Albus Brooks is the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Milender White, a development and construction firm operating in Southern California and Colorado. Serving two terms on Denver City Council, including two terms as Council President, Albus accomplished an ambitious range of progressive legislative victories with the goal of building a truly inclusive city.
Master Talk
Type: Master Talk
David Downey – Baltimore
As President and Chief Executive Officer, David is responsible for the overall strategic positioning of IDA as a world leader and champion for vital and livable urban centers. Prior to joining the IDA, David served as the Managing Director for the American Institute of Architects’ Urban Design Center and as Executive Director for the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Tami Door – Baltimore
Tami Door is the CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. She joined the Partnership in 2005 after serving as executive vice president of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest regional chamber, and as vice president of a five state division of NBD-First Chicago. She is the co-founder of Denver Startup Week and The Commons on Champa.
Natasha Moraga Master Talk
Transforming the dull gray spaces of Puerto Vallarta into open-air galleries, urban artist Natasha Moraga makes mosaic look easy. With over 10 years as the visionary and artistic director behind some of the city’s most iconic public artworks, she continues to inspire with her latest and biggest project yet – the transformation of her city’s main park, into a vibrant space filled with colored tiles and functional spaces, where community is an essential part of the project.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger Master Talk
Andrea Batista Schlesinger leads the Inclusive Cities practice at HR&A Advisors. As a former leader in government, think tanks, philanthropy, and politics, Andrea uniquely understands the capacity and role of government, advocacy, and philanthropy in making cities just and dynamic places. Her current work focuses on supporting equitable economic development and removing barriers to opportunity for all communities in cities.
Jeff Speck Master Talk
Jeff Speck, AICP, CNU-A, LEED-AP, Honorary ASLA is a city planner and urban designer who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he presided over the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and created the Governors’ Institute on Community Design.
Scooter Monroe Master Talk
Scooter Monroe is responsible for executing Weller’s vision for development projects and operating businesses from concept through completion. Mr. Monroe has over 14 years of experience in the development of commercial and multi-family projects in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Annie Milli Master Talk
Annie Milli is the Executive Director of Live Baltimore, a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) Residential Marketing Organization. A self-described “accidental urbanist,” Ms. Milli began her career as a graphic designer, later becoming an art director and executive in the field of commercial advertising. Ms. Milli led Live Baltimore’s marketing division from 2013 to 2017, during which time she developed a resident retention initiative, targeting city families.
Tony Seba Master Talk
Tony Seba is a lecturer in entrepreneurship disruption, and clean energy at Stanford University, a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a world-renowned thought leader and speaker. He is the author of the #1 best-selling book “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation – How Silicon Valley Will Make Oil, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Electric Utilities and Conventional Cars Obsolete by 2030”.
Dhyana Quintanar Solares Master Talk
Dhyana is the Authority of the Public Space of Mexico City. Before that, she was the Director of Transportation Planning and Roads in the Secretary of Transportation and Roads of Mexico City. She has been involved in various urban sustainable mobility projects working from the public and non-governmental sectors for over 10 years. She was Director of Strategic Projects at the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy in Mexico (ITDP) where she promoted pedestrian and bicycle mobility.
Kemi Ilesanmi Master Talk
Kemi Ilesanmi is the Executive Director of The Laundromat Project, which brings arts, artists, and arts programming into local coinops to amplify the creativity that already exists within communities. With over 15 years experience in the cultural arena, she is inspired by the immense possibilities for joy and social impact at the intersection of arts and community. Prior to joining The LP, she was Director of Grants and Services at Creative Capital Foundation.
John Bela Master Talk
John Bela is an urbanist and public space designer with Gehl Studio San Francisco. He combines a background in art, science and environmental design to create vibrant, dynamic and resilient urban human habitats. A pioneer in user-generated urbanism, John has successfully completed many projects that involve radical new formulations of social space. John is a senior lecturer at the California College of Arts in San Francisco and a distinguished lecturer at U.C. Berkeley.
Stuart Mangrum Master Talk
A member of the Burning Man community since 1993, Stuart was one of the organization’s first year-round volunteers. In his current role he focuses on cultural development programs including public education, staff and volunteer training, and historical documentation. He is also deeply involved in the event’s creative direction, as co-author of the last three event themes and a collaborator in designing the Black Rock City experience.
Susan Mernit Master Talk
Susan Mernit is a serial tech and media entrepreneur, a Tech Stars alumni and a former consultant to the Knight Foundation. She is the founder of Oakland Local, an early—and still active—hyperlocal non-profit news site with a focus on diverse community voices. Hack the Hood, a tech inclusion non-profit she co-founded, was a 2014 winner of the Google Bay Area Impact Challenge. Hack the Hood, Oakland-based non-profit, opens up the opportunity pipeline in tech for low-income young people of color.
Tyler Norris Master Talk
Tyler Norris, MDiv, is an entrepreneur and founder of over a dozen businesses and social ventures. His three decades of service in the public, private and non-profit sectors have focused on population health, community vitality, and equitable prosperity. Currently, he serves as vice president, Total Health Partnerships at Kaiser Permanente, where he helps lead the implementation of “anchor institution” work.
Kate Joncas Master Talk
Seattle Mayor Murray named Kate Joncas Deputy Mayor of Operations in June, 2014. Previously, Kate had been the President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association since 1994. Kate has over 30 years’ experience in downtown revitalization in the private, public and nonprofit sectors in communities around the world. Ms. Joncas is the Past Chair of the International Downtown Association.
Christopher Beynon Master Talk
Christopher Beynon, AICP is an international leader in the transformation of our urban environments. A principal at the Berkeley-based design firm MIG, he has led planning, urban design and economic development projects that have resulted in real change for cities throughout North America, including Denver, Boston, Anchorage, Winnipeg, Charlotte, Spokane, Dallas and Calgary.
Molly Turner Master Talk
Molly Turner is the Global Head of Civic Partnerships at Airbnb, where she built and directs the company’s public-private partnerships program. She works with the Airbnb local community and their civic leaders on a variety of projects focused on sustainability, economic development, resiliency and hospitality. She also directs Airbnb’s policy research examining the business model’s various impacts on urban economics, environment and communities.
Gabe Metcalf Master Talk
Gabriel Metcalf is the President & CEO of SPUR. Under his leadership, SPUR has grown dramatically in influence and membership. Before becoming head of SPUR 2005, Gabe headed up SPUR’s policy and advocacy work for five years. A prolific writer and speaker, Gabriel earned his Master’s degree in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
Former Mayor Edwin Lee Master Talk
Before passing in 2017, Edwin Lee was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco, and was the first Asian American to hold the office.
Tim Tompkins – San Francisco
Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. The Alliance is a business improvement district that works to improve and promote Times Square – cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life for over a century. Prior to coming to the Alliance, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks, which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks.
Fred Kent Master Talk
Fred Kent is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and one of the foremost thinkers in livability, smart growth and the future of the city. As founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, he is known throughout the world as a dynamic speaker and prolific ideas man. At the 61st Annual Conference and Tradeshow for the International Downtown Association, Fred Kent received the 2015 Dan E. Sweat, Jr. Award for Lifetime Achievement in Downtown Leadership.
Tim Tompkins – Atlanta
Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. The Alliance is a business improvement district that works to improve and promote Times Square – cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life for over a century. Prior to coming to the Alliance, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks, which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks.
Shirley Clarke Franklin Master Talk
Ms. Shirley Franklin was elected Mayor of the City of Atlanta and served two terms from 2002 to 2009. Franklin’s record of civic involvement spans over three decades, including digital advocacy for underserved communities, the arts, homelessness and higher education. She also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Purpose Built Communities, a national holistic community revitalization organization and President of Clarke-Franklin and Associates, Inc.
Ellen Dunham Jones Master Talk
Ellen Dunham-Jones is a professor of architecture and urban design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she coordinates the MS/Urban Design degree. An authority on sustainable suburban redevelopment, she is co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia; Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (Wiley: 2009, 2011, 2013). The award-winning book’s documentation of successful retrofits of aging suburban property types into healthier, more sustainable places has received significant attention.
Joe Minicozzi Master Talk
Joe Minicozzi is the principal of Urban3, a consulting firm created by Asheville real estate developer Public Interest Projects. Urban3’s work in pioneering geo-spatial representation of economic productivity has prompted a paradigm shift in understanding the economic potency of urbanism and the value of well-designed cities. Their studies for municipalities across the United States and Canada have affected the reevaluation of public policy and a broader understanding of market dynamics.
Anijo Punnen Mathew
Anijo Punnen Mathew is an Associate Professor at IIT Institute of Design (ID). His research looks at evaluating new semantic appropriations of place as enabled by technology and media convergence. During his master talk at the 62nd Annual Conference & Tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 7-9, 2016, Dan discussed adapting to the information economy through the use of design methodology and theory.
David Dixon Master Talk
David Dixon leads Stantec’s Urban Places Group, an interdisciplinary practice committed to helping cities and suburbs alike manage the accelerating pace of social, economic, and environmental change for community benefit. During his master talk at the 62nd Annual Conference & Tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 7-9, 2016, David explored the challenges in building an equitable city.
Dan Koh Master Talk
Daniel Arrigg Koh is Chief of Staff to the City of Boston. In this capacity, he advises Mayor Martin J. Walsh on key issues and helps him execute his vision for the city and its 18,000 employees. During his master talk at the 62nd Annual Conference & Tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 7-9, 2016, Dan discusses the use of data in improving city services, place management and city building.
Rosanne Haggerty Master Talk
Rosanne Haggerty is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions. She is an internationally recognized leader in developing innovative strategies to end homelessness and strengthen communities. Community Solutions assists communities throughout the US and Canada in solving the complex problems facing their most vulnerable residents by leading large scale change initiatives including the 100,000 Homes and Built for Zero Campaigns and the 20,000 Homes Campaign.
Rod Schebesch Master Talk
Rod Schebesch, Transportation Leader, Stantec’s Urban Place, has spent his 26-year career enhancing mobility. He specializes in the implementation of new transportation technology—and in understanding how that technology will transform North American transportation networks. With a focus on building smarter cities, Rod is always striving to find greater infrastructure efficiencies that positively impact the built environment.
Ry Moran Master Talk
Ry Moran is the Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation located at the University of Manitoba. In addition to working with his team to build the Centre from the ground up, Ry continues to advocate for Survivors, truth and reconciliation with commentary in radio, print and television. Ry is a proud member of the Métis Nation.
Rosanna Durruthy Master Talk
Rosanna Durruthy is the Head of Global Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at LinkedIn. She brings broad, cross functional, human resources leadership experience in attracting and developing high performing talent as the diversity leader at companies like Cigna, Vivendi Universal (Seagram) and Merrill Lynch. At LinkedIn, Rosanna’s focus is on empowering all employees, members and customers to realize their full potential.
Michael Berne Master Talk
Michael Berne is one of North America’s foremost experts in Downtown and Main Street retail. As President of MJB Consulting (MJB), he has worked in cities and towns across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and he has also spoken and written extensively on the subject. He is currently penning a chapter to a forthcoming volume on Suburban Downtowns and writing a book on “A New Retail Paradigm for the City Center.”
Lourdes Ramirez Master Talk
Lourdes M. Castro Ramírez is an accomplished executive dedicated to building partnerships, improving lives and communities, and expanding economic, educational and health opportunities. She is currently the President of the University Health System Foundation in San Antonio, Bexar County, and South Texas.
Vanessa German Master Talk
Vanessa German is a visual and performance artist based in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood, whose cast-off relics form the language of her copiously embellished sculptures. She is also the founder of Love Front Porch and the ARThouse, a community arts initiative for the children of her historic Homewood neighborhood.
David Downey Welcome – Winnipeg
As President and Chief Executive Officer, David is responsible for the overall strategic positioning of IDA as a world leader and champion for vital and livable urban centers. Prior to joining the IDA, David served as the Managing Director for the American Institute of Architects’ Urban Design Center and as Executive Director for the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Tim Tompkins – Winnipeg
Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. The Alliance is a business improvement district that works to improve and promote Times Square – cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life for over a century. Prior to coming to the Alliance, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks, which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks.
Paul Jordan Master Talk
Paul Jordan is the CEO of The Forks North Portage Partnership in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having a passion for the continued development of Winnipeg, Paul has been active in the creation of waterfront access projects, which have led to multiple initiatives within the city. He was instrumental in the creation and implementation of Target Zero, The Forks’ environmental vision to reach zero carbon emissions.
Jeffrey Robinson Master Talk
Jeffrey A. Robinson, Ph.D. is an award-winning business school professor, international speaker and entrepreneur. Since 2008, he has been a leading faculty member at Rutgers Business School where he is an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship and the Academic Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development. Dr. Robinson is a passionate advocate for social entrepreneurship, inclusive innovation and economic development.