Professor Dan Mandelker - Daniel R. Mandelker is a leading scholar and teacher in land use law, environmental law, and state and local government law. He was the principal consultant and contributor to the American Planning Association’s model planning and zoning legislation project. He also was the principal author of amendments to the New Orleans city charter that require a comprehensive planning process and give the comprehensive plan the force of law. Additionally, he was also the principal consultant to a joint American Bar Association committee that prepared a model law for land use procedures that was adopted by the ABA House of Delegates. Mandelker received the ABA’s State and Local Government Section Daniel J. Curtin Lifetime Achievement Award. He has lectured abroad in England, Spain, Israel, and other countries.

Dwight Merriam - Dwight Merriam represents developers, local governments, landowners, and advocacy groups in land development and conservation issues. He has published over 180 professional articles on land use law, co-edited Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, co-authored The Takings Issue, and authored The Complete Guide to Zoning. He is a Fellow and past president of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former director of the American Planning Association (APA) and a previous chair of APA’s Planning & Law Division. He is also a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and The Counselors of Real Estate, and he teaches land use law at Vermont Law School. Mr. Merriam received his B.A. in sociology, cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was also elected to Phi Kappa Phi. He received his master of regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his J.D. at Yale Law School.

Lora Lucero is a planner and land use attorney who teaches a Planning & Environmental Law seminar at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Her current research, writing and advocacy focuses on climate change mitigation. Lucero is co-editor of the RLUIPA Reader - Religious Land Uses, Zoning and the Courts, published by the ABA in 2009; and she has advised both city planners and municipal attorneys on how to avoid RLUIPA litigation and be prepared if hit with a RLUIPA claim

Daniel P. Dalton, a founding member of Dalton & Tomich, plc, represents religious entities in land use disputes throughout the United States. He actively lectures, litigates and writes on issues related to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Dan received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Michigan University, and his law degree from the University of Detroit, School of Law. Upon graduation, he served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Dorothy Comstock Riley of the Michigan Supreme Court. Dan has been named a leader of the law in 2010 (a designation given to the top 25 attorneys in the State of Michigan); designated top lawyer and “Superlawyer” in land use and zoning annually since 2008 and recognized as a top RLUIPA advocate on behalf of religious land uses in the UCLA and Harvard law journals. Dan currently serves on several boards and committees including the Deans advisory board for the University of Detroit Mercy, School of Law, the ABA State and Local Government Law Section, the MORE program, Cabrini Clinic and Plymouth First United Methodist Church. He is a life member of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the American Planning Association and the Michigan Planning Society.