Social Media and Mobile Apps for Civic Engagement

Bio: Chrissy directs the Metropolitan Planning Council's (MPC) transportation work at the federal, state and local levels. She focuses on implementing innovative financing tools such as using value capture and private sector partnership to fund transit, reducing the demand for future transportation resources by creating incentives for denser, transit-oriented developments and managing parking, and making the most of existing transportation infrastructure through congestion pricing and technology. Chrissy also is working with Congress and national partners to establish performance metrics in the federal transportation authorization that include economic development and local involvement. Prior to joining MPC, Chrissy was the associate executive director of a Chicago-based fiscal policy think tank, where she worked on tax, budget and education funding policies, including drafting legislation to reform Illinois’ education and tax systems and modeling its impacts. She also served as a management analyst at the U.S. Dept. of Education, and was a seventh-grade teacher in Washington, DC. Chrissy was awarded the Northwestern University Graduate School’s Distinguished Thesis Award for The Implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in Illinois, which analyzed each component of NCLB compared with state and federal fiscal policies to find how tax policy affects the implementation of the law at the local level. Chrissy is a member of the American Economic Association and the American Evaluation Association. She lives in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood with her husband and occasionally crazy dog, Brutus and spends her free time rescuing homeless dogs.

Education: M.P.P.A., Public Policy, Northwestern University B.S., Education and Political Science, Youngstown State University

Bio: Frank leads the talented Civic Works team at OpenPlans, exploring how technology, planning, citizens, and government come together. He thinks we can make better places and beat climate change with the winning combo of planning, technology and public participation. Frank holds a Masters in City Planning from MIT. He blogs intermittently at opensourceplanning.org, tweets slightly more via @fkh, and is one half of Holobiont.org.

Education: MIT, Master of City Planning 2006

Bio: Linda Alvarado-Vela, AICP, is a communications specialist with more than 17 years of experience in facilitation, community relations and public involvement. Specializing in public involvement and outreach, she has consistently demonstrated the ability to develop creative outreach programs resulting in greater community participation for projects involving issues such as transportation planning, water management, and urban revitalization. Most recently, Linda has been working to incorporate the use of social media in reaching environmental justice populations and as an outreach tool for small and large-scale projects. Linda is the Secretary for the American Planning Association San Antonio Section and a founding officer and member of the Women’s Transportation Seminar - San Antonio Region.

Education: B.A., Communications, University of the Incarnate Word, Magna Cum Laude

Past Assignments: 2012 COMPTO National Meeting and Training Conference - Social Media: A Tool for Meaningful Public Involvement/Relations

Bio: Thomas Coleman is a Supervising Planner with the Parsons Brinckerhoff Planning and Environment Group in Chicago. He has more than 20 years of experience as a transportation planner and project manager with specialized expertise in the design and delivery of projects focused on transit, roadway and highway projects. Thomas is also leading the development of mobile applications for Parsons Brinckerhoff to enhance communication and stakeholder engagement plans on transportation projects and programs nationwide. Tom serves as chair of the USGBC, Illinois Chapter, State and Local Government Outreach Committee for coordinating legislative and training programs on sustainability and green development for Illinois municipalities.

Education: B.S., Urban and Regional Planning, Michigan State University, 1992