Director of the fourth largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. During her tenure, she has developed everything from award-winning communications to new public education models that bring awareness of the architecture and design profession to an increasingly savvy public audience. She has produced nearly 40 exhibitions on a range of topics from public art in architecture to investigations on the urban environment. In 2003, she founded the Architecture and the City festival, which takes place every September in San Francisco. Under her leadership, the festival has grown into an award-winning, city-wide event that reaches more than 20,000 participants and draws support from hundreds of cultural institutions and community partners. In 2005, Erin was instrumental in founding the Center for Architecture + Design, a new nonprofit organization seeking to educate the public about the importance of architecture and design in the Bay Area.

Her writing on architecture and design has appeared in a variety of publications, including Metropolis, ReadyMade, Surface and Wired magazines, among others. Erin currently sits on the advisory board of The Architect's Newspaper, California edition and is the editor of Young Architects Americas(Daab) and Contemporary Prefab Houses (Daab). She is currently editing a third book on sustainable residential design (Mondadori Publishers) due out this fall.

Sarah Bainter Cunningham, Director of Arts Education, National Endowment for the Arts

Sarah Bainter Cunningham has been Director of Arts Education for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) since September 2005. In that capacity, she provides national leadership in the field of arts education and oversees several national initiatives including NEA Jazz in the Schools, NEA Summer Schools in the Arts, and NEA Education Leaders Institute, as well as chairs the peer panel process for the review of more than 700 applications each year. She also assists in the development of educational materials for the Big Read, a program designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

From March 2004 until her appointment with the NEA, Dr. Cunningham was the director of the Education Assessment and Charter Accreditation Program at the American Academy for Liberal Education in Washington, DC where she supervised a program to assess and accredit liberal arts-oriented charter schools. From March 1999 to February 2004, Dr. Cunningham was the first academic dean and dean of students at the Oxbow School, a visual arts high school in Napa, California. She helped found the school, designing a curriculum that integrated the visual arts with academic courses, including a team-taught course with an instructor in digital art/photography that fully integrated English with Web design and photography, and digital art. She also managed the school’s professional development, admissions, student life, and curriculum decisions.

Dr. Cunningham has held teaching positions at a variety of institutions including assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Maine (Orono), a Burke Teaching Fellow in Aesthetics at Vanderbilt University (Nashville), and philosophy instructor at Belmont University (Nashville).

Her publications include articles in National Charter School Clearinghouse Newsletter and book reviews in Consciousness, Literature and the Arts and the Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy.

Dr. Cunningham received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Kenyon College and her masters and doctoral degrees in philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

Sydney W. Dobson, MNPL, Executive Director, Seattle Architecture Foundation

Sydney has served as a volunteer and professional in the nonprofit sector for more than thirty years. Before joining the Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) in January 2002, Sydney was the first Executive Director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation charged with developing the national memorial to the Oklahoma City bombing victims and survivors. Prior to that appointment, she served for thirteen years as the Executive Director of Oklahoma City Beautiful (OKC Beautiful) – a community-wide, grassroots organization dedicated to improving the image of Oklahoma City. Under her leadership the programs, Board of Directors, staff and organization received more than thirty local, state and national awards. Sydney has served on more than thirty community boards, mayoral appointed committees and governmental commissions and received numerous awards for her work. She received her Executive Master of Nonprofit Leadership degree from Seattle University in December, 2002. Sydney joined SAF in January, 2002.

Joe Doyle, Partner / Interactive Strategist, stalelife.com

Sleeves-rolled-high agency partner, Joe Doyle, oversees new business initiatives and interactive strategy. He creates beautiful, usable website solutions from site architecture and content to social media outreach and marketing.

Prior to launching Stalelife, Joe worked as a Creative Director for Chicago-based agencies New Control and Douglas-Danielle, and he’s become a sought-after consultant with top agencies like EURO RSCG and Razorfish. Joe holds an MA in Communications and Training from Governors State University in Chicago.

Gregory Dreicer, Vice President of Exhibitions and Programs, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Gregory Dreicer is a curator and historian whose explorations of built environment and building technology have received national recognition. He is the former director of Chicken&Egg Public Projects, which was a leading exhibition planning, development, and design firm specializing in social, political, and technological issues. Dreicer worked with organizations including the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Museum of the City of New York, Smithsonian Institution, and Federal Highway Administration. In the 1990s, Dreicer was a curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. He has curated more than 20 exhibitions and his articles have appeared in journals including Perspecta, Culture Technique, History and Technology, and Design Book Review. Dreicer received his PhD from Cornell University’s Department of Science and Technology Studies. He holds an MS in Historic Preservation and a BA, both from Columbia University.

Peter Exley, FAIA, Director of Architecture, architectureisfun

Peter Exley, FAIA, Director of Architecture, has amassed an internationally recognized portfolio of architecture for children. As co-founder of the firm with more than 20 years of experience, Peter leads the design effort from initial concept through the realization of the completed project. He is the direct point of contact for project design and development, and is responsible for assuring that projects meet pragmatic criteria: accessibility, budget, schedule, and program. Additionally, Peter ensures that design meet inspirational and developmental criteria, determined by the multi disciplinary team of child, client, and community. Using all three criteria to inform design is what sets architectureisfun apart and what helps create projects where children and families love to play and learn.

Peter is an architect, Fellow, professor, artist, author and parent. He uses teaching as a living laboratory vital to the firm's methodology of educative design™, sharing passion and practice with students and young architects.

As a champion of childhood, Peter Exley, creates archetypical learning environments and architecture for children that is recognized for the fun, education, accessibility, play, and family interaction that they provide. Through his practice, Peter nurtures a consciousness of design as a lifelong expectation and pursuit.

Julia Feder, Manager of LEED Education Resources, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

Julia Feder serves as the Manager of LEED Education Resources for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). In this role, Julia oversees a broad range of activities related to the development of education programs, trainings, and resources in support of USGBC’s mission to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life. Her responsibilities include overseeing the development of green building case studies, distance learning opportunities, and a variety of publications. Additionally, Julia has led USGBC’s efforts to support the integration of green building and sustainability concepts into K-12, undergraduate and graduate curriculum.

Since graduating from Antioch University New England’s Environmental Science Graduate Program in 2002, Julia has also worked with the Missouri Botanical Garden EarthWays Center in St. Louis, MO, coordinating the organization’s sustainability education programs. Additionally, she has taught fourth grade and helped start a farmers market to serve an urban neighborhood. While Julia loves her car-free, urban commute, she looks forward to any opportunity to get outside of the city with her two dogs.

Diane Filippi, San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR) Urban Center Director

Diane Filippi is the Director of the SPUR Urban Center in San Francisco. In this role, Diane is responsible for the development of the Urban Center from inception through completion and grand opening. Her responsibilities have included site selection; architectural selection and process; expansion of programs; new partnerships and collaborations; and fundraising.

Prior to joining SPUR, Diane was a founder and Managing Principal of SMWM, an architectural and urban design firm in San Francisco. She is a chairperson of several organizations and institutions, including Urban Land Institute’s San Francisco District Council, Rail-volution, Americans for Libraries Council in New York, San Francisco Friends of the Library, the Campaign to Keep Libraries Alive, State of California Friends Foundation in Sacramento. She is also on the board of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Rosalie Genevro, Executive Director, Architectural League of New York

Rosalie Genevro is executive director of the Architectural League of New York, a cultural organization dedicated to the presentation of important work and ideas in contemporary architecture and urbanism. Most recent among the many lecture series she has organized is Architecture and…, investigating the intersection of architecture with innovative work in other creative and scientific disciplines. She has directed the creation of a number of major traveling exhibitions, including Ten Shades of Green: Architecture and the Natural World, and Urban Life: Housing in the Contemporary City, as well as the design studies Vacant Lots, on affordable infill housing for small sites, New Schools for New York, The Productive Park, on parks and the water supply, and Arverne: Housing on the Edge. Ms. Genevro originated the online project www.worldviewcities.org, which presents reports by local young architects on cities around the world.

Ms. Genevro has served as a peer reviewer for the New York City Departments of Design and Construction, City Planning, and Parks and Recreation, and as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. She studied history and architectural history at Occidental College and Cornell University.

Manny Juarez, Principal / Project Manager, Design Plus LLC

Manny is a Partner and lead Project Manager for Design Plus. He also oversees graphics, production, and the Education and Community activities for the firm. He has lectured and taught at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York, and internationally in Sendai, Japan. Manny has also participated in workshops sponsored by the Alvar Aalto Academy in Jyväskylä, Finland and DASH.

As a co-founder and instructor for Design Plus' Summer Design Studio at the Albuquerque Academy, he continues the firm's commitment to children, the educational process, and the environment with his leadership and international recognition in the field of design education. He is also a founding member of the international group PLAYCE which promotes design education and environmental awareness for children around the world.

Photography, music, and cinema are brief, but favorite indulgences outside of the office.

Paul Killmer, Director of Public Programs, National Building Museum

Paul Killmer is Director of Public Programs at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., a position he has held since 2006. He manages a team that produces public programs that fulfill the institution’s mission – to advance the quality of the built environment by educating the public about its impact on people’s lives.

Since joining the Museum in 1996, Paul has worked in the institution’s Education department in developing, coordinating, and managing programs that serve nearly 14,000 adults annually. His work on developing the Museum’s high-profile lecture series Spotlight on Design has brought Pritzker Prize, AIA Gold Medal, and Stirling Prize recipients, as well as newly emerging professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and interior design to Washington audiences. He has led programmatic collaborations with allied organizations, including the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, and the Architectural League of New York. Paul developed the Museum’s highly-popular Construction Watch Tour series as a way to engage Museum members with the building process by visiting construction sites throughout the Washington metropolitan area.

With the launch of the Museum’s new website in 2007, Paul has collaborated in developing web-only content, including the Great Green Places and Great Green Roofs film projects, and coordinating online speaker interviews and Question-and-Answer Forums.

Paul holds a BLA in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from Virginia Tech. Mr. Killmer is an Associate in the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Scott Lauer, Founder, Open House New York

Architect, Scott Lauer, is the founder of Open House New York, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of New York City’s architecture and design. Open House New York runs year-round talks, tours, events, and in-school workshops, including America's largest architecture and design event, Open House New York Weekend. From an all-volunteer, grassroots organization, Scott has overseen every aspect of the organization's growth into a major New York City cultural institution. In 2008, 175,000 participants attended 350 sites and programs, all free-of-charge. More than 600 volunteers assisted.

Prior to founding Open House New York, Scott worked in London and New York designing and managing a series of award-winning projects. For the past three years he has run The Library Initiative for the Robin Hood Foundation, managing the design and construction of 25 elementary school libraries in New York City's poorest neighborhoods. Scott continues to consult on architecture and design projects and serves on Open House New York’s Board. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

Jean Linsner, Vice President of Youth Education, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Jean Linsner is responsible for the strategic development and supervision of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Youth Education Programs. Linsner is an expert in education program management for child and adult learners in both for-profit and not-for-profit settings. She is the co-author of the Chicago Architecture Foundations’s Schoolyards to Skylines: Teaching with Chicago’s Amazing Architecture. Linsner has been at the Chicago Architecture Foundation since 1999. She holds BA degrees in English and Telecommunications and an MS in Education from Indiana University.

Mei Mah, Deputy Director of Education, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Mei Mah is the Deputy Director of Education at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution (CH-NDM) where she is responsible for strategic educational initiatives and collaborations. She served on the development and launch team of National Design Week and www.educatorresourcecenter.org (ERC), the Museum’s online resource design hub. During her tenure at the Museum, Mei, has produced symposia, hands-on activities, and gallery programming for over sixty exhibitions including Open Talks: Pioneers of Change, MExtreme Textiles: Design for High Performance, Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005, and the National Design Triennial series. Mei sits on the New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) museum panel and cultural committee of the Netherlands America Foundation. Her interest in design education began while working in architecture and community development and prompted her to pursue a M.A. in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Jennifer Masengarb, Education Specialist, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Jennifer Masengarb is Education Specialist at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and served as the author of CAF’s high school curriculum, The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings, awarded a 2009 national Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects. She is also the primary author of Schoolyards to Skylines: Teaching with Chicago’s Amazing Architecture, CAF’s award-winning K – 8 curriculum. In 2000, Jen came to CAF with experience gained by working at architectural firms, by researching for historic structure reports, and in teaching high school English and history in Eastern Europe. She holds a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy and a master's degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia.

Peter Murray, Chairman, Wordsearch, New London Architecture; Director, London Festival of Architecture

Peter Murray trained as an architect but has spent his career in the communication of architecture. He was formerly technical editor of Architectural Design (AD) and then Editor of the weekly newspaper Building Design. He then moved to be Editor and Publisher of the RIBA Journal. In 1983 he started Blueprint Magazine, the first of the new wave of design and architecture magazines that charted the rise of the creative industries.

He has curated a number of major architectural exhibitions including New Architecture - the work of Foster Rogers Stirling at the Royal Academy in 1986, Living Bridges at the Royal Academy in 1996. He is Chairman of the design and communications consultancy Wordsearch, founder and Exhibitions Director of New London Architecture (NLA), Founder/Director of the London Festival of Architecture and editor in chief of London Property Review magazine. He is author of various architectural books including Contemporary British Architects, New Urban Environments, Living Bridges, The Saga of Sydney Opera House, and Architecture and Commerce.

He is deputy chairman and honorary secretary of the Bedford Park Society and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2000.

Tracy Myers, Curator of Architecture, Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art

Tracy Myers has been a curator at the Heinz Architectural Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, since 1997. She has originated, managed, or facilitated more than a dozen exhibitions, including Aluminum in Contemporary Architecture; Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture; and, with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes. She has been part of numerous planning committees and task forces at both the art museum and Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh (the art museum’s corporate parent). She was named a Curator to Watch by Pittsburgh Magazine in 1999 and, in 2003, one of the city’s top fifty cultural forces by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Prior to joining the Carnegie, she was special assistant to an assistant director at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York City.

An actively involved member of the Pittsburgh community, Myers is president of the board of the South Side Local Development, chair of its Design Committee, and past chair of its Business Development Committee. She has sat on the boards of the Foundation for Architecture and Construction Junction.

Myers earned a B.A. cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa in Government and Economics at Franklin & Marshall College and an M.A. in Art History Hunter College of The City University of New York. She is a doctoral candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware. Her monograph on Deborah Berke & Partners Architects was published by Yale University Press in 2008. Before pursuing a career in the arts, Myers worked on Wall Street and at a large general-practice law firm in New York.

Jason Neises, Vice President of Tours Operations and Guest Relations, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Jason Neises organizes the extensive training program for the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s volunteer docents and is responsible for overseeing the roster of nearly 90 walking, boat and bus tours with more than 7,800 departures annually. He has been with the Chicago Architecture Foundations since 2001. Neises has a BA from the University of North Iowa, with a teaching certificate for government and history.

Daniel X. O'Neil, Co-Founder and People Person, EveryBlock

Daniel X. O’Neil is a co-founder of and People Person for EveryBlock, a neighborhood news site serving 11 cities. He is responsible for uncovering new data sets through online research and working with local governments. He also works on Special Reports, including one on Operation Crooked Code, a federal probe of bribery in Chicago. He also works on content partnerships at EveryBlock.

Prior to EveryBlock, O’Neil spent 10 years as an Internet strategist and project manager for Streams Online Media, one of the first web design firms in Chicago. He continued this work at Dunn Solutions Group after their purchase of Streams in 2001, with a focus on technology requirements training and the development of Web-based tools for training, e-commerce, and content management. He also created a number of sites for municipalities, including the first Web site for the Chicago Inspector General, the person in charge of rooting out corruption in Chicago city government.

Since 2002 he’s run a number of independent Web projects, including CTA Alerts/ CTA Tweet and topic-focused sites like Wesley Willis Art. He’s developed dozens of Web sites for nonprofits, schools, and small businesses using easy-to-use and inexpensive tools such as weblogs, wikis, and social networking sites.

He writes poetry books, has written for a number of Chicago news outlets, and has the inevitable weblog. See more at www.juggernautco.com/about.html.

Lynn Osmond, President and CEO, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Lynn Osmond has been the President and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) since 1996. Under her leadership, public participation at CAF quadrupled. Annually, more than 476,000 people participate in CAF’s tours, exhibitions, adult and family programs, and adult and youth education programs—all designed to enhance awareness and appreciation of Chicago’s outstanding built environment.

Prior to joining CAF, Ms. Osmond managed major performing arts companies in Canada and the U.S. with noteworthy success in expanding the financial base of the organizations. These include the Sacramento Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Orchestra London Canada, and the Canadian Stage Company in Toronto.

In 2002 Ms. Osmond was awarded the Paul Berger Arts Entrepreneurship Award presented by Columbia College and in 2005 she was recognized as an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Other awards during Ms. Osmond’s tenure include 2003 Richard Driehaus Award for Schoolyards to Skylines; the Illinois Association of Museums Large Institution of the Year Award; Design Excellence Award for CitySpace Gallery from AIA Chicago; National Preservation Honor Award for Schoolyards to Skylines from the National Trust in 2004; the AIA Institute Honor Award for Collaborative Achievement for Schoolyards to Skylines in 2005; and the AIA Institute Honor Award for Collaborative Achievement for The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings in 2009.

Ms. Osmond received an Honor's Bachelor of Music degree from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario and in 1999 received her Certified Association Executive designation. In addition to serving as a docent herself, she also serves on boards including the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, the Chicago Loop Alliance, and the University Club of Chicago. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicago Network, and is co-chair of the Toronto Sister Cities Committee.

Kurt Pennypacker, Founder / Chief Creative Director, stalelife.com

On the other side of the Stalelife coin, Partner and Chief Creative Director Kurt Pennypacker, constructs creative marketing campaigns, CMS powered websites, branding, and identity.

Before Stalelife, Kurt was pushing pixels and carving Direct Marketing comps at Douglas-Danielle, Inc. where he met Joe Doyle. Kurt holds a BA in Graphic Design from University of Central Florida.

Marianne Philbin, consultant and author

Marianne Philbin is a consultant to nonprofit organizations and foundations, specializing in new project start-up and organizational development. She has more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and an extensive background in grant making, fundraising and communications.

Prior to establishing her consulting practice, she was Development Director at the $50 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge; Executive Director of The Chicago Foundation for Women during a decade of significant growth for this innovative community foundation; and in the early 1980s, Executive Director of The Peace Museum. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards, ranging from Amnesty International USA to Chicago Women in Philanthropy. She is currently on the board of Project Exploration, a natural science education organization founded by paleontologist Paul Sereno. She is a member of the Greater Chicago Philanthropy Initiative, and a nominator for Ashoka U.S./Canada, the international organization providing venture capital for social entrepreneurs.

Nonprofit-related publications to which she has contributed include The Grassroots Fundraising Journal (Chardon Press 2002); The Handbook of Strategies for Public Relations and Integrated Communications, (McGraw-Hill, 1997); and Funds for Freedom: A Money-Making Guide for Groups in Amnesty International, (1994).She is co-author with Marcia Festen of the book How Effective Nonprofits Work: A Guide for Donors, Board Members and Foundation Officers (2002), published by the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers.

Awards include the Beatrice Foundation Award for Excellence in nonprofit management, and the Changing the Face of Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Funding Network. Philbin holds a B.A. from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.

Krisann Rehbein, Education Specialist, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Krisann Rehbein is an Education Specialist for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. In this capacity, she administers high school education programs for the foundation including the Newhouse Program + Architecture Competition, and the Saturdays in the Studio workshop series. She served as the project director for CAF's award-winning high school textbook; The Architecture Handbook; A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings. She is currently co-producing a web-based, interactive design curriculum to be launched in fall 2010. Krisann began her career as a grassroots organizer in Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a master's degree in social science from the University of Chicago. Her master's work focused on land use policy and change in urban neighborhoods.

Anne Rieselbach, Program Director, The Architectural League

Anne Rieselbach is Program Director of The Architectural League. Her primary role is to organize many of the League’s programs which include lectures, symposia, and tours related to architecture and design. Recent annual lecture series have included Architecture and…, Sitegeist: Nature, Memory, Identity, Fabricating Architecture, and Architecture and the City. Special series have included the on-going New York Designs, and overseeing a less formal collection of small programs titled The Mix. For over twenty years, Ms. Rieselbach has directed the Architectural League’s annual Young Architects and Emerging Voices series. The former, a nationwide competition, lecture series, and exhibition, features the work of architects and designers ten years or less out of school. Emerging Voices brings outstanding mid-career architects to the League to present and discuss their work.

Other projects at the League have included; curating exhibitions that spotlighted high quality new architecture in New York City; Paul Rudolph: Selected Drawings; The Work of Daniel Urban Kiley; co-curating Waterworks: Architecture and Landscape, an exhibition illustrating the history of New York City’s water supply system; and curating Building and Learning an exhibition illustrating the history of school design in New York City.

Ms. Rieselbach edited Emerging Voices: A New Generation of Architects in America, and was managing editor for Building the New Museum and New World Architecture. For the past ten years she has, in collaboration with Princeton Architectural Press, organized catalogues that document work by Young Architects Forum competition winners. Her published writing includes interpretive introductions to the Young Architects Forum series of publications; “Building and Learning” in New Schools for New York: Plans and Precedents for Small Schools; Building and Learning, Teachers College Record (1990). She has also published a number of book reviews and articles on contemporary design.

In 2005 Ms Rieselbach, along with the League’s Executive Director Rosalie Genevro, was presented an Award of Merit from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She is a member of the editorial board of The Architect’s Newspaper and recently completed a three-year term as a panelist for the New York State Council for the Arts, reviewing proposals for Architecture, Planning and Design grants. Ms. Rieselbach studied the history of art and architecture at Lawrence University and in the graduate program of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art & Planning.

Kim Robledo-Diga, Professional Development Manager, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian InstitutionM

Kim Robledo-Diga, has over nine years experiences in arts education. As Professional Development Manager at Cooper-Hewitt she is responsible for integrating design thinking into local and national school curricula standards and professional development trainings across the country. Kim earned a Bachelor of Fine Art with a Minor in Art History from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and a Masters of Fine Art with additional studies in arts administration from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In her prior positions, Kim developed workshops and content that utilizes museum’s collections which address state and local educational standards, designed youth exhibitions, family guides and produced a variety of cultural events and educator training on techniques for using works of art to enhance the learning experiences of children. In addition to her work in the museum field she taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was the ceramics department head at the Instituto Allende in Mexico and taught and oversaw special events at Baltimore Clayworks in Maryland.

Joseph Rosa, John H. Bryan Curatorial Chair of Architecture and Design, Art Institute of Chicago

Joseph Rosa is the John H. Bryan Curatorial Chair of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago and an adjunct professor at the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of numerous books and his writings have appeared in Praxis, Architectural Design, Assemblage, Casabella, The History of Photography Journal, Oculus, Architekur & Bauforum, and Progressive Architecture.

Rosa has curated over 30 exhibitions and was formerly the Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Curator of Architecture at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA, the Chief Curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, and the Director of the Columbia Architecture Galleries. Rosa has been a Visiting Scholar at The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, a recipient of grants from the national Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. He has also taught at Columbia University, California College of the Arts, Catholic University, the University of California Berkeley, and SCI_ARC.

Rosa received a BArch in Architecture from the Pratt Institute, a MS in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and was a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology. He has worked in the architectural firms of Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, Peter Eisenman, and Agrest & Gandelsonas.

Aaron Rose, Director of Institutional Relations, Chicago Architecture Foundation

Aaron Rose has been Director of Institutional Relations at the Chicago Architecture Foundation since 2003, where she oversees corporate, foundation and government fundraising for public programs ranging from exhibitions to youth education. Her efforts have resulted in major grants from local and national funders including Boeing, the Chicago Community Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute for Museum and Library Services. Before coming to CAF, Rose worked for more than 15 years developing grant proposals and award-winning public education materials for Chicago area non-profit organizations. Rose holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan.

Anna Sanko, Associate AIA, Founder and Executive Director, Architecture Resource Center

With a degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, a Connecticut Interior Design license, and architectural training at Harvard University, Anna has practiced professionally for twenty years in architecture and design firms providing design services for corporate, medical, school, government, retail, and industrial facilities nationally. As a project design manager she has provided planning and design assistance ranging from comprehensive plans, economic development strategies and community visions for the design of public spaces, street-scapes and individual community facilities. In all her work she is committed to an inclusive, community-based process, grounded in broad citizen participation and a vision of the design process as a tool for community organizing, empowerment, and capacity-building.

This experience provided the knowledge base from which the idea for the Architecture Resource Center (ARC) has grown. As founder and executive director, Anna leads the collaborative team’s efforts to develop the ARC program and implement its mission and goals. In addition to the day-to-day operation and planning of the program, she works with K-12 student and faculty populations throughout New England. Anna implements ARC professional development and student workshops and has an extensive background working with the under-served at-risk students in Connecticut.

Anna leads ARC efforts to develop and create design curricula and design publications. Her vision and determination have resulted in an individual National Endowment for the Arts grant for the purpose of writing and documenting the Call to the Visionary Artist© program. She was editor, photographer, and contributing writer for the teacher and student editions of New Haven's Cultural Landscape: its changing people and places (NHCL). In the process of creating the NHCL publication and program, Anna and program collaborators learned a great deal about producing a complex, simply-presented, community-based, interdisciplinary tool which have translated easily into an even more compelling statewide program, The Hartford Connection, which she now directs and serves as publication editor.

Anna has participated on Connecticut State Department of Education and Connecticut Business and Industries Curriculum Advisory Committees and as a visiting design critic at the University of Hartford Ward College of Technology, where she has served as an adjunct professor. In 1998 Anna was appointed a Master Teaching Artist for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and Young Audiences of Connecticut. She is a certified facilitator for Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection education programs and completed a Master of Arts in Education at Goddard College in 2000.

Sydney Sidwell, Senior Program Officer and Director of Administration, The Lloyd A. Fry Foundation

Sydney Sidwell is Senior Program Officer and Director of Administration with The Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, where she oversees the Arts Education program. The Fry Foundation’s Arts Education program focuses on low-income Chicago children and youth, and is interested in supporting arts education programs that are artistically and intellectually rigorous, engage students in the creative process and offer evidence of learning. She also oversees World Relief grantmaking for the Foundation. Most recently, she has co-chaired The Chicago Arts Learning Initiative, a collaborative civic effort to plan and build infrastructure to support and sustain access to arts education for all Chicago public school students.

Prior to working with The Fry Foundation, she served as Program Officer and Research Analyst with The Joyce Foundation. At the Joyce Foundation she oversaw the first two years of The Joyce Awards, a competition designed to help Midwest cultural institutions to commission work by artists of color.

Victoria Thornton, Hon FRIBA, Founding Director, Open House London

Victoria Thornton has been involved in the field of architecture for over twenty years, working with a wide range of public bodies, community groups and professionals, to explore issues related to London’s existing and future architecture.

Victoria is Founding Director of Open House, London’s leading architecture organization, established in 1992. Open House helps to challenge perceptions, break down barriers and inspire people to demand high quality places for current and future generations. Their pioneering programs and initiatives target young people, decision-makers, and the wider community, and is divided into three specific strands – education, advocacy and public engagement.

Three major education initiatives created and directed by Victoria are currently under way alongside other well-established programs:

- My City Too! This campaign was established in 2007 to provide a high-profile platform for young people aged 12-19 to express their aspirations for the future of London’s built environment and have a voice within the process.

- Junior Open House (primary schools) and Open Up (secondary schools) - a comprehensive program that uses London’s exemplary buildings to develop design and creativity skills.

As well as director and curator of many high-profile exhibitions/initiatives, Victoria established the RIBA Architecture Centre (1994-98); has been Architecture Consultant to the British Council VAD (1998-2000); architectural adviser to the Scottish Arts Council (2000) and judge for the RIBA Awards (2003), Chair and Board Member of Architecture Centre Network (2006) and the Department of Culture Media and Sports’ Engaging Places Advisory Panel (2007). She is currently a Board Member of the Irish Architecture Foundation, based in Dublin.

Victoria is the author of publications including London’s Contemporary Architecture: A Visitor’s Guide (co-written with Ken Allinson).

In 2003 RIBA awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Victoria Thornton in recognition of her contribution to architecture and the education of future generations and in 2005 awarded an honorary MA degree by London Metropolitan University. She is also a fellow of the RSA and completed an MA relating to European architecture policy and young people (2009).

John Tolva, Director of Citizenship & Technology, IBM Corporation

John Tolva is the Director of Citizenship & Technology for the IBM Corporation. John is responsible for developing new social, educational, environmental and cultural heritage projects in partnership with non-profit institutions and governmental entities. John manages international teams from specialized IBM skill groups and labs around the world.

Recent projects include Beyond Space and Time, a fully-immersive multi-user virtual world for the Forbidden City in Beijing; Meedan, a social network for discussion of current affairs of interest to the Middle East, machine-translated between English and Arabic; and the upcoming City Forward urban decision-support simulator tool.

John maintains a personal website - Ascent Stage.

Gregory Wessner, Digital Programs and Exhibitions Director, Architectural League of New York

Gregory Wessner is the Digital Programs and Exhibitions Director of the Architectural League of New York. As a curator and editor, he has organized numerous exhibitions, including New New York: Fast Forward, Studio as Muse: Herzog & de Meuron’s Design for the New Parrish Art Museum, 13:100: Thirteen New York Architects Design for Ordos, and, most recently, Toward the Sentient City (with curator Mark Shepard) and New New York 6:1000 Blocks. Publications include 125 Years: The Architectural League of New York, and Travel Reports from the Deborah J. Norden Fund.

In 2006, Wessner initiated a major digital programs initiative for the Architectural League and since that time has produced more than 150 podcasts and short videos. Wessner is a Level 2 PhD candidate in architectural history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where his focus of research is architectural culture and exhibitions.

He formerly served as Chief Administrator of White Columns and the National Academy School of Fine Arts.