K.K. Gerhart-Fritz, AICP has been a professional planner for over 25 years. A graduate of Ball State University's College of Architecture and Planning, who also has a Master’s Degree from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (Planning Concentration), KK has looked at planning ethics from many different places over the years. She spent over half her career working in the public sector for communities both large and small (including the City of Dallas and Columbus and Bartholomew County, Indiana). She left the public sector to work for HNTB - Indianapolis, where she was senior project manager for the planning group. K.K. was then invited to teach full-time at Ball State's College of Architecture and Planning, before founding her own planning consulting firm, The Planning Workshop, based in Indianapolis. The Planning Workshop emphasizes the importance of good communication and public education in every planning process. As a many-time invited speaker at APA’s National Conference, K.K. is a recognized leader in ethics training for both citizen planners and professional planners, having provided ethics training for the Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky Chapters of APA, for planners studying for the AICP Exam, for numerous Indiana plan commissions and for APA’s Planning and the Black Community Division. Her planning work has won many awards over the years, and K.K. has received the Indiana Planning Sagamore Award, the Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association's highest honor. She authored and edited several chapters of the Indiana Chapter's popular Indiana Citizen Planner's Guide, including the Chapter on Ethics, and is lead presenter of her state’s popular "Nitty Gritty" Plan Commission Training Series. She writes a regular planning column, "Pop Culture for Planners" and is the Chair of APA’s Private Practice Division. KK’s marriage to another AICP planner, a sometimes competitor over the years, has also given her real experience with ethical issues close to home.

Polly Carolin has over 30 years in planning, including 25 in the private sector.  Areas of experience include citizen participation, environmental coordination, analysis and impact assessment, land acquisition, market and economic feasibility, transportation, community development, housing, and economic development issues.

Jerry Weitz, Ph.D., FAICP, is associate professor and director of the urban and regional planning program at East Carolina University and president of his own consulting firm, Jerry Weitz & Associates, Inc. He has a doctorate in urban studies from Portland State University (1998), with specializations in urban growth management and policy analysis. His master’s degree is in city planning from Georgia Tech (1985) with a concentration in land use and environmental planning. His undergraduate degree is a B.A. in political science and history from Emory University (1983). His career spans 27 years in Georgia, Oregon, Washington, and North Carolina. He has been employed by cities, counties, a regional agency, a state land use agency, and the academy, in addition to leading his own consulting firm for more than a decade. Weitz is at the forefront of planning practice, having served since July 2001 as editor of the American Institute of Certified Planners’ (AICP’s) only membership publication, Practicing Planner (formerly Planners’ Casebook). His consulting experience includes comprehensive plans, local land use regulations, development impact fee programs, and expert testimony in matters of zoning litigation. He is author of the book, Sprawl Busting: State Programs to Guide Growth (Chicago: Planners Press, 1999) planning advisory reports on Smart Growth Audits (2002) and Jobs-Housing Balance (2003) (American Planning Association’s Research Department), and he authored the User Guide for APA’s Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook (2002). Two of his unified code projects, Forsyth County (2000) and Georgia Department of Community Affairs Model Land Use Management Code (2002), received outstanding planning implementation awards from the Georgia Chapter of the American Planning Association. Weitz has taught several graduate planning courses including growth management law, land use planning, and historic preservation planning.