Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development

Bio: President Emeritus, Bethel New Life, Inc., a faith centered community development corporation. Developed community based initiatives around smart growth, transit oriented development and advocacy around equitable development. Currently interim Executive Director of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions. Faculty of Loyola University, Master's in Social Justice and Community Development. and Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).

Education: PhD, Union Graduate School, Master's - Brown University, BA - Gustavus Adolphus College.

Key Publications: Empowerment - CCDA Press Chapters in several other books, including JUST Housing, Jill Shook, editor

Past Assignments: Conduct workshops for Neighborworks: Transit Oriented Development, Mixed Use Development, Community Economic Development

Bio: Megan McConville is a Policy and Planning Fellow in the US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities, where she works to promote development that is good for the environment, the economy, and public health. Her areas of focus include rural smart growth and equitable development, and she provides technical assistance to communities, researches and writes educational and policy publications for the EPA and the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, and analyzes how federal, state, and local policies and programs influence land use patterns. Prior to joining EPA, Megan managed the Sierra Club’s communications and outreach to ethnic and minority media outlets, coordinated the World Resources Institute’s sustainable transportation program, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Lima, Peru. Megan grew up in Syracuse, NY.

Education: Master of City & Regional Planning, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill; BA, Dartmouth College.

Bio: Erin Christensen, AIA, LEED ND AP, is an Associate Principal and co-director of Urban Placemaking at Mithun - a national leader in planning, architecture, landscape architecture and interior design. Erin works with local governments, developers, housing authorities, transit agencies, and other partners to create sustainable, high performance development that builds physical and social community and maximizes investment. As an urban designer and architect, Erin brings over 12 years of experience in urban redevelopment and neighborhood planning to her work supporting healthy, livable communities in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. Her recent work includes development of the EcoDistricts Assessment Method with the Portland Sustainability Institute - a guide to sustainable strategies for existing communities, and a Health Impact Assessment and Redevelopment Masterplan for the Mariposa mixed-income TOD in Denver. Erin’s early career focused on housing, and she spent nearly eight years responsible for a broad range of mixed-use, mixed-finance projects for private and public sector clients in Washington DC, the neighborhoods of Boston, at Horizon Village HOPE VI in North Charleston, and nationally, working as an Associate with Torti Gallas and Partners and a designer with The Narrow Gate.

Education: Erin received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, is LEED ND accredited, and serves on the LEED Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group and as President of CNU Cascadia.

Past Assignments: EcoDistricts Summit 2012: “Achieving Integration: Lessons from Pioneers of Collaboration, Engagement, and Governance”; Living Future Government Confluence 2012: ”The Social Bottom Line and Collective Action”; Railvolution 2010: “TOD at the Corridor Level: The HUD Sustainable Community Program Initiative”; Planners Network 2010: “Health Indicators and Assessments in Community Planning”

Bio: Director of the Government Innovations Forum at the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), the Kansas City metro regional council of governments. Principle responsibilities include coordinating the region's Creating Sustainable Places initiative, coordinating the First Suburbs Coalition, a coalition of inner ring suburbs, and initiating a joint project with the Brookings Institution to create a business plan for the Kansas City metro area and increased policy research capacity. I have been with MARC for 16 years. Prior experience includes 23 years with the city of Kansas City, Kansas as director of development.

Education: BS Physics, University of Illinois MS Nuclear Engineering, Northwestern University PhD Urban Sociology, University of Kansas

Past Assignments: Kansas Housing Conference, 2012 Missouri & Kansas City APA Conference, Fall 2005 Government Finance Officers Association, Kansas, Spring 2005 National League of Cities, First Tier Suburbs Task Force, Dec 2004 Government Finance Officers Association, Denver, 2003 IMLA, New Orleans, 2001