URSP Alumni News 2014-15 FINAL

URSP ALUMNI
Fall 2015
NEWSLETTER
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Jim Cohen
Included in the issue is an update from the Economic
Development Center directed by Marie Howland and
Scott Dempwolf. You also will read about the activities
and accomplishments of several of our current students,
such as Tanya Sayyed who spent this past summer doing
action learning in Ethiopia; about Maha Tariq who
has worked on historic preservation with the National
Park Service; about Amina Mohamed who is currently
interning with Mahan Rykiel Associates, a landscape
architecture, urban design, and planning firm; about
Max Pastore who has been working with the Prince
George’s County Community Planning Department;
and about Brian Goodson, who presented his research
project at APA’s Annual Conference this year in Seattle,
A talented team of the School‘s students, including Washington. You will also find an interview with
URSP’s Patrick Reed, won the top prize in this year’s Charles Noble (09) who describes and reflects upon his
Urban Land Institute / Gerald D. Hines Student Design experience as Program Manager for the Boys and Men
Competition. This marked the second year in a row in of Color Initiative at the Kirwan Institute for the Study
which the School has won the competition, which has of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University.
a field of over 150 teams. Not only is it remarkable that
the School repeated as champions, but that we did so
with an entirely different team of students from the one And of course, you will find short updates of dozens of
our alumni, all of whom make us proud.
in 2014.
As you will see from the articles and updates herein, the
2014-15 academic year was a fulfilling one for URSP
students, faculty members and alumni. It was the
inaugural year for the Partnership for Action Learning
in Sustainability (PALS), created and administered by
the National Center for Smart Growth Research and
Education. As described by Maggie Haslem, herein,
PALS provides assistance to one or two Maryland
cities or counties each year on sustainability-related
issues identified by those jurisdictions. The assistance is
provided through undergraduate and graduate courses
that focus some or all of their class activities on analysis
and strategy development related to those issues.
Right: UMD graduate students on
a tour of Frederick, MD - the first
city participating in the new
PALS Program
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IN THIS ISSUE
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR………………………………………………………………... 2
NCSG UPDATE……………………………………………………………………………………... 4-5
SCHOOL WINS ULI HINES COMPETITION………………….………………………………... 6-7
2015 LEFRAK LECTURE: INGRID GOULD ELLEN…………………………………………….... 8
UMD-MORGAN STATE ECONOMIC CENTER UPDATE……………………………………..... 9
CONGRATULATIONS 2015 GRADUATES………………………………………………………. 10
2014-2015 URSP AWARDS………………………………………………………………………… 11
STUDENT PLANNING ASSOCIATION (SPA) UPDATE………………………………………... 12-14
REFLECTIONS FROM DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER……………………………………. 15
CLASS OF 2016 STUDENT PROFILES……………………………………………………………. 16
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: TANYA SAYYED………………………………………………………. 17
2014- 2015 STUDIO PROJECTS………………………………………………………………….... 18-19
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: CHARLES NOBLE……………………………………………………...... 20-21
FACULTY UPDATES…………………………………………………………………………….... 22- 25
ALUMNI UPDATES………………………………………………………………………………...26- 37
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N AT I O N A L C E N T E R F O R S M A RT G ROWT H U P DAT E
NATIONAL CENTER FOR SMART GROWTH LEADS NEW CAMPUS-WIDE ACTION
LEARNING PROGRAM; SPEARHEADS OPPORTUNITY MAPPING FOR BALTIMORE REGION
by Maggie Haslem
“PALS” PROGRAM DELIVERS $1MILLION IN
PROJECT VALUE TO MARYLAND COMMUNITIES
This year, a new campus-wide program proved its
strength in numbers, delivering sustainable solutions to
environmental, social and economic challenges to two
Maryland cities. Twenty-nine projects—which ranged
from calculating greenhouse gas emissions to re-envisioning a
downtown block—were the culmination of
coursework during the inaugural year of the University
of Maryland’s Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability, or PALS.
Developed by the University’s National Center for
Smart Growth, PALS pairs faculty expertise and student
ingenuity with sustainability challenges facing Maryland
communities. The PALS mission is to provide high
quality, low-cost assistance to local governments while
creating an active and valuable real-world learning
experience for UMD students. Working with one designated
community each academic year, PALS pairs custom
coursework with specific challenges designated by
the partner community. PALS initiated its first partnership
with The City of Frederick, Maryland in September
of 2014, adding a second, smaller collaboration with
College Park in January.
URSP played a significant role in the first year success,
dominating the course roster with six of the twenty-four
projects in Frederick and one of the five courses in
College Park. Assistant Professor Willow Lung-Amam’s
planning course had students engaging minority-owned
businesses in the city’s “Golden Mile” business district
to empower them in the area’s revitalization process.
An industrial land use analysis, overseen by Dr. Scott
Dempwolf, assessed East Frederick’s industrial inventory,
use and adaptability to mixed-use, as the city considers
new opportunities for growth and development.
Another URSP class did a greenhouse gas analysis of the
City’s municipal buildings provided a clear picture of
energy use and ways to be more efficient. Chao Liu led
a course that mapped the social and cultural identitiesand
assets of Frederick neighborhoods.
“This has truly been a win-win situation for us,” says Uri Avin,
Director of the PALS program. “Frederick sees the value in
what we can offer and has dedicated the time and effort to
help our students as they develop their projects. That kind of
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collaboration is what makes this program both effective
and meaningful for all involved.”
“We are incredibly pleased with the results of the first
semester,” said Gerrit Knaap, the Smart Growth Center’s
Director. “This program has incredible potential, not just
for the jurisdictions we serve, but for the way it can shape
the future of education.”While the majority of project reports were delivered to Frederick by year’s end, one final
course the summer course, led by Jim Cohen, is offering
recommendations for enhancing Frederick’s existing
sustainability plan.
PALS begins a new partnership with Howard County this
fall, where URSP will spearhead three projects for the
county.
“PALS has been a great partnership and has provided
invaluable information for our City; we’ll be able to use
it for a long time coming,” said Frederick Mayor Randy
McClement. “I think it shows what a true partnership in
education can do.”
To learn more about PALS, visit the program website
at http://smartgrowth.umd.edu/PALS
N AT I O N A L C E N T E R F O R S M A RT G ROWT H U P DAT
Continued from previous page
NCSG Leads Opportunity Mapping of the Baltimore
Region
In June of this year a series of maps that illustrate
gaps in opportunity, developed by the National Center
for Smart Growth, was the basis for Baltimore’s
first-ever comprehensive regional plan to create
strong, sustainable communities and break the continuous cycle of poverty for many inner-city families.
Presented on Monday to city and state policymakers
by The Opportunity Collaborative (The Collaborative),
The Baltimore Regional Plan for Sustainable
Development (RPSD) is a comprehensive roadmap
to help the region coordinate investments in housing,
transportation and workforce development, reduce
disparities and increase quality of life for the entire
Baltimore metropolitan area.
The NCSG developed the maps, known as “opportunity
maps”, through an extensive, coordinated effort
with The Collaborative and an Opportunity Mapping
Advisory Panel (OMAP), consisting of regional experts
and community stakeholders. Over a three-year
period, NCSG researchers analyzed a vast and varied
collection of data from public and private sources,
resulting in maps that illustrate where economic,
social and environmental strengths and weaknesses
lie in the Baltimore metropolitan region, which includes
Baltimore City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll,
Harford and Howard Counties.
The maps examine regional opportunity in six categories:
education; training and workforce development;
housing and neighborhood quality; crime and social
capital; public health and environment; employment;
and transportation and mobility. To produce these
maps, the NCSG and OMAP reviewed over 100 key
indicators—including high school dropout rates and
infant mortality, median income, poverty rates, access
to transit, civic institutions and social capital. The
project is the largest and most comprehensive snapshot
of equity and opportunity in Baltimore’s history.
The project shows that while Baltimore City has a
higher level of mobility and job accessibility compared to
other parts of the state, its workers have longer commute
times and inadequate public transit to the state’s
prospering job centers, many of which lie in the
suburban areas. A single composite map, in which
all of the six categories are combined and weighed
equally, shows Howard County receiving the highest
average opportunity score (83rd percentile), followed
by Anne Arundel (67th), Baltimore (58th), Harford
(41st) and Carroll (34th) Counties. Baltimore City
has the lowest average opportunity score (24th percentile).
Center director Gerrit Knaap described the Baltimore Regional Plan for Sustainable Development
as “the region’s first comprehensive effort to develop
and implement a regional strategy for economic
prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social
equity.”
The Collaborative hopes outcomes of the RPSD will
help direct policy decisions as the region moves forward to create more equity and opportunity for the
region’s poorest citizens. equity and opportunity for
the region’s poorest citizens.
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DESIGN COMPETITION
TERPS WIN ULI HINES COMPETITION FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW
Story quoted from School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation’s website
Maryland’s winning team is: Sebastian Dern (MRED), Ashley Grzywa (MARCH), Patrick Reed (MCP), Sofia
Weller (MARCH) and Daniel Moreno-Holt (MARCH/MRED).
An interdisciplinary team from the University of
Maryland’s (UMD) School of Architecture, Planning
and Preservation has won the 2015 ULI / Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition (ULI Hines). The team of five
graduate students—representing architecture, urban planning
and real estate development—won over an international jury
of experts with their development plan for the Tulane/Gavier
and Iberville neighborhoods of New Orleans, beating out two
finalist teams from Harvard University and a combined team
from the University of Wisconsin Madison and Milwaukee. “It
is an honor to win this competition,” said Sofia Weller, who is
pursuing her graduate degree in architecture. “It feels like we
are part of something much bigger. ULI Hines is considered
the Super Bowl of interdisciplinary design competitions. I
think we all feel truly humbled by the experience.”
This is the second straight year that a team from
UMD has clinched the ULI/Hines Competition,
considered the most prominent student development
and design competition in the world. UMD’s
team initially beat out 120 other entries from some
of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. to
land in the final four. ULI announced Maryland’s
win yesterday in New Orleans at the competition
conclusion. The UMD team will go home with a $50,000
prize.
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“Our team rose to the challenge in a most impressive
manner, says Professor Matthew Bell, FAIA, who was
one of the team’s advisors. “Their level of talent, passion
and dedication to the design is rare and the New Orleans
context provided for them a terrific vehicle for inter-disciplinary work. We are most proud to win for a second
straight year!”
Now in its 13th year, the ULI/Hines competition challenges interdisciplinary teams of graduate students to
create a dynamic design and development solution for
a real large-scale site in just two weeks. While this is an
ideas competition, it is part of the Urban Land Institute’s
(ULI) continued mission to engage young professionals
in collaborative solutions, responsible land use and creation of better communities. The competition demands
a variety of expertise to navigate complex zoning codes,
understand investment opportunities, examine community, site challenges and develop exciting yet realistic urban
design solutions. This year’s competition revolved around
the urban site of the Tulane/Gavier and Iberville neighborhoods of New Orleans. ULI challenged teams to create
a proposal that furthers the city’s goals of creating vibrant,
“sustaiable” neighborhoods by capitalizing on the culture
and location of the Tulane/Gravier neighborhood, while
fostering economic growth, tourism and place through
thoughtful design.
DESIGN COMPETITION
TERPS WIN ULI HINES COMPETITION FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW
Maryland’s entry, entitled “The Crossing,” took an
unconventional approach to the site that set itself apart
from the competition. The site offers several challenges,
including the elevated I-10 highway that runs parallel
to a potential retail street and an eight-lane off-ramp
that separates an existing park from the city’s proposed
greenway. To offer greater visibility for retail, the team
located the main retail street one block over from
the highway, a bold but important move that offers
two-sided frontage and pulls the site out of the shadow
of the I-10. Re-locating the monstrous off-ramp—referred to by team members as a “scar” across the site—
and replacing the linear space under the highway with
a green, recreational space connects Louis Armstrong
Park with the city’s future greenway and beyond. The
new configuration connects neighborhood retail/residential with the park and offers seamless access to the
French Quarter and the neighboring medical sector.
“There have been a lot of studies conducted on this
area of New Orleans,” said Patrick Reed, a graduate
student with the Urban Studies and Planning Program. “The majority of the scenarios we studied had
retail fronts facing C layborne Avenue, which is the
street under the highway. In a lot of ways, the other
teams took some safe moves by saying ‘they’ve studied this, they want to put it there, we’ll do what they
think is best,’ where we didn’t really necessarily feel
constrained by what was already done.”
“Our approach was, if this is really an ideas competition,
what is the best strategy and the best solution moving forward? What would make this space the best that it can be?”
added architecture graduate student Ashley Grzywa. “That
thinking helped us stretch the design boundaries while
stillremaining realistic.”
The greenspace also hosts programmed recreational space
and a “resilience center,” to celebrate the spirit and fortitude of New Orleans. Architectural accents throughout the
neighborhood, including retail typographies that marry
with the existing historic shotgun houses, capture the
city’s vibe and culture. While the design makes up an
important part of the competition, the financials are what
drive the victory.
The team’s two real estate graduate students—Daniel
Moreno-Holt and Sebastian Dern—offered creative yet
realistic financial feasibility that were key to the team’s
success.“Sebastian and Dan were extremely creative in
finding ways tofund our crazy ideas,” adds Weller.
“This is a great day for us,” said David Cronrath, Dean of
the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
“Continuing our success at ULI is no easy feat. This is an
outstanding group of students and I couldn’t be prouder
of their achievement.
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LEFRAK LECTURE
URSP hosts Dr.Ingrid Gould Ellen for the 2015 Annual Samuel J. Lefrak Lecture and Seminar
By Dr. Casey Dawkins
On April 27, The Urban Studies and
Planning Program welcomed Ingrid
Gould Ellen, Professor and Faculty
Director of the Furman Center for Real
Estate and Urban Policy at New York
University, to deliver the annual Samuel
J. Lefrak Lecture. The lecture series was
established in 1983 to honor Samuel
J. LeFrak, an accomplished developer
and planner and 1940 graduate of the
University of Maryland who helped
shaped New York City’s middle class
housing. Lefrak had a passion for
Right: UMD graduate students on a tour of Frederick, MD - the first city participatmaking cities work dynamically, a legacy ing in the new
that continues today with the lecture
PALS Program
series established in his honor.
This year’s lecture entitled “The Future of
U.S. Housing Policy” explored the effects
and effectiveness of federal, state, and
local affordable housing programs in the
U.S. Dr. Ellen began with a discussion
of recent trends in housing cost burdens
facing U.S. renters. Over the last several
decades, household incomes have
stagnated while rents have risen. As a
result, nearly a third of U.S. renters now
spend more than half of their incomes
on housing. Based on a recent review
of research on this topic and her own
research, Dr. Ellen concluded that while
rental housing assistance programs have
been successful in reducing rent burdens
and improving housing conditions for
many low-income families, only one in
four eligible families receives assistance,
and housing subsidies generally do not help families secure housing
in lower-poverty neighborhoods or higher-performing school
districts. She addressed several important tradeoffs currently facing
housing policymakers, including concentrating versus dispersing
housing subsidies, emphasizing long-term versus short-term
subsidies, investing in high-poverty areas versus facilitating access to
low-poverty neighborhoods, serving the lowest-income households
versus those earning moderate incomes, and the benefits and costs
of income-based versus flat rent policies. Dr. Ellen concluded by
pointing to several promising directions for future housing policy
efforts, including policies to enhance housing choice, encourage
work through housing, stretch subsidy dollars, and reform local
government land use and fiscal policies.
The morning after the lecture, Dr. Ellen met with members of the
Urban Studies and Planning Program and the National Center for
Smart Growth Research and Education to discuss her research and
its relationship with other work that is currently underway at the
University of Maryland.
The Lefrak Lecture is made possible by a generous donation by the
Samual J. Ethel Lefrak Foundation
The event is open to all students, alumni, faculty, staff and the general public.
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTER UPDATES
By Marie Howland
In the 2014-2015 academic year, the University of Maryland assited Morgan State Economic Development Administration Center, led by URSP’s Scott Dempwolf and Marie Howland and assited by URSP students, have contributed to economic development efforts for the State of Illinois, Montgomery County, St. Mary’s County, the City of Baltimore, Prince
George’s County, the City of College Park, Prince George’s County and Frederick, Maryland. For more detail about these
studies, see the EDA website, http://umdedauniveritycenter.com.
The EDA center also created teaching modules on location quotients, shift share analysis, and hot spot analysis that are
posted on the Center’s website (see above). Masters students in the URSP City and Regional Economic Development
course applied this analysis to the National Business Park in Howard County, the Carroll Camden Industrial area in
Baltimore, Allegany County, industrial areas in Washington, D.C., and the Research Triangle in North Carolina. An
example of one study area, conducted by master’s student, Ashley Sampson, is shown here. This class was conducted as a
global classroom with the masters in economics students from the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Above: Razia Choudry, Ken Firestone, Cole Greene, and visiting scholar Kuiqi Yang in the Spring ‘15 URSP 661 – Economic Development
course conducted jointly with the Higher School of Economics in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
Left: map of Caroll-Camden Industrial Area in Baltimore, Md, the
study area URSP students were focusing on during the course.
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G R A D U AT I O N
Congratulations Class of 2015
MCP 2015 GRADUATES
Christopher Allen
David Do
Nicholas Finio
Katie Gerbes
Brian Goodson
Haley Harned
Lyneshia Jackson
Matthew Jones
Tania Celis Leyva
Angela Martinez
Chelsie Miller
Ryan Rattanni
Patrick Reed
John Salzman
Ashley Sampson
Allison Santacrue
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Congratulation to this years MCP graduates!
May 21st in the Dekelboum Concert Hall at
the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
URSP ANNUAL AWARDS
LARRY REICH AWARD
Larry Reich was Baltimore City Department of Planning Director from 1965 to 1990 and a
central figure in the City’s down Renaissance, a proponent of community-based planning and
neighborhood initiatives, and an opponent of proposed highways that would have obliterated
some of Baltimore’s most historic neighborhoods. The Larry Reich Award is given annually to
a M.C.P. student who has shown initiative and leadership in an area of urban revitalization or
economic development. ASHLEY SAMPSON
ROBERT JANES AWARD
Robert Janes was a University of Maryland Sociology professor who created the University’s
Urban Studies program. Responding to the urban unrest of the 1960s, he established a broad
multi-disciplinary program aimed at preparing practitioners who could improve city conditions.
The Robert Janes award is given to an URSP graduating student for contributions to the mission
of the Urban Studies and Planning Program. MATTHEW JONES
AICP AWARD
The American Institute of Certified Planners Award is for achieving the highest point average
while completing the Master of Community Planning degree from the Urban Studies and Planning Program. The
award acknowledges the student’s commitment to scholarship and academic
excellence. ALLISON SANTACREU
MELVIN LEVIN OUTSTANDING MCP STUDENT AWARD
Dr. Levin was chairman of the Urban Studies and Planning Program from 1978 to 1989. This
award recognizes the student’s high level of scholarship, as well as the student’s commitment to
enhancing the quality of the Program. The student epitomizes the planning student we seek to
recruit and ultimately graduate into the professional planning field. ANGELA MARTINEZ
SAMUEL J. LEFRAK AWARD
Samuel J. Lefrak was one of the foremost leaders in the housing industry of the 20th century.
He is credited with making several important contributions to urban revitalization in New York
City. This award is presented to a MCP student in recognition of the student’s scholarship and
commitment to the vision and goals of the planning profession. PATRICK REED
URSP OUTSTANDING GRADUATE ASSISTANT AWARD
This award is presented to a graduating student in Urban Studies and Planning whose work
performance as a Graduate Research Assistant and/or Teaching Assistant has been outstanding.
CHELSIE MILLER
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STUDENT PLANNING ASSOCIATION
YEAR IN REVIEW
It was a busy year for the Student Planning
Association’s (SPA) 2014-2015 academic year.
The year was filled with several professional and
career development events scatered to student interests. SPA hosted their annual Career Panel and
Resume Clinic in which several program alumni
stopped by to guide current students in their
career planning and assisted them in improving
their resumes.
During spring term, SPA launched their “Lunch
with an Alum” initiative in which small groups of
students visited alumni at their place of work for
lunch and a discussion. Student formed affinity
groups with different planning foci including,
housing, transportation, economic development
, and environment. In addition, several SPA
students made their way to the Pacific Northwest
for APA’s Annual Conference in Seattle. Many
presented their studio and capstone projects,
volunteered at the conference, and networked
with planners from across the nation. SPA also
brought students closer together through their
monthly social happy hours.
This past August, SPA welcomed the new URSP
class of 2017 at the URSP Bootcamp training.
Several second year students talked to the incoming class about their summer internship experiences.
SPA is looking forward to the 2015-2016 academic year. They are planning on hosting panel
discussions, taking a field trip to Baltimore, hosting a movie and trivia night with area student
planners, and continuing their “Lunch with an
Alum” program.
Keep up to date with the latest SPA
activities and events on our
Facebook page.
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SPA Organizes “Lunch with Alums”
By: Dr. Alex Chen
Our inaugural “Lunch with Alums” program was
agreat success. Last Spring, small groups of
students met informally with alums to talk about
the profession and practice. In total over 30
students met with 10 different alums to chat about
planning over lunch, coffee or drinks. We are
especially grateful to alums Michael Weinberger,
Foursquare ITP; Riane McWain, Community
Preservation and Development Corporation; and
Aimee McHale, National Housing Trust, for
sponsoring a lunch for our students. The program is
designed to be flexible, respond to a mutual interest
and require minimal effort.
Above: Amee McHale (center), Assistant Vice President of the National
Housing Trust with URSP students at a “Lunch with Alums” event
STUDENT PLANNING ASSOCIATION
SPA Hosts Annual Alumni
Career Panel and Resume Clinic
The Student Planning Association (SPA) held its Annual
Career Panel and Resume Clinic on March 4th, 2014. The panel
consisted of UMD Alumni representing various areas in the
planning field. Panelist first described their career journeys and
then opened the discussion to questions related to careers, jobs,
trends in planning and more. After the event, panelists reviewed
students’ resumes.
Above, left: Tanya Allen (MCP, 2016) meets with Julie Herlands (MCP,
2001), Principal, TischlerBise
Above, right: URSP students Zack Rockwell and Andrea Haller receive
resume feedback from URSP Alum Peter Hadley (MCP ’13)
Bottom, left: URSP Alums Allison Ladd (MCP, 2001), Michael Weinberger (MCP, 2010), Dan Taylor (MCP, 2013), Ted Van Houten (MCP,
2013), and Amber Wendland (MCP, 2013) at the SPA career panel.
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URSP STUDENTS GIVE PRESENTATIONS IN SEATTLE
Brian Goodson presented his research project
“Marcellus Shale Hydrofracking In Pennsylvania: A
Look at Hotspots and Pollution Control Centers” during
APA’s poster sessions at the 2015 American Planning
Association Conference. Brian’s project explored the
growing hydrofracking industry in Pennsylvania – an
unconventional well-drilling technology that uses a mix of
pumped water, chemicals and sand in order to crack open
underlying shale in order to release natural gas.
The goal of the project was to better understand the
relationship between hydrofracking wells and local zoning.
In addition, the project sought to determine optimum
waste facility location based upon the distribution of wells.
Brian’s project concluded that hydrofracking wells were
clustered in municipalities with no zoning ordinances and
his research identified those areas that need to be better
served with wastewater treatment centers.
Brian Goodson presents his project during the poster session
at APA’s Annual Conference in Seattle.
Other URSP students presented at the
APA conference as well. Katie Gerbes
('15) and Mandi Solomon (’15) presented
their South African international studio
project; Patrick Reed (’15) presented his
project about the bargain-burden index
and high quality schools in Montgomery
County; Ashley Sampson (’15) and Angela
Martinez (’15) presented their Lyttonsville
studio project about the Purple Line.
Left to Right: Patrick Reed, Ashlee Sampson, Mandi Solomon,
Brian Goodson, Angela Martinez, and Katie Gerbes at the 2015
APA Conference.
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REFLECTIONS ON ULI COMPETITION
Patrick Reed Talks About His Experience
Q: As a planner on the team, describe your role and contribution to the project.
Reed: As the team planner, I probably had the most varied
workload of our team. The architects essentially took on design.
Our real estate developer primarily focused on the financing.
As the team planner, I worked on a number of different aspects
related to the project that had an impacted design and financing.
I’ll enumerate them below.
• I researched New Orleans zoning regulations and figured out
ways to address, or at the very least financially account for, noncompliance or zoning amendments in our proforma.
• I also worked as an advocate for the community. Our group
had quite a bit of discussion about affordable housing as a mechanism to generate equity for current residents of our planning
area, or whether it was more important to ensure affordability in
perpetuity. I had to push for the latter, and the team was able to
come up with some compromises regarding our design.
• As for funding public benefits, such as open space, civic buildings, etc., I pinpointed public subsidies for our real estate developer; for example, New Market Tax Credits and HOME loans.
• Finally, I functioned as the team leader. Our team included five
strong personalities, so I worked hard to keep myself in check,
objective about differences among my team members, and also
kept an eye on team dynamics. The competition is fairly intense,
so this was important.
Q: Can you describe the Tulane/Gavier and Iberville
neighborhood? What are the challenges that face those
neighborhoods?
Reed: The site lies at the intersection of a number of neighborhoods. Its main challenges included: addressing treatment of the
neutral ground underneath I-10; maintaining affordability in
city with intense demand for housing; deciding the appropriate
scale of design that complements the historic character of the
neighborhood without compromising profitability; embracing
history and culture with the understanding that a return to
historical urban forms is unlikely and not feasible from a market
perspective; and fostering economic and social resilience among
residents, which includes reducing the impact of major weather
events.
Q: What was the most challenging part in coming up with
a design for those neighborhoods?
Reed: We spent a long time debating whether or not we should
remove a specific off-ramp that was limiting our design’s potential. This was a tough call for a number of reasons. First, removal
meant we’d have to finance demolition. Second, the majority of
freight entering New Orleans’ CBD and the French Quarter use
the off ramp for access. Third, the off-ramp was not pinpointed
for removal in the various studies floating around out there for the
Claiborne Corridor.
Q: What advice do you have for UMD students interested in
participating in the competition next year?
Reed: The competition is very intense. Reflect whether or not
you’re up for it before you apply. I took two weeks off of work for
the first round, but for the finalist round I worked five days per
week while simultaneously managing a full credit course load.
The nights I wasn’t in class, I was working on ULI. During the
weekends, I was working on ULI. When I slept, which wasn’t
often, I was dreaming of ULI. It really consumes most of your
attention. I wouldn’t have been able to manage all of my commitments had it not been for the flexibility of my workplaces,
professors, and family.
Have fun! Winning is great, but feeling good about
your final product and your team is better.
– Patrick Reed
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CLASS OF 2016 STUDENT PROFILES
Ashlee is a second year planning student in the URSP program. She is originally from
Gary, Indiana and attended Indiana University for her undergraduate degree in Journalism
and African-American/African Diaspora Studies and minored in Latino Studies. She decided
to pursue a degree in Community Planning after her previous work experience at an apartment leasing firm. She was intrigued by the costliness of housing and the number of abandoned homes and buildings in Indianapolis. This sparked her interest in urban planning and
she hopes to work for HUD, a lobbying firm for affordable housing or a non-profit. Outside of
class, Ashlee likes to read, do some online shopping, interior decorating and go out to brunch.
A fun fact: Ashlee wanted to be a NASCAR driver when she was a kid.
Ashlee Nicole Green (MCP, 2016)
Max is a second year student in the planning program. He earned his undergraduate de-
gree at Maryland in Architecture. Max wanted to continue is higher education in planning after
taking an introductory planning course with Professor Emeritus Bill Hanna. Studying the details
of architecture while simultaneously taking more classes with Professor Hanna led him to think
that architecture wasn’t the right built environment scale to study. Rather than focusing on a
specific building, he was more interested in the workings of city around it. Max has spent the
past year as a graduate assistant for the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s County where he learned the importance of community engagement and
promotion and the need for increased collaboration between government agencies. Outside of
work, Max enjoys making trips to new cities and neighborhoods and discovering the variations
in built environment. A fun fact: Max often makes these excursions by motorcycle.
Max Pastore (MCP, 2016)
Amina is a second year student in the planning program and has lived in Laurel, MD for most
Amina Mohamed (MCP, 2016)
of her life. She was a Terrapin for her undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture and is now
a dual degree master student in Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture. While pursuing her
degree in Landscape Architecture, Amina became extremely interested in projects on a city and regional scale, especially relating to environmental policy and community engagement. She believes
that the positive progression and development of cities requires thoughtful foresight on economic
development, forward thinking policies, and active community engagement. Amina is currently an
intern with Mahan Rykiel, a local Baltimore Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Planning
firm. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a career that incorporates the principles of landscape
architecture and planning with her deep humanitarian interests. Outside of class, Amina enjoys
working on creative side projects in photography and theater projects. A fun fact: she firmly
believes avocados can brighten any day.
Maha is a second year student and is pursuing a dual degree in Community Planning and
Historic Preservation. Maha is originally from Lahore, Pakistan where she completed her undergraduate degree in Architecture. After she graduated she worked on the “Sustainable Development
of the historic Walled City of Lahore” with an NGO, Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)
in Pakistan. Maha’s interest in community planning grew while working with AKDN amidst a
multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, social mobilizers and planners and learned about
planning’s relationship to architecture, sustainability and preservation. Last spring, Maha worked
as a graduate assistant for the National Capital Regional Office of the National Park Service (NPS)
to update the List of Classified Structures (LCS). A fun fact: Maha is a talented painter without any
formal training!
Maha Tariq (MCP, 2016)
16
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Tanya Sayyed is a second year URSP student
TANYA SAYYED (MCP, 2016)
and has spent the last seven months working on her
independent research project and interning in Addis
Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Her research intent
was to look at local and international projects aimed
at empowering girls and women, with a focus on
health, education, and employment.
In doing her research, Tanya started to research
the local Women’s Health and Development organization in Ethiopia and participated in monthly
women-led community planning meetings in nearby
neighborhoods. Tanya describes the government’s
Health Extension Program as a “system that organizes communities with groups of five women addressing five agenda topics at a more reachable scale of
one group responsible for every 25 households. One
of the five women is the leader.”
Tanya Sayeed (pictured in red) travles through Amhara, Tigrey and Oromia
regions for her research.
This program was developed for inner city areas of the capital and
was targeted for vulnerable communities. The following is how Tanya, in her
journal, describes her experience attending these community meetings:
“I have attended numerous meetings over the months, and have visited the
community causally as well. While I must ask a friend for translations of
the Amharic discussions I have observed, even without translation I can
understand the frustrations these women feel with the in-numerous socio-economic challenges they have faced; but more importantly, I can feel
their conviction to tackle these challenges with strength, grace and dignity
for themselves and their children. The passion with which they express
themselves while discussing plans to pool money for needed improvements ,
or to attend training sessions for self-employment opportunities, or to form
groups of volunteers for neighborhood clean-up shifts and groups to protect
girls walking home at night needs no translation.”
In addition to her independent research, Tanya was able to intern with the
United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural, Commun cation, and Information Organization, Liaison Office to the UN Economic Commission to
Africa. Here, she shifted gears from learning about local grassroots community planning to international organization planning efforts in environmental
planning issues. These issues included national and regional “green schools,”
rain harvesting, eco-tourism, and reforestation projects for carbon sequestration projects.
Tanya Sayyed is pictured here having coffee with
community members at WHDA bi-monthly, women led
community meetings.
17
2014 - 2015 STUDIO COURSES
Transportation Planning
Transportation was the major theme of two URSP studio
courses in the 2014-15 academic year. The summer 2014
studio, led by URSP program director Jim Cohen and
Professor Gerrit Knaap, focused on a range of issues related
to one of the stations along the planned 16-mile Purple Line
light rail line planned to link Bethesda, MD in Montgomery
County to New Carollton, MD in Prince George’s County.
The Fall 2014 studio, co-led by URSP assistant professor
Hiro Iseki and adjunct faculty member Val Lazdins,
proposed master plans for two different Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT) corridor and station areas in Montgomery County.
The following are highlights of each of these two studio
projects.
The summer 2014 studio report was the result of a
request by some residents located in the unincorporated
community of Lyttonsville (pop. of about 9,100, located in
the Silver Spring area) to have our students provide ideas
and recommendations related to the new station’s location
and its impact on the community. The students interviewed
Lyttonsvville residents and business owners,County
and State planners, and other individuals to gain their
perspectives on their concerns and hopes for the new
station. They researched “best practices” that could result in
positive impacts on community connectivity (though road
improvements, creation of pedestrian walkways and bike
paths); “placemaking” (such as creation of a public plaza
18
adjacent to the station and a walking tour that would highlight
the community’s origin as an African American community and
other historical features); environmental improvements (such as
improved stormwater
management); and economic preservation (i.e. maintaining
enhancing the community’s job-rich light industrial area and
promoting greater compatibility of local industry with the
adjacent residential neighborhoods).
Students who created the Lyttonsville studio report were: Paulo
Couto; Jenna Dublin; Lyneisha Jackson; Matthew Jones; Thomas
Leonard; Angela Martinez; Chelsie Miller; Alexandra NassauBrownstone; John Salzman; Ashley Sampson; Terra Sivertsen; and
Stacy Weisfeld. The full report – Lyttonsville and the Proposed
Purple Line Station: Honoring the Past and Planning for the
Future -- is available online at arch.umd.edu.
2014 - 2015 S T U D I O C O U R S E
Transportation Planning
The Fall 2014 studio product consists of two final
reports, containing analysis and recommendations
for two different Bus Rapid Transit corridor and
station areas in Montgomery County. The origin
for the studio topic was the Montgomery County Council’s approval in 2013 of the Countywide
Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, which
recommends implementation of a 102‐mile bus
rapid transit network comprising eleven corridors
and a Corridor Cities Transitway. The County’s
plan also calls for expanding the right‐of‐way for
the CSX Metropolitan Branch to enable enhanced
MARC commuter rail service, and it also designates
24 additional Bicycle–Pedestrian Priority Areas
(BPPAs).
Above: Rendering created by URSP students of a complete
street design for Aspen Hills in the future.
Above: Map created by URSP students of the Aspen Hills
study area.
The County’s functional master plan was the result
of its planning leadership’s belief that an expanded transit network is necessary for achieving the
County’s land use, environmental, and economic
development goals, and that such a network would
make transit a reliable alternative to driving in the
County’s developed core.
The Fall ’14 studio report actually consists of two
plans --one for the Aspen Hill PBBA Sector, and
the other for the Rock Spring BPPA. Each of the
reports is a detailed plan that contains the following: a vision statement; the planning historical
background of its area’s BPPA; and analysis and
recommendations for land use and zoning, transportation, environmental sustainability, urban design guidelines, and implementation. Students who
created the Aspen Hill PBBA sector plan proposal
were Tania Celis, Matthew Folden, Brian Goodson, Haley Harned and Uri Pasternak. Authors of
the Rock Spring BPPA Sector Plan proposal were
Zachary Chissell, David Do, Rosanne Ferruggia,
Nick Finio, and Patrick Reed. The report is available
online at arch.umd.edu/ursp
Note: At the time that he co-taught the Fall 2014 studio course, Val Lazdins was head of Montgomery County’s Research and Special Projects
division within the Maryland National-Capital Planning Commission.
In June of 2015, he was hired by Howard County to be their Director of
Planning and Zoning. Congratulations to Val!
19
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Charles Whitney Noble III, Class of 2010
By Maggie Haslem
Charles Noble (MCP ’09) sees opportunity as the great
equalizer. A graduate of the UMD Urban and Community Planning Program, Charles—who also has his JD
from The Ohio State University (OSU)—is the Program
Manager for the Boys & Men of Color Initiative at the
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
at Ohio State. Through Kirwan, Charles is leading the
charge on a pivotal social initiative: to create a foundation of opportunity for black youth through the
program, More Than My Brother’s Keeper (MTMBK).
MTMBK is a community outreach program that provides mentorship, experiential learning, parent engagement and a variety of services to young men, ages 10-14,
in two of the most vulnerable zip codes in the south
Columbus area.
Charles started at the Kirwan Institute in 2012 as a legal
policy analyst, working on diversity and inclusion issues
in higher education and cutting his teeth on the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Fisher vs. UT Austin. A
large portion of his work now, in addition to MTMBK,
relates to the social determinants of infant mortality
in communities of color, specifically why rates seem to
be higher for African American and Hispanic families.
Charles credits his planning background with allowing
him to understand how institutions, policy and history
work together to produce contemporary, negative effects
on society. “Planning has helped me take the individual
decision-making out of the equation and really understand that folks are situated in institutions, and that
where they are situated affects their outcomes.” Below,
Charles talks about the More Than my Brother’s Keeper
model, the rewards of his work and how race is a state of
misperception:
Q: Talk a little bit about More Than My Brother’s
Keeper
Noble: More than my Brother’s Keeper is an iteration
of the national program, “My Brother’s Keeper,” initiated by the White House to address the disparities in
opportunity facing boys and young men of color. Our
pilot program launched in September 2014. We focus
on black males, 10-14 that come from a family 200%
or more below the poverty line. The program has three
main components: experiential learning, parent engage-
20
Charles Noble (MCP 2009) is the Program Maager for
the Boys and Men of Color Initiative at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
at Ohio State University.
ment and a mentoring component. The experiential learning aspect addresses two important aspects for these kids:
building the soft skills that they may not be able to get in
the same way that their suburban counterparts; and to offer
opportunities for these kids just to be kids. These young men
have to have this “grown man persona” because of some of
the issues they deal with. The violence is chronic. The lack of
opportunity is chronic. These are the stories that happen in
Baltimore, Columbus, Chicago, and I think many folks just
are not aware of them.
In my experience before this program, I worked to inform
policy through dialogue and through applying different lenses, but this has given me a completely different perspective on
what it is going to take to move people along this continuum
of poverty. The parent engagement portion, which involves
connecting parents with resources and services, tries to help
move them through that continuum and out of poverty. We
understand that if we’re not working with the parents, the
force of traction that we’re gaining with the kids isn’t going to
hold.
My staff doesn’t facilitate programming; we are the administrative arm behind the scenes. We’ve partnered with a wide
spectrum of services: legal aide services, a furniture bank, a
children’s hospital (who screen our kids for early signs of Diabetes) mental health care—a wide spectrum. We are acting
A L U M N I S POT L I G H T
Continued from previous page
as the conduit between the services that people need and
the people. Our team works to create multiple touches with
these kids and their families throughout the week.
What we are looking to find out is if this collection of outof-school activity increases in-school outcomes: grades,
attendance and behavior are the metrics we are examining.
We plan to follow this longitudinally for the next year,
but we should have our first benchmark in the next two
months. From there, we will know whether we’re making
an impact. This is the most amazing opportunity I’ve ever
had; we get to focus on folks that are beyond the eight ball
in a lot of ways.
Q: Talk about a turning point in your life that influenced
your career path.
Noble: I had a lot of opportunity growing up, but my
extended family didn’t have the same opportunities I had.
My cousin went to jail a few years ago for selling drugs.
We grew up together, but his mom suffered from mental
issues and substance abuse and there was a lot of instability.
I remember reflecting on that as an adult and recognizing
the unfairness; he was just as smart as I was, but when he
needed the institutional support of school and of society,
he just didn’t get it. I have gifts and I have talents, but what
makes me unique and what allowed me to get to where I
am today was opportunity and what my parents provided
me. I want to be able to give back to folks who aren’t in that
position.
Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job?
Noble: The most rewarding part of my job is being able
to help kids and families believe that their wildest dreams
are possible. The other day, a mother said to me, “Charles,
I want you to help my son understand that he can go to college, even though we are poor.” It’s those kinds of conversations, those seeds that we can sow, that help kids understand that, while there are barriers and limitations in life,
this isn’t the end of the road for you; there are bigger and
better things out there for you.
Q: You recently gave a TED talk on race in America. With
the recent events in Baltimore and Ferguson, race is one of,
if not the prevailing social issue of our time. Where, do you
think, the disconnect lies?
Noble: We don’t necessarily have racial problems in this
country, or economic problems or class problems; we have
problems that develop in ideological contexts based on
race, economy and class; then we go out and recreate the
world based on how we understand it to be. It’s those misinformed ideologies that result in a lot of what we see out
in society. People just need to think differently; it can be
that simple. If it is terrifying that these things exist in our
society, we can go out and educate ourselves about what’s
going on and we can start thinking differently about it, but
the challenge is our reluctance to step outside of ourselves
and into the lives of other people. I think that is a big perpetuator. Fundamentally, people are good-natured; but we
don’t have the chance to act on that good nature because
we aren’t aware of what the problems are.
Q: What are your hopes for the future of More Than My
Brother’s Keeper?
Noble: One of things that we have been racking our brains
on is how to keep these kids in the program after they age
out. So, we are looking to develop an alumni component,
where they can come back and pour their talent and resources into other kids. We are also collaborating with the
Young Scholars group at OSU, and the county and the city
to create smart hand-offs, where older teens would have
access to employment opportunities. The goal is to provide
as many resources as we can so that we can keep kids, post14, involved and engaged in a meaningful way.
On a grander scale, we hope to create a national model of
the work that we are doing. More Than My Brother’s Keeper is the first entity in the country to be actively engaging
in the national initiative; many of the others are still in the
planning phase. We plan to work with other cities as well
on their programs.
Q: What inspires you?
Noble: People inspire me. It’s the untapped potential in
people that I want to help draw out. That openness that
these people share with us every day is such a precious
thing that we have and so because of that, we have a responsibility to go out and tell their stories in ways that will
bring attention to the issues that are affecting them. I think
it’s the struggles of people on a day-to-day basis that inspire
me to go out and do this kind of work.
21
FACULTY UPDATES
2014 - 2015 Academic Year
Willow Lung Amam
Willow celebrated her second year as a faculty member at her alma mater. While working on her book on
Asian American placemaking and the politics of development in Silicon Valley suburbia, she also pursued
research related to immigration in American suburbs, including investigations of multigenerational housing
development and suburban immigrant faith institutions. The bulk of her research focused on the impact of
suburban redevelopment and retrofit projects on disadvantaged communities in the Washington, DC area.
Relatedly, she completed, along with Casey Dawkins and Gerrit Knaap, projects to develop affordable housing
and equitable development strategies for Langley Park, a largely low-income, immigrant community near the
university. With these colleagues and Ph.D. student, Eli Knaap, Willow has also been researching how residents
perceive of opportunity in neighborhoods in Baltimore. Willow’s research was supported by the MAPP Junior
Faculty Research Grant, UMD’s ADVANCE Interdisciplinary and Engaged Research Seed Grant, the Maryland
Department for Housing and Community Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. It appeared
in the Journal of American Ethnic History, Journal of Planning Education and Research, an edited volume,
Making Suburbia: New Histories of Everyday America, and a recent op-ed in the Baltimore Sun. She presented
her research at American University’s Metropolitan Policy Center, he American Collegiate Schools of Planning
(ACSP) and Urban Affairs Association conferences, and a symposium organized by the National Center for
Smart Growth Research and Education (NCSG) on transit and urban form in Paris.
In the classroom, Willow taught “Planning and Design in the Multicultural Metropolis,” a course she introduced
toURSP, and “Community Social Planning,” which was taught for many years by now retired Professor Howell
Baum.Both classes participated in the inaugural year of UMD’s Partnership for Active Learning in Sustainability (PALS)Program, a university-wide initiative meant to the harness the expertise and energy of faculty and
students to helpMaryland communities become more sustainable. She also taught two undergraduate courses,
“People, Planet andProfit: Building Sustainable Places,” and “Diversity and the City.”
Willow became affiliate faculty in NCSG and the Asian American Studies Program. She also holds affiliate or
associate positions in UMD’s American Studies department, the Center for Race, Gender and Ethnicity, and the
MarylandPopulation Center. She was honored by her selection to participate as a fellow in UMD’s Advancing
Faculty DiversityProgram and ACSP’s Junior Faculty of Color Workshop.
Alex Chen
Alex Chen continues to teach the research methods course, He continues to work on activities focused on
outreach and community building. He managed the third annual campuswide 2014 Code for Community II
Competition with $1750 in cash prizes; he continued his Connecting Children to Community effort, with Sidwell
Friends School with planning student Andrea Haller. The Video Wall: Diversity in Urban Planning continues with
planning students Pranjali Rai and Andrea Haller.
Jim Cohen
Jim continues his run as program director, approaching Marie Howland’s record for longest term of service as
URSP leader. He is teaching four classes in the upcoming year, including an undergraduate course entitled “The
Sustainable City: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges.” This summer he and master’s student Emma Prindle
worked on a paper exploring future electricity production strategies for the global cities ranked in the 2015 Ar22
FACULTY UPDATES
2014 - 2015 Academic Year
cadis Sustainable Cities Report’s as the top 20 in the “Planet” (i.e. environmental ) category. They are exploring the degree to which such cities are relying on the burning of biomass and of garbage to generate electricity, and the environmental strengths and shortcomings of these strategies. This summer he taught a studio
class in which students wrote a sustainability plan for the City of Frederick, MD, utilizing that city’s initial draft
plan, selected PALS reports from the 2014-15 academic year (see the PALS update in this newsletter), and their
own research on their recommended additional plan elements.
Jim is still resident of Greenbelt, MD, where he leads the Greenbelt Homes, Inc. co-operative’s Buildings
Committee. The Co-op membership recently voted to adopt a plan for improving the energy efficiency of the
co-op’s vintage (1930s) homes. Jim presided over two of his nieces’ weddings so far this year.
Casey Dawkins
Casey Dawkins has been involved with several projects addressing housing policy in the BaltimoreWashington
metropolitan area as well as nationally. His research examining the spatial distribution of Low Income
Housing Tax Credit properties was recently published in the Journal of the American Planning Association.
He has been working with the Baltimore Metropolitan Council for the last year to develop a Regional Housing Plan for the Baltimore region. That plan will be released later this fall. This summer, Dr. Dawkins and
colleagues Gerrit Knaap and Willow Lung Amam have secured funding from the Maryland Department of
Housing and Community Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to examine the community-level threats and opportunities facing the residents of Langley Park, Maryland, as the community plans for
a new Purple Line rail station. Dr. Dawkins has also secured funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development to conduct a national study of the disabled population residing in HUD-subsidized housing to identify gaps in the supply of handicap accessible low-income housing units.
Chengri Ding
Chengri Ding teaches URSP courses in the microeconomics of planning (including location theory) and urban
economics. He was invited to contribute an article to an edited book “The Oxford Companion to the Economics of China,” by Oxford Press. The contributors to the book include four recipients of The Nobel Prize in
Economics and renowned academics from top universities from China, Europe, and North America. The book
provides a collection of new perspectives on the Chinese economy’s past, present, and future, covering China’s aggregate performance, the main sectoral trends, and issues of inequality and environment. Chengri’s
paper focuses on issues and challenges in land policy. He also advised the 2014 Beijing Urban Master Plan
Modification by Beijing Urban Planning Commission and serve as an expert witness.
Chengri worked with Ph.D. student Yu Qiao on the impact of employment centers on new firms’ survival by
using a Hazard model. The research results suggest that the chance of new firms’ survival is high if they are
located inside major employment centers and the effect fades away with the age of new firms. He presented
a paper on this topic at the 2014’s Annual Conference of Regional Science Association International. Another
paper with Ph.D. student Zhi Li focused on the relationship between city size and city growth in China, and
was presented at the 2014 Annual Conference of Regional Science Association International.
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FACULTY UPDATES
2014 - 2015 Academic Year
Marie Howland
Marie Howland has received a grant from campus to test a “global classroom” with the Higher School of
Economics in Russia. In combination with Professor Leonid Limonov she will teach a joint economic development class that examines the job creation and innovation of industrial districts. The Russian students from
the Higher Economics University will meet “on-line” with the University of Maryland students using Adobe
Connect in the spring semester of 2015. She also continues as Co-Director with Dr. Scott Dempwolf for the U.S.
Economic Development Administrations University Center, a five year grant to Urban Studies and Planning. A
current project of the EDA University Center is the Community Economic Development Study for St. Mary’s
County, Maryland. For more information about the Center, go to http://www.umdedauniversitycenter.com/.
In addition, she is teaching Economics for Planners in the Fall. She continues to direct the Urban and Regional
Planning Ph.D. program for the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
Hiro Iseki
Hiro Iseki, Assistant Professor in URSP with a joint appointment with the National Center for Smart Growth
(NCSG), has been active in several research projects in the past year. Hiro published with his colleagues at
NCSG a paper in the journal Transport Policy, which uses a freight transportation model to examine the impacts of three different freight policies on the transportation network. In addition, the paper with the former
master’s student Matt Tingstrom was recently published in the journal Computers, Environment and Urban
Systems. This study proposes a new spatial analysis method to incorporate topography/terrain, street network,
presence of intersections in the bike-shed analysis, using cyclists’ energy consumption to travel as travel impedance, rather than distance or time. (The journal publisher, Elsevier, provides a free access to the article by
October 13, 2014.) Hiro presented this paper, as well as two other papers, in the 12th World Conference on
Transportation Research (WCTR) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July, 2013. He also attended the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 93rd Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January, 2014, to present two papers. Hiro and his
colleague at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, contributed to Encyclopedia of Transportation, Social Science
and Policy, published by the SAGE Publications, writing two sections about “Rail Transit Systems, Worldwide”
and “Parking Enforcement”. In terms of on-going research, Hiro recently completed a study that examines the
effect of gasoline price on transit ridership, using advanced econometric methods. The report of this study has
been recently accepted by Mineta Transportation Institute and is forthcoming. He is also conducting research
on: (1) the distribution of firms across the Washington DC-Maryland region in relation to Metro stations; (2)
perceptions of transit service; and (3) a model to predict rail transit ridership in response to land use changes.
In the 20013-2014 school year, he continued to teach two transportation-related courses: (1) Transportation
and Land use and (2) Urban Transportation Policy and Planning with emphasis on economics and finance. He
also taught with his PhD student, Robert Jones, a session on “Introduction to Quantitative Skills” in the URSP
Bootcamp, which was provided for the first time to incoming students in the summer 2013 and had a huge
success to helpthem prepare for regular course work in the URSP program.
Gerrit Knapp
As last year, Gerrit spent much of last year continuing projects begun in previous years. The book from the conference on planning for states and nation-states was finally published by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.
Promotional events were held at the APA conference in Seattle and the Meetings of the European Schools of
Planning in Prague. The Baltimore Regional Sustainable Communities Plan was released in June and featured
many maps and analyses produced by NCSG students and staff. The Purple Line Corridor Coalition took a bit
24
FACULTY UPDATES
2014 - 2015 Academic Year
of a break while waiting for Governor Hogan to decide whether to continue with the transit project. With his
approval, the PLCC plans to reengage in developing a community development strategy for the corridor in the
coming year. URSP alumnus Jason Sartori will lead another Makeover Montgomery symposium in early May
2016. And with Uri Avin and others, Gerrit helped to launch the inaugural year of the Partnership for Action
Learning (PALS) in Frederick and College Park; PALS will begin its second year in Howard County and Baltimore
City in Fall. The scenario planning initiative called PRESTO, is advancing nicely with support from the Town
Creek Foundation and the Socio-Environmental Synthesis Lab in Annapolis. This intensive modeling exercise
is intended to offer new insights into how best to foster sustainability in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor.
Gerrit is now the grandfather of four.
Chao Liu
Chao Liu developed a new course: URSP 688L Planning Technologies which was taught for the first time in
the Spring 2013 semester. She collaborated with her colleague, Eli Knaap, to redesign this class by using blended learning techniques for the Fall 2014 class. This course provides an introduction of several basic technologies needed by planners, with a special focus on GIS, as well as concepts and knowledge to evaluate a variety
of technologies (blogs, social-networking tools, video-sharing, on-line survey, etc.) in order to select the best
approach for particular tasks in the whole planning process. The blended learning approach will offer MOOCstyle on-line lectures, demonstrations, and problem-solving webinar discussions with peers and instructors.
In addition to her teaching experience, Chao is working on several projects. One is the Opportunity Collaborative project funded by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council
(BMC). The Opportunity Collaborative is the consortium charged with developing the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (RPSD) for the Baltimore region. The consortium is comprised of 26 members including local
governments, state agencies, universities and nonprofit organizations. Over the process of developing the
RPSD, opportunity mapping is a GIS-based tool to analyze a variety of opportunities at the neighborhood
level that exist throughout the region. Understanding the disparities of the access to different opportunities
is a crucial step to developing the RPSD and further helps the Opportunity Collaborative to connect housing,
transportation and workforce development in the region. Chao wrote several project reports and research
papers and presented the project results at many conferences. Chao is also working on several projects for the
Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). She is collaborating with some col-leagues to work on a policy report entitled “Current Conditions, Trends, and Driving Forces affecting Maryland’s Transportation System”
that addresses the critical issues of transportation and economy in the state of Maryland. She also conducted
a research paper for MDOT that addresses transit ridership improvement and Transit Oriented Development
design in Maryland. This work provided policy guidance for the MDOT to promote transit usage. This research
paper was submitted to Transportation Research Board (TRB) 2014 for publication review.
In addition, Chao has been conducting multiple research projects that explore the time budget allocation of
individual travel behavior, transit performance evaluation, transportation energy consumption reduction, and
ecological driving behavior.
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ALUMNI UPDATES
Vionna (Jones) Adams, MCP 2001
I am currently working in the Facilities Department of Williams International in Walled Lake, Michigan doing project and environmental
management. I am also a member of the Multi Modal Transportation Board for Birmingham, Michigan, where I live with my husband,
Tres and two daughters, Vivia (2 years) and Beckett (3 months).
Dario Alvarez, MCP 2013
After moving to Los Angeles in 2013, Dario Alvarez consulted for the Venice Collaborative, a group of architects and developers who
work towards urban infill projects and the sensitive densification of Venice, California. In 2014, Dario took a project manager position at
the architecture and construction firm Marmol Radziner, where he worked on various projects including a winery, historic restoration,
offices and a recording studio. In November of 2014, Dario married Sarah Rodman in the Santa Monica Mountains. Currently, Dario is
engaging with community organizations in East and South Los Angeles around issues of affordable housing
Kayla Gail Anthony, MCP 2014
Kayla just celebrated her first year working as an analyst at Brailsford and Dunlavey in Washington, DC. She dove into a myriad of
planning projects, including K-12 district and facilities planning, sports venues planning, and economic impact work. Outside of work,
Kayla visited San Francisco, Chicago, and Pittsburgh to take in the splendor of urban environments... and enjoy some tasty food! She has
continued to serve as a board member for the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Planning Association, putting together
opportunities for networking with planners in the region. Connect with her on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaylagail
Brent Beane
Brent has been working with the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County, MD as a Family Case Manager since January
2014. He has also taken up freelance technical writing and is currently preparing a TAP (Technical Assistance Panel) Report for
ULI Washington on “Re-Envisioning Rhode Island Avenue” on redevelopment at and around the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood
Metro Station in NE Washington, DC. The project’s panel featured 11 planning-related professionals from the DC Metropolitan Area
who met with local stakeholders, brainstormed together and gave expert recommendations on the Rhode Island Ave NE Study
Area. Additionally, Brent is coming upon three years as Vice President of Administration of the University of Maryland School of
Architecture’s Alumni Chapter, MAPP+D.
Ilana Branda, MCP 2006
Policy and Neighborhood Development Manager, Montgomery Housing Partnership
Ilana is leading the policy initiatives at Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP), advocating on a local, state and federal level on
issues related to affordable housing and households with low-incomes. She also leads MHP’s neighborhood development activities
supporting multiple neighborhoods throughout Montgomery County as they combat disinvestment and social challenges, When not
working, Ilana spends her time in Silver Spring with her husband and three kids.
David Boston, 2012
Senior Planner, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
David is currently working with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince George’s County as a Senior
Planner. He’s also attending the University of Maryland again, as a Ph.D. student in Urban and Regional Planning and Design with
research specializations in economic development, poverty alleviation, and gentrification. He and his wife, Caitlin, currently live in
Frederick with their cat, Zelda, but are hoping to move to Prince George’s County some time in the very near future.
Aviva Brown, 2013
Aviva is currently working at Vantage Point Economic and Transportation Development Strategies as an Associate under the guidance
of Jim Prost. IHer work is focused on T ransit Oriented Development economic analysis and provide assistance for real estate market
analysis. She works on many different projects at a time, but some of her current efforts include developing a county-level economic
development strategic plan and conducting economic analysis around potential light rail stops for the Red Line in Baltimore City. Aviva
was recently elected as the Emerging Planners Group Chair for the Maryland American Planning Association Executive Committee.
After serving as the student representative last year, she is very excited to have another opportunity to stay involved with the executive
committee. II her position she is working to coordinate events and resources for all the new planning professionals in the area and
looks forward to working with the Student Planning Association at UMD!
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Jonathan Brown, 2003
Jonathan and Samantha recently returned to Richmond, VA. with their daughter Rose who was only 1 year old when they were a part
of the Planning program. Rose is now going on 14! Prior to their return to Richmond Jonathan worked for the City of College Park.
Now back in Richmond Jonathan has returned to consulting work.
Kellie Brown
Kellie Brown still works as a long range planner for Arlington County, VA and bikes to work from her house a mile away. Current focus
area is preparation for a future planning study on the Lee Highway commercial corridor. Kellie has 3 kids, Sam (7) Ben (5), and Leah
Rose (1).
Samantha Brown, 2003
Assistant Vice President of Real Estate Development, Community Housing Partners (CHP), a non-profit affordable housing developer.
Samantha has been with CHP for 9 years. She manages the development of affordable housing from acquisition through financing,
construction, and project close out including both new construction and rehabilitation of existing multifamily properties. Samantha
and Jonathan now reside in Richmond, VA with their daughter Rose who was only 1 year old when they were a part of the Planning
program. Rose is now going on 14!
Mary Burkholder, 1986
Executive Vice President Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation.
Mary has worked in economic and community development for more than 25 years first as a local government planner, then a
local economic development director, assistant secretary for two different State of Maryland agencies (Business and Economic
Development and Housing and Community Development), senior vice president of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
and a consultant for ZHA, Inc. and her own firm, Mary Burkholder Consulting, LLC.
Aimee Chambers
Aimee Chambers is a Project Director at the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA). In this position, she manages the
day-to-day operations of the Road Home Liaison Group; a State funded collaborative of non-profit affordable housing agencies
that provide case management and social services to non-compliant Road Home grantees in Southeast Louisiana. The Road Home
program has helped many residents of Louisiana affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita get back into their homes, but it has also
been wrought with several policy and process issues over the years. As the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the
Road Home Liaisons are working to closeout some of the programs most complicated cases. Aimee joined GNOHA in March 2015,
after wrapping up a contract with Broadmoor Development Corporation (BDC) where she worked as the organization’s sole staff
member, focused on downsizing, developing and executing a plan to restructure and refocus its activities. Aimee is a NeighborWorks
certified housing counselor and is working on obtaining her real estate license.
Robert Church, 1987
I graduated from UMCP in December, 1987. I became a licensed attorney in Maryland in 1994 with my first job being a law clerk on
the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. I’ve since been admitted to practice in North Carolina and Washington DC. My volunteer
work this year is assisting Catholic Charities in Baltimore with pro bono legal services. They have a program to help the state
accommodate an influx of 2,800 undocumented children coming to the Maryland from Central America. Many of these children
have been abandoned by their parents in Central America. I have experience with family law. Therefore. I am one of many volunteers
assisting these children by reviewing their qualifications for special juvenile immigrant visas or asylum claims.
Kenya Covington, Ph.D.
Kenya is an Associate Professor in the Urban Studies and Planning Department at California State University, Northridge where
she has been for nine years. Previously, was director of the research department at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation,
Inc. in Washington, D.C. where she was responsible for the conceptualization and release of major research studies on black male
unemployment, innovative legislation to boost homeownership among renters and the implementation of a health disparities grass
root education campaign. Her current research examines the social and economic conditions of at risk populations and considers
the effect of social and urban policy responses. Currently, she is documenting how Los Angeles responded to the 2007 housing crisis,
focusingon efforts by the city to stabilize neighborhoods after unprecedented foreclosures.
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Dana Rothstein Crater
Dana is a Senior Economic Development Associate at IEDC, where she manages a variety of research and advisory service projects.
Currently, she leads a nationwide research and knowledge-sharing project in Reshoring American Jobs, sponsored by the U.S. Economic
Development Administration; spearheads a project with a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist a large region
of Eastern Kentucky diversify its economy in light of losses in the coal industry; and collaborates on an economic resiliency project
involving three counties on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Dana lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with her husband and
daughter.
John Crumm
I work on a variety of public trails in Macomb County. I am also currently working on the Selfridge Air National Guard Base to secure
the shoreline of the base (located on Lake St. Clair) into local public control. Eventually this base will be closed and I want to make
sure that the shoreline is in public hands. There are many complications but I look forward to making sure that the public has access
to Lake St. Clair.
Matthew Dolamore, 2014
National Network Coordinator, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Baltimore, MD.
I work with nonprofit partners to develop community-based services for migrants impacted by immigration detention, with emphasis
on individuals and families seeking asylum in the US. I am involved in discussions on policy and program implementation with US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Areas of focus include client housing models, community integration, and organizational
development.
Chris Dickersin-Prokopp, 2009
Program Analyst. DC Department of Housing and Community Development.
Chris lives with his wife and son in DC, where he helps manage the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund and provides policy and
program guidance to DHCD.
Fran Doherty
Last January 2014, I began working with US Bank as an underwriting on their commercial real estate team. I entered the lending world
in order to enhance my financial analysis skills so that I could ultimately return to the affordable housing and community development
sphere. In the spring of this year, that opportunity presented itself within the bank. I took a position in US Bank’s Community
Development Corporation as a relationship management associate. In this role, Ioriginate and underwrite projects around the country
that use New Markets Tax Credits and/or Historic Tax Credits, lend to non-profit affordable housing organizations, such as my previous
company Enterprise Community Partners, and other community development investors. The new role also enabled me to move to
Portland, Oregon, a city I’ve dreamed about living in since before knowing what an urban planning icon it was.
Jose Dory, 2008
I am currently in my second year of getting a second masters degree in Real Estate Development. I hope to graduate in Fall of
2015. I work full-time for the Maryland National Capital Parks & Planning Commission, where have been here since I graduating
with my Master of Community Planning degree. I am a transportation analyst planner in the Functional Planning & Policy Division.
I monitor, collect, and analyze all types of transportation data and present the information to the Montgomery County Planning
Board and County Council in a biennial report that is called the Mobility Assessment Report. I also support various master plans in a
transportation analysis capacity. (See Link) - http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/transportation/
I am a Baltimore City resident and serve on the Board of a neighborhood association with its aim to improve the quality of life by
developing sustainable initiatives for residents in the community. I own an investment property in that neighborhood. I am licensed
in Real Estate where, part-time, I serve as a buyer’s or selling agent to clients throughout the DC and Baltimore region. (See Link)
http://www.rlathome.com/home/partner-associates/jose-dory-partner-associate/
Steven Gehrke (2011)
Doctoral Student, Portland State University.
My doctoral studies in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at PSU are focused on active transportation and its
relationship with the built environment. Outside of academic research, my time is spent biking, drinking strong coffee, and traveling.
This past summer, I visited the Netherlands, Singapore, and Myanmar with my wife, Olivia.
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Rob Goodspeed
Rob is in his second year at the University of Michigan. He is continuing his research on new tools for planning, and is teaching
courses in GIS, scenario planning, and collaborative planning. He bought a house with his wife Libby last summer in Ann Arbor.
Sarah Greenberg
Sarah recently relocated to Milwaukee, WI where her husband accepted a position on the faculty at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee. Sarah currently serves as Director of Lending for the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, an economic
development agency committed to redeveloping the 30th Street Industrial Corridor by attracting advanced manufacturing back to
the inner city. She also joined the board of Historic Milwaukee, Inc. and is working to promote creative placemaking all over the city.
Jaime Fearer, AICP, 2011
Planning and Policy Manager, California Walks.
Jaime joined California Walks in late June, and her focus is on multigenerational advocacy with the goal to positively influence policy
and land use changes that will improve pedestrian safety and walkability across the City of San José and the greater South Bay. Before
moving to California, Jaime worked with City of Greenbelt, Maryland, as a community planner where she focused on a number of
projects, including working with Greenbelt’s Advisory Planning Board to complete the city’s Pedestrian and Bicyclist Master Plan,
implementing Safe Routes to School infrastructure improvements at a local elementary school, and securing a grant to complete a
citywide bike share feasibility study.
Danielle Felix, 2009
Asset Manager, US General Services Administration
I supervise the real property capital investment program for the Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Courthouses, and the
Heating Operations and Transmission District (HOTD) located in the National Capital Region (NCR). I also assist with the development
of the Capital Portfolio Plan for these agencies in order to reduce their footprint and save federal tax dollars on leases. I recently
became a great aunt to Kylie Theresa Shaw, born on October 4, 2014.
Milagro Fisher
Senior Affordable Housing Specialist, US Department of Housing and Urban Development
In 2004, Milagro Fisher joined HUD as a Presidential Management Fellows. Milagro is now a senior affordable housing specialist with
over 12 years of affordable housing and community development experience. She is currently responsible for launching HUD’s National
Housing Trust Fund. As a HUD-certified affordable housing specialist, she has experience working in the areas of program design
and administration, homeownership housing, rental housing compliance, housing rehabilitation and tenant-based rental assistance.
Milagro and her family live in Washington, DC. She is expecting their second baby November 2015.
Nicole M. Lacoste Folks, Esq, 2000
I have been practicing land use and real estate law in Baltimore City since 2001 and living in Fells Point in the City since 2003. My law
practice is based in Baltimore but I’m currently working on several real estate development projects across the country and overseas.
I am able to walk to work so that’s a nice way to start and end each workday. Weekends are spent often at our rural cabin just
outside of Berkeley Springs, WV where I am consistently intrigued by the local land use issues discussed in the local paper. It is a very
different set of issues as compared to urban Baltimore! I am also still teaching “Real Estate Negotiations and Drafting” at University
of Maryland School of Law as an adjunct professor.
Alex Lee, 1992
Business Vice President, CH2M HILL, Indianapolis, IN
Transitioned out of the Washington D.C. area (twenty years), having worked on the Wilson Bridge Project, I-495 Express Lanes and
Dulles Metrorail Expansion; relocated to Indiana last year; currently serving as VP for Indiana/Kentucky/Michigan for CH2M HILL and
senior technologist for public involvement for large scale transportation for the Midwest.
Brooke (Taylor) Fossey
Brooke most recently worked as a Senior Planner at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro). She is currently the
primary caregiver for her son and she and her family are in the midst of packing up their life after 11 years in DC and heading north
to Boston. She’s excited to explore a new city by foot, bike, bus, and train!
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Steven Gehrke, 2011
Doctoral Student, Portland State University. My doctoral studies in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at PSU are
focused on active transportation and its relationship with the built environment. Outside of academic research, my time is spent
biking, drinking strong coffee, and traveling. This past summer, I visited the Netherlands, Singapore, and Myanmar with my wife,
Olivia.
Peter Hadley, 2013
Financial Analyst, Jones Lang LaSalle.
Peter works for the Public Institutions team at real estate professional services firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, where he supports the
Department of Defense’s privatized housing portfolio. He lives and works in DC and enjoys riding his bicycle all over town.
Ray Hayhurst, MCP 2011
Complete Streets Coordinator, City of Alexandria Department of Transportation & Environmental Services, Alexandria, VA I have been
working for the City of Alexandria just over year now, after previously working for the Montgomery County Planning Department and
KFH Group. Projects I have been involved in with at the City include the Potomac Yard Metrorail Station, West End Transitway, and
future service improvements for the Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway on Route 1, the region’s first BRT line. Most recently, I was
promoted to the position of Complete Streets Coordinator, where I manage the implementation of various projects to make the City’s
streets safer and more accessible for bicyclists, pedestrians, and other users. Still living in and enjoying Washington, DC.
Michael Helta
After 3 years of working for the MTA in the Capital Programming department, I was promoted mid-year to manage the Project
Development department in the Office of Planning and Programming. Duties include the oversight of the conceptual design and
public outreach for major agency capital expansion projects (MARC stations, transit corridors, facilities, etc), initiation and oversight
of planning studies (BRT!, Bus On Shoulder!, etc), and whatever else we can think of that will help to position the agency to improve
its services in the future. The Professional Association of Young Transportationists (PAYT), a trade organization I helped start in 2013,
is officially becoming a YPT chapter this fall. Still living in and loving Baltimore. Still an O’s fan.
Jason Hesch
I am currently working part time at the Port of Miami as a pier agent. And volunteering at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in their
orchid lab micro propagating Florida native orchids for their Million Orchid project to place orchids in trees in urban areas across the
city. And I was a ball person this year and last year for the Sony and Miami Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne. I also helped
out a Miami-Dade County commissioner campaign defeat a disliked incumbent.
Cristina Huidobro
I moved back to Chile on April 2014 and started working for Santiago’s Municipality, which is the main one within the Santiago’s
metropolitan area. The Mayor appointed me as Master Plan Director of the “Franklin Neighborhood”, an historic and commercial
area close to downtown. This means that I am in charge of a comprehensive revitalization of the neighborhood that includes public
space, infrastructure, economic development, historic preservation, transportation and community development. Actually, I’ve been
using all the skills and tools that the UMD Program gave me. Also I am working with the private sector and the central government
trying to bring investment and fresh resources to the area.
Alex Hutchinson, 2012
After a year working in the consulting world Alex Hutchinson took a job with The Baltimore Economic Development Corporation in
May. In between jobs he toured the midwest with his brother visiting Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. Alex
says that the meals they had were enormous and was surprised by what the cities had in store. In addition to the aforementioned
news he recently had an article featured in the May edition of Urban Land Magazine about immigrant investment programs in real
estate.
Melanie Isis, MCP 1999
I am Executive Director of the Takoma/Langley Crossroads Development Authority, a business association that manages the Takoma/Langley Commercial
Management District in Takoma Park, MD. I’m focused on increasing the visibility of the Takoma/Langley Crossroads in the region with a variety of
marketing tools, while increasing amenities and maintenance in the District. I am a contractor for the Board of Directors, and succeeded in getting the
first budget increases in the organization’s history in 2014, with a three-year bump up in license fees. As a result, the budget rose from $94,000 in FY14
to $145,000 in FY15, and to $228,000 this year, with one more increase in 2016. The increases will allow the organization to expand its programs and
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presence so that when the Purple Line light rail is constructed providing east-west connectivity in the gridlocked DC region, the Takoma/Langley CDA will
be able to provide the services that will be needed. Contact me if you have questions/comments at [email protected].
Kate Judson, MCP 2011
My husband and I welcomed twin boys - Samuel (Sam) and William (Will) - last October 2014. After taking a few months off from
work, I returned to my stormwater management position with the District Department of the Environment in January 2015. In
addition to managing the District’s bag law and coal tar pavement product ban programs, I am now also responsible for overseeing
the implementation of the District’s Styrofoam ban that takes effect January 1, 2016. Life is hectic but good!
Chuck Kines, MCP 1998
Chuck Kines is still the trail planner/coordinator for M-NCPPC Montgomery County Department of Parks. He is currently working on a
comprehensive amendment to the Countywide Park Trails Plan, which focuses on both paved and unpaved park trails of countywide
significance, and how these trails connect to regional bikeways, regional parks, major employment centers and transit hubs. Chuck
and his wife Amy recently launched an educational consulting firm – Ready Aim Teach! And that new business venture is going very
well. He still lives in Rockville, and is active in both his sons’ competitive swimming activities.
David Kantor, MCP 2004
David Kanthor MCP ‘04 recently changed jobs to take a position with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission as the Transportation
Planner for the City of Philadelphia. He also enjoys taking his 2-year-old daughter for rides on the bus and on the back of his bike or
adventures with the whole family including a trip to China like they did in April 2015.
Aimee LaMontagne Baumiller, 2004
Senior Market Analyst, PNC Real Estate.
She celebrated her 10-year work anniversary in September and is enjoying Pittsburgh’s transformation and all it has to offer as the
Most Livable City in the continental U.S. Her work at PNC entails analyzing individual commercial real estate transactions for the
Bank as well as producing macroeconomic reports on the Multifamily sector. Her reports are published on www.pnc.com/realestate.
Her 20-month old daughter, Greta, continues to make life more interesting and fulfilling (and exhausting!).
Alex Lee, 1992
Business Vice President, CH2M HILL, Indianapolis, IN. Transitioned out of the Washington D.C. area (twenty years), having worked on
the Wilson Bridge Project, I-495 Express Lanes and Dulles Metrorail Expansion; relocated to Indiana last year; currently serving as VP
for Indiana/Kentucky/Michigan for CH2M HILL and senior technologist for public involvement for large scale transportation for the
Midwest.
Adam Lindquist, 2010
Project Manager, Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
Since graduating I have been working on watershed planning in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. I am the Project Manager of the Healthy
Harbor Initiative, which aims to make the Harbor swimmable and fishable by 2020. Some of the projects that I have had the good
fortune to be involved with include the installation of 2,000 square feet of floating wetlands, working with volunteers to grow over
150,000 oysters in urban waterways, and the construction and installation of a solar-powered water wheel trash interceptor. The
Water Wheel project has received national attention and is seen as a realistic solution to removing plastics and other floating debris
from the world’s oceans. I am also part of a team that works with communities, environmental nonprofits, and Baltimore City
government to improve the quality of stormwater runoff coming from our urban environment through better watershed planning.
Patrick Maier
Graduated in 1975. I’m the Executive Director of the Innovative Housing Institute (IHI) www.inhousing.org, a non-profit affordable
housing organization that specializes in inclusive land use strategies. We are currently finishing up the Baltimore Regional Housing
plan, partnering with UMD’s Center for Smart Growth, BAE Urban Economics and the University of Baltimore. He is also assisting
Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development in revamping their Affordable Requirements Ordinance, which has produced
substantial “fees in lieu” of affordable housing development but little on-site housing. After spending 27 years in various housing
roles working for Montgomery County, my wife Kathleen and I moved our empty nest to Federal Hill in Baltimore, and were charmed
by Charm City. We now live in Bolton Hill, and have been e-nested by two of our children, Martin and Elizabeth. Martin’s at UMD’s
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School of Nursing and Elizabeth is starting her new life as a married person with her husband, Rob Leach who is from Wales. They are
Baltimore believers and are buying and fixing up some of the elegant homes that have fallen on hard times in nearby Reservoir Hill.
We’re keeping it interesting and keeping it urban!
Sunni Massey, 2005
Sunni is a Federal Program Officer for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Her husband and fellow alum, Brian Dylong (2005), is an Assistant Vice President
in the FHA Multifamily Underwriting Department at Capital One Multifamily Finance. They continue to live in Hyattsville, MD with their
dog, NIMBY, just a stone’s throw from the Architecture Building.
Rachel (Fitzgerald) McNamara, 2007
Outdoor Recreation Planner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
As a project manager and technical expert, Rachel works on recreation, land use, and cultural resource issues at federally-licensed
hydroelectric projects in the southeast. She and her husband, Doug, live in Hyattsville with daughter, Ella, and a new addition on the
way in April.
Christine Melekian
Christine Melekian continues to enjoy (and hopefully contribute to!) the rejuvenation of the H Street corridor of Washington, DC. She has
2 sons, Gregory and Nicholas, who are now 17 and 14 respectively. She has been the bookeeper for The Father McKenna Center, a day
shelter serving DC’s Ward 6 men in need, for the past year.
Ingrid Mendez
Ingrid is currently principal of Urban Concepts, a multidisciplinary firm based in the Washington DC Metro. Urban Concepts offers
Professional Services in all facets of Business, Urban & Regional Planning, Historic Preservation, Building and Engineering Industry
(Engineering and Environmental Services, Structural and Building Inspections, Real Estate, Property Management, MGMT Consulting,
and International Deployments and Operations). Ingrid established Urban Concepts in 1990, while she was working on her MBA, her
clients include national and international private and government entities. You are welcome to browse Urban Concepts: http://a1urbanconcepts.com
Megan Moriarty, MCP 2008
I own & operate the Fenton Street Market, a weekly craft market in downtown Silver Spring. I’ve expanded FSM to include: a vintage
market in Takoma Park; an alternative bridal show for local, handmade vendors; various pop up markets around Silver Spring; and an
active vendor network practicing real-time micro business development. I’m working with friends on a local blog: Silver Spring Inc. and
spend my free time napping & buying presents for my nieces & nephew.
Julie (Mirvis) Morris, AICP, 2005
Facilities Planner, Montgomery County Public Schools.
Julie has been with MCPS for the past five years and is currently working on planning a new school in Rockville and a classroom addition
at Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School. With so much enrollment growth she’s keeping busy projecting for relocatable classrooms
and studying options for adding permanent capacity. An upcoming project she is most excited about is the revitalization/expansion of
her own neighborhood’s elementary school. In her free time, she writes a blog and is working on a thriller novel with a prison architect
protagonist. She lives with her husband and son in Silver Spring.
Marianne Navarro
I am continuing my work implementing the Mayor’s Anchor Institution initiative, an economic and community development strategy
focused on improving quality of life, addressing public safety issues, and promoting economic inclusion in Baltimore’s neighborhoods.
I am also serving on the Mayor’s Grow Baltimore Advisory Task Force. I’m also excited to report that in 2014 I received my AICP
certification and was recently awarded a Daily Record Leading Women award for Maryland professionals under 40 years old. My
husband John and I are very busy raising our two daughters, Loren (almost 4) and Farah(2) in Baltimore City’s Locust Point community.
Mark Noll
I recently accepted a new position as a Project Manager for Transportation and Sustainability with the Midtown
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Alliance in Atlanta, GA. I’ll be moving by September.
Jeff La Noue, MCP 1999
Jeff continues his work at the University of Baltimore focusing on projects that make the campus buildings and grounds more
sustainable. UB’s LEED Gold library renovation, hardscape to native softscape projects, and making UB a “Bike-friendly University” in
2016 are some of the projects Jeff is excited about. La Noue recently joined the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Economy and
Efficiency Foundation. Jeff and his wife Malindi (UVA Planning and Architecture graduate) are proud parents of their one year old
daughter Saranac. Check out Jeff’s urbanist blog “ComebackCity.us” and look for his posts on the Greater Greater Washington blog.
Mary O’Connell
Mary O’Connell currently serves as Program Manager for the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation, addressing community
planning and development issues in inner-Beltway communities in Prince George’s County. She is using her planning degree daily at
her job and learning how to navigate the relationship between the planner, the developer, and the community resident. If you’re in the
area on a Friday, you can sometimes catch the office happy hour at Franklin’s Brewery.
Sean O’Neil
I moved to Wilmington, DE in the Fall of 2012. Since then I have worked as a Real Estate Analyst for a consulting company before
joining McCormick Taylor as an Environmental Planner in November 2013. This month I left McCormick Taylor and I am currently in
the process of deciding between 2 new exciting positions, both with lots of potential. Most importantly, my wife have birth to our
daughter Norah Gertrude O’Neill
Oluseyi Olugbenle, 2014
As a recent graduate, Oluseyi is excited to work as a Planner at Parsons Brinckerhoff in Washington, D.C. She is currently working on
projects including the South Capitol Street Corridor Project, Virginia Avenue Tunnel, BWI Railroad Station, among others. My husband
and our energetic and beautiful newborn live in Howard County, Maryland. In my spare time (although nonexistent nowadays), I love
to bake, travel and plan events of any kind!
Polly Peterson
I am living in Bowling Green, OH and enjoying being able to walk/bike to most of my daily errands. My work consists mainly of
teaching part-time in the Department of Environment and Sustainability at Bowling Green SU and doing community/sustainability
planning as a consultant (Infinitely Green Consulting). I am currently on a team that is formulating an Area Wide Plan for an
industrial brownfield site and adjacent struggling neighborhood in Toledo, OH. Other involvements include the Northwest Ohio
Food Council steering committee (our focus is on promoting our local food economy) and the Toledo Lucas County Sustainability
Commission. In the near future, I will be offering online coursework in introductory environmental and sustainability studies, as well
as online/in-person classes in permaculture techniques.
Graham Petto, AICP, 2011
Research Project Coordinator, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center.
In June 2014, I left the Maryland Department of Planning. I have relocated from Baltimore, MD to New Jersey for a position with VTC
at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. I am working to support a variety of research projects on
transit-oriented development and paratransit for NJ Transit and NJ Dept. of Transportation.
Meghan Powell, 2008.
Rail and Transit, Task Manager, Parsons, Washington DC.
After working at Jacobs for 12 years, Meghan recently took a new position as task manager for Parsons. She is part of Parsons
Rail and Transit Systems group and is working on a general architecture and engineering contract for WMATA. Under this project,
Meghan is managing the development of a flood emergency response plan, as well as inspection work for the eventual replacement
of WMATA’s faregates. She also has past experience in all stages of rail and transit projects including feasibility studies, planning and
final design. Meghan lives in Silver Spring, MD with her two boys.
Jessica Reynolds, MCP 2010
Jessica Reynolds has been with the Maryland Dept. of Business and Economic Development since 2011 in the Office of International
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Investment and Trade. Earlier this year, Jessica received a Secretary’s citation for her work with the Department. She continues to
serve on the Rockville Historic District Commission and is also participating on the Corridor Advisory Committee for Bus Rapid Transit
on Veirs Mills Road in Montgomery County. Jessica is an active member of International Economic Development Council where she
recently was invited to serve on the organization’s International Advisory Committee.
Daniel Rosen
Dan continues his career at the Maryland Department of Planning where, among other things, he is staffing Secretary David R. Craig’s
Ad Hoc Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Committee. In an era where public funds are scarce for preserving agricultural and
environmentally sensitive land, TDR programs are an attractive alternative. They use private funds to preserve land by allowing a
developer to buy development rights from rural landowners in “sending areas” and using them to add extra density in “receiving areas”
where development is desired. It’s a win-win-win situation: landowners profit from their land without having to sell it, developers
profit from the sale of extra units, and taxpayers preserve land without using tax dollars. However, economics and politics make
successful TDR programs rare. Dan is researching another topic to commemorate the centennial of World War I. This one is planningrelated: the creation of the British Cemeteries in France and Belgium, especially those designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Jennifer Mizroch Rosenberg, 1992
Meetings Manager, Burk & Associates, Inc.
I am living in Vienna, VA with my husband and two sets of twins ages 10 and 7. I have been working for an association management
company for the past 2 1/2 years managing scientific conference for various associations all around the world. I have been planning
conferences for the past 18 years. In my free time in enjoy photography, running and biking.
Kate Rube
Kate Rube is a Vice President at Project for Public Spaces, a New York City-based non-profit planning, design and educational organization
dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Kate manages the organization’s
transportation program, developing technical assistance and trainings to help communities foster more livable transportation networks,
streets, and transit stops. She also serves as the project manager for several federal technical assistance grants, including with US EPA
and the National Endowment for the Arts. Kate lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Brian, their daughter Lilly (2 years old), and pup
Lucy. At the end of 2015, she’ll also complete a Master’s in Engineering degree (Transportation Engineering program) from the City
College of New York.
Chris Ryer
Chris Ryer began working in community development over 25 years ago at the Baltimore Planning Department. After ten years as a
community planner with the Department, he moved to the non-profit sector where he worked for the Trust for Public Lands and a
community based organization in southwest Baltimore. In 2002 he returned to the Baltimore Planning Department where he served
as Chief of Comprehensive Planning and Deputy Director. He has been the Executive Director of the Southeast Baltimore Community
Development Corporation since 2007.
Carrie Sanders, 2005
Acting Division Chief, Transportation Planning Division, City of Alexandria
Carrie has worked for over four years with the City of Alexandria focusing on non-motorized transportation, and is currently serving
as Acting Division Chief for the Transportation Planning Division, which includes long range transportation planning, parking
management, Complete Streets, and Transportation Demand Management. Carrie lives in Montgomery County with her husband
Jesse and their children Anna (6), Claire (4) and Ben (2).
Alyssa Seibert
After living in Maryland and Washington D.C. for my entire life, I’m off to Los Angeles to work in food access and food planning.
Previously, I worked for the online farmer’s market in Washington D.C., Relay Foods, and worked as a Transportation Planner with KFH
Group, Inc.
Lilly Shoup, MCP 2010
After working at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary since graduating from UMD, Lilly just started a new
position at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting in the Summer 2015. She is lives in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and
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is excited to continue biking in to work everyday!
James Spatz
Jim has recently completed his first year at the City of Harrisburg Planning Bureau after graduating from UMD with his Master’s in
May 2014. He has helped to administer a newly adopted Zoning Code, and used the City’s ArcGIS Online capabilities to create an
interactive, web-based zoning map accessible to any resident for use. Additionally, he has supported the Planning Director in kicking
off Harrisburg’s first comprehensive plan effort in 40 years. Throughout the past year he has served as Staff advisor to the City’s
Historic Architectural Review Board, Planning Commission, and Zoning Hearing Board. He is looking forward to seeing Harrisburg
finally get an updated comprehensive plan in the coming year!
Karin (Foley) Seubert, 2001
Karin continues to practice law at Jones, Brower and Callery, P.L.L.C. in Lewiston, Idaho, where she has a general civil litigation practice
including many land use cases where her urban planning background continues to be extremely useful. She and her husband Adam
are proud parents of Beth (age 5), Ellie (age 4) and newest addition Evelyn (born March 2015).
Steve Stahley, MCP/UMAB 1989
Steve currently works at the Mental Health Association of Maryland and serves as the Deputy Director of the Consumer Quality Team
(CQT). The CQT visits programs that are funded by Maryland’s Public Mental Health System and interviews adults and youth who
are receiving services. The information derived from the qualitative interviews is shared with the programs and with officials of the
Maryland Behavioral Health Administration (BHA). Over the seven years of its existence, the CQT has developed into a strong feedback
loop for those being served in the State Hospitals and residential and day mental health programs across the state. Steve and his family
live in Westminster, Maryland.
Ted Stevens, 2005
After nearly ten years in Maryland (that began when I moved to College Park for grad school) I moved back to my hometown in January
to take a Planner II position with the New Haven City Plan Department, where I have so far been working with the City Planning
Commission and on the Comprehensive Plan update. We decided to keep our home in Baltimore and rent it out, so we we’re still
invested in things down there too and are hoping my fellow Maryland planners can continue to improve the city.
Deborah Sward, 2011 Environmental Planner, McCormick Taylor
Deborah accepted a new position with McCormick Taylor this year. Her primary responsibility is ensuring that infrastructure projects
meet requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Civil Rights Act by evaluating the socioeconomic and
environmental impacts of different design scenarios. She serves as consultant environmental manager for the Maryland State Highway
Administration, liaises with county and local governments regarding NEPA requirements, and authors NEPA documents for regional
projects. She and her fiancé also play acoustic music in the DC / Baltimore area.
Matthew Texler, 2011 Managing Director, Meridian Capital Group, New York, NY.
Matthew continues to help sustain the available pool of affordable rental housing in NYC (and beyond). In the last five years, he’s
negotiated the terms of over $4 billion in private capital used for the renovation and operations of NYC’s multifamily housing stock.
Several notable recent transactions include the Project-based Section 8 complexes at 414-24 West 48th Street and 328-36 West
53rd Street in Manhattan. Additionally, Matthew helped negotiate the recent infusion of renovation capital for a 5,517 apartment
portfolio of workforce housing in Hyattsville and Baltimore City.
Louis Thomas, 2012
Doctoral Student, MIT. Lou Thomas finished his second year of the PhD program at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning,
which means that at the age of 36 he is finally done taking classes. He aims to take his qualifying exams this fall, with a first field in
City Design & Development, and a second field in Mediated Placemaking - investigating the political economy of how places are both
produced and appropriated. In the spring, his goal is to submit a dissertation proposal, which may focus on changing and contested
notions of the urban environment as a place for childrearing. This July he presented his paper “Baltimore’s Oldtown Mall: walking on
sunshine or the ghost of an everyday neighborhood” at the International Planning History Society Conference in St. Augustine, FL.
More importantly, his daughter Nettie Maude is about to turn two in October, and she is the sweetest, smartest child. With his wife
Julie and dog Belafonte, they live in a wonderful cohousing community in Jamaica Plain, Boston; which almost makes up for having
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to live in cold, cold New England. If you are ever in the area, please don’t hesitate to look them up. Luckily, they make it back to
the mid-Atlantic frequently for Julie to check-in with her home office at the US Department of Transportation and to visit family in
Baltimore.
Renee Thompson, 2009
MCP, Land Use and Environmental Planning Geographer, US Geological Survey, Chesapeake Bay Program Office.
Working as a GIS Analyst to model infill and redevelopment patterns and potential in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed; maintaining
geospatial datasets related to protected lands; and serving as Coordinator of the Maintain Healthy Watersheds Goal Implementation
team tasked with maintaining healthy waters and watersheds at optimal levels. These areas are important for their contribution to
sustaining local social, economic and environmental benefits and contribute to the achievement of Chesapeake Bay Agreement goals.
Currently Renee is on maternity leave caring for her newly born daughter Cordelia. She is enjoying time with her now family of four
including her almost 5 year old son and husband.
Amber Turnquest
Amber has been working as the Planning & Zoning and Floodplain Administrator for Ward County, ND. She serves as a member of
the Technical Committee for the Minot Air Force Base Joint Land Use Study, the Steering Committee for Vision West ND, and as an
adviser to the Ward County Planning Commission. She was on the development team that won a 2014 Special Achievement in GIS
Award from ESRI for a parcel viewer and flood planning viewer designed to provide essential information to the community. Amber
lives with her wife in Minot, ND where it is winter 8 months of the year.
Magdalena Vicuna
I finally obtained my PhD Degree in Architecture and Urban Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with the thesis
“The Forms of Residential Density. The case of Gran Santiago, Chile”. I became a Faculty member at the Urban Studies Institute
of Universidad Católica where I´m also chief of the Undergraduate Program. We have recently created the urban planning
undergraduate degree, first one in Chile, which makes us very proud, as well as challenged!
Gregory Vernon, 2010
Fire/Life Safety Liaison Officer, Office of Emergency Management, WMATA.
Gregory is responsible for the maintenance and enhancements of several emergency preparedness plans, emergency operations
plans, and procedures for the Office of Emergency Management (OEM). Over the past year, Gregory participated in the development
of several emergency training exercises, has continuously monitored for severe weather affecting the Washington, DC region and has
enriched OEM’s geospatial capabilities.
Stephanie vonFeck, 1996
Branch Chief, Environmental Protection Agency
Stephanie has spent the past twenty years working with the Environmental Protection Agency on programs that help communities,
tribes and homeowners clean up water pollution. She is currently responsible for wastewater infrastructure grant programs that
provide first time access to safe drinking water and sanitation for Alaskan Native Villages, Tribes, Territories and communities along
the U.S./Mexico Border. She also manages programs designed to improve the sustainability of wastewater infrastructure across the
country. Stephanie lives in Laytonsville, MD with her husband, her son and her daughter. She just became a certified open water
diver, is a volunteer stream monitor for the State of Maryland, is active on the PTA, and despairs of having enough time for her
gardens.
Michael Weinberger, MCP 2010
Michael was named Senior Transit Planner and Public Outreach Task Lead at Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, based
in Rockville, MD in January 2015. Michael provides grant management oversight of 16 advanced bus projects under a $58.8 million
federal TIGER grant for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board (MWCOG/TPB) and
leads public involvement programs for transportation related projects in Fairfax County, VA, Loudoun County, VA, and Charlotte, NC.
Michael’s work was featured in last November’s Mass Transit Magazine for an article entitled “Educating the Public About Transit.”
Michael lives in Washington, D.C.’s vibrant NoMa neighborhood and enjoys trying new transit systems wherever he travels.
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Chad Williams
Chad has spent the last 12 years working for the Prince George’s County Planning Department, dedicating much of this time to College
Park and the University of Maryland as the community planner for the area. He has recently assumed the project manager role for the
comprehensive update of the county’s zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations and hopes to usher in a 21st century ordinance
that supports economic growth and transit-oriented development among other key goals. Chad and his wife live in Bowie, Maryland.
Tiffany C. Williams, 2008
Executive Director, Teach For America-Detroit
Tiffany is working to impact the social, economic,and education landscape in her hometown of Detroit. In addition to leading the
TFA region in Michigan she is active in the community, sits on a number of boards, and serves as the president and co- founder of
Advancing Community Through Service (A.C.T.S) not-for-profit. Because of her contributions to the Detroit community, The Michigan
Chronicle recently named her to the 2014 40 under 40 class. Tiffany is recently engaged to Thomas Taylor, sergeant with the Detroit
Police Department, and is excited about the life they will build together. She is happy to be home with her family serving the city she
loves.
Peter Witte
Pete is now a writer of fiction enrolled in the MFA program at the University of Maryland. He is also the primary caregiver for his two
preschool-aged children. His family just moved to the Calvert Hills community in College Park, Maryland, where he spends large sums
of time scoping out birds and thinking nostalgic thoughts on walks along the Trolley Trail.
Claire (Schnitzer) Worshtil, MCP 2007
Claire is the Senior Program Manager for Land Use at the National Association of Home Builders. She is the primary staff liaison for
NAHB’s Land Development Committee and tracks and interprets emerging issues in land use planning, development entitlements,
infrastructure finance, and green/sustainable development. She is also Assistant Editor of Best in American Living e-magazine. Claire
lives in University Park, Maryland with her husband and two children.
Dongming Yin
I got back to Beijing and I’ve worked as a senior executive for 2 public companies focusing on real estate management/analysis after
my graduation in 2002, the latter one being Jone, Lang and Lasalle. In 2010 I started my own IT company www.gaia.asia to be the first
commercial real estate property business intelligence system in its field. My company is beginning to win major real estate holders in
China in recent years, and I’m starting to look at business opportunities in the US. I would be especially interested in getting to know
any one in the URSP or RED community who is currently connected to shopping mall management/operation.
please get connected. mailto:[email protected]
Megan Zadecky
For almost 7 years, I have been working for Booz Allen Hamilton providing environmental policy and program management support
to Department of Defense clients. My family (husband and two sons) and I relocated “home” to Pittsburgh almost two years ago
(January 2013). I’m enjoying all that Pittsburgh has to offer and getting involved in my local community. I was recently appointed
to the Mt. Lebanon Parks Advisory Board and am involved with addressing issues and making recommendations pertaining to the
municipalities parks and open spaces.
If you would like to make a gift to the URSP Scholarship Fund, you may do so online at:
http://advancement.umd.edu/giving/fund.php?name=urban-studies-planning-scholarship
If you would like to send your check by mail, please send your contribution to:
University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc.
Office of Gift Acceptance
4603 Calvert Road
College Park, MD 20742-3421
Be sure to include a message in your note that you are contributing to the URSP Scholarship Fund.
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