SPEAKER BIOS
David Perkes, an architect and Associate Professor for Mississippi State University, is the founding director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, a professional outreach program of the College of Architecture, Art + Design. Established soon after Hurricane Katrina, the studio provides planning and architectural design support to Mississippi Gulf Coast communities and non-profits. The design studio works closely with the East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center and has assisted in the renovation of hundreds of damaged homes and over fifty new house projects in East Biloxi which, in 2007, were awarded an Honor Citation from the Gulf States Region AIA. Before creating the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, David was the director of the Jackson Community Design Center and taught in the School of Architecture’s fifth year program in Jackson, Mississippi. Under his leadership the Jackson Community Design Center assisted many community organizations and received numerous national and local awards, including a Mississippi AIA Honor Award for the Boys and Girls Club Camp Pavilion. A sustainable Habitat for Humanity house built in Jackson was selected by the “Show Your Green” recognition program and featured on the AIA Design Advisor. David was selected as the designer from Mississippi for the January 2004 issue of International Design which featured a designer from each state. David has a Master of Environmental Design degree from Yale School of Architecture, a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Utah, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Utah State University. In 2004 David was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Joan Iverson Nassauer. A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Nassauer was named Landscape Ecology Scholar by the International Association of Landscape Ecology in 2007 and Distinguished Practitioner of Landscape Ecology in the US in 1998. Her investigation of public acceptance and cultural sustainability of ecological design was reported in over 50 referenced papers and 20 books and monographs, and received numerous awards. This work, entitled offers strategies for basing ecological design on strong science, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative engagement with policy. Currently Nassauer is applying her approach to brownfields, vacant property, and exurban sprawl. Nassauer is a professor of Landscape Architecture, School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan. She earned her M.L.A in Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University and her B.L.A. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesot.
Terry Schwarz is the senior planner at Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC), a community service organization with a professional staff of designers committed to improving the quality of urban places through technical design assistance, research and advocacy. Supported by the Ohio Board of Regents' Urban University Program and the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State University, the CUDC offers architectural and urban design expertise to urban communities, design professionals, and the planning and public policy work of the state universities in Akron, Youngstown and Cleveland. Terry’s work at the CUDC includes neighborhood and campus planning, commercial and residential design guidelines, stormwater management and green infrastructure strategies. In 2005 she launched the CUDC’s Shrinking Cities Institute in 2005 in an effort to understand and address the implications of population decline and large-scale urban vacancy in Northeast Ohio. She teaches in the graduate design curriculum for the KSU College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.
Alan Greenberger is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and chairs the Philadelphia Zoning Code Commission. His current work at the Planning Commission and with UPenn City Planning graduate students is focused on outlining long-term growth strategy for Philadelphia titled 'Planning for the Post-Industrial City.’ Growth strategy issues such as now-fallow land use, connections between communities and a city’s natural resources, and understanding current and future economic drivers are applicable to smaller formerly industrial cities such as those throughout the East and Midwest regions of the US. Prior to his 2008 appointment to the Planning Commission Greenberger was partner of Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and lead designer for a variety of projects such as the America on Wheels Museum, Mann Center for the Performing Arts Master Plan and Pavilions, and the Centennial District Master Plan. He also co-founded and chaired the Design Advocacy Group of Philadelphia, a volunteer organization made up of architects, city planners and developers which works toward planning reform in Philadelphia. Greenberger, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture alumnus, is also a faculty member of the Department of Architecture at Drexel University and the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
Joe Fama is the Executive Director of TAP, Inc., a community design and development center established in 1969 which provides design and planning services primarily in Troy, and in other municipalities in New York’s Capital Region. As Executive Director since 1972, Mr. Fama supervises and participates in all phases of TAP’s work. He is the administrative head of the office as well as one of three staff architects. His work at TAP keeps him interested and involved in the Troy Community. His recent activities include serving as a board member for the ARK Charter School, The Rice Building, Inc., and Historic Troy 2020 for which he is also the Chief Operating Officer. Fama was also a board member for New York State Department of State Technical Subcommittees on revision of the State Energy Code, Appendix K of the Building Code (for Existing Buildings) and the adoption of the International Existing Buildings Code. Mr. Fama, originally from New York City, came to Troy in 1966 to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he earned a degrees in Building Sciences and Architecture. While at RPI he was the first recipient of the Norman Waxman Service Award in 1970 and the winner of the A.I.A. Student Award in1971; both from the School of Architecture, and was a 2008 Winner of the Edward H. Pattison Citizenship Award, Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Matthew Potteiger is a professor of Landscape Architecture in the College of Environmental Design at SUNY, Syracuse. His teaching, research and practice focus on linking food systems to community design as a means of creating vital productive urban spaces, building community capacity, and activating public space. The work of students in his “food studio” has helped to reveal critical issues and create a framework for coordinated food system planning as well as directly influencing food access by helping to establish a farmers market on Syracuse’s eastside and building a community garden with the refugee community. He is one of the founding members of Syracuse Grows, a community-based network working to cultivate equitable local food production, distribution and consumption through community gardening and urban agriculture. He recently received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to supported travel to Brazil, Japan and North American cities to study emerging models of urban agriculture. His book, Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories, (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) received an ASLA merit award.
Pamela Reese Smith, the Community Project Manager for the Marketview Heights Collective Action Project (MHCAP), holds a Bachelors degree in Studio Arts with a wealth of expertise in history and anthropology. Pamela has been a community organizer for 30 years working to revitalize and reorganize inner city neighborhoods. She believes that inner city residents want to play a role in the transformation of their neighborhoods and will engaged in the process if they believe there will be change. MHCAP installed four new community gardens in the neighborhood Marketview Heights Neighborhood. In 2009 the 325 North Union Street garden won first Place in the Mayor’s garden contest. Engaging residents and giving them a voice has made the Collective Action Project a major success. In 2007 Pamela Graduated with Highest Distention from the University of Rochester. From May 2005 until July 2007 Pamela was Executive Director for the Flower City Soccer League, an Inner city soccer program for disadvantaged youth many of whom reside in the Marketview Heights Community. In July 2008 Rochester’s Mayor Duffy presented Pamela with an award for Excellence In Service.
Rochelle Bell has been an Environmental Planner at the Monroe County
Department of Planning & Development for almost 10 years working to organize a Land Use Decision-Making Training Program for municipal officials and staff, coordinate with the County Department of Health to plan matters impacting public health, manage a wetland mitigation project, conduct environmental reviews for Community Development projects, and review land use developments with potential county-wide impacts. She is actively involved in organizations such as the Monroe County Green Building Design Review Team, Black Creek Watershed Coalition, and Public Health and Safety Technical Advisory Committee. Prior to joining Monroe County, Rochelle worked as a hydrogeologist for environmental consulting firms in Oregon, Washington and Iowa and for the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in California and Colorado. She also taught in community college in Eugene, Oregon. Rochelle earned her B.S. degree (cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in Geology from Colorado State University and her Masters in Earth Science and Resources from the University of California at Davis.
Dominic Robinson co-founded “The Northside Collaboratory” in 2007, a program for innovative and collaborative community development in the Northside neighborhood in Syracuse, NY. In 2008 Dominic began work with the Metropolitan Development Association (MDA) and St. Joseph’s Hospital in coordinating the revitalization efforts in the Prospect Hill neighborhood. With the MDA and as the Director of the Collaboratory, Dominic is working to catalyze community and economic development, and large scale investment within Syracuse’s Northside by creating programs in business development and retention, a weatherization training program for neighborhood residents, neighborhood communications strategies and tools, and public art projects. He has assisted in several housing development projects and is currently working to bring a hotel to the neighborhood. Dominic Robinson attended Washington University in St. Louis where he also helped form “City Bridges,” a group dedicated to helping link university resources to community organizations. While perusing a master’s degree in Urban Studies at Loyola University Chicago he served as a fellow in Loyola’s “Center for Urban Research and Learning” (CURL), a university-based research center, dedicated to community-driven, collaborative research. In Chicago Dominic also worked with a non-profit organization that provided athletic, academic and enrichment programming to children living in the Cabrini Green public housing projects. In 2004 Dominic worked as an Americorps Volunteer as teacher, football coach and campus minister at a Catholic high school, which reached out to predominantly low-income residents of Chicago’s south side.
Elizabeth Miller is the Executive Director of the Community Design Collaborative which created Infill Philadelphia, a Food Access program which brings together design practitioners, community development experts, policymakers, grocery store operators, funders, and neighborhood leaders to explore how design can address fresh food access in low- and moderate-income urban communities. The resulting design concepts use physical assets in older urban neighborhoods creatively: creating a fresh food market in a storefront building, reusing a warehouse for a co-op that can grow in phases, and designing a new supermarket for a challenging urban site. A skilled nonprofit manager, Beth developed her expertise in public policy, community development, and historic preservation. In addition to her work with the Community Design Collaborative, she serves on the Design Advocacy Group (DAG) Steering Committee and the City Parks Association Board. Beth holds a Masters in Government Administration from the Fels School of Government at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College.
