MUP Advisory Board

Bill Anderson, FAICP
Principal/Vice-President, AECOM

Mr. Anderson, oversees the Economics practice for the western offices of AECOM. Previously, he was Director of City Planning & Community Investment for the City of San Diego, where he oversaw Planning, Economic Development, Redevelopment, Urban Form, and Facilities Financing. In this capacity, he directed the update to San Diego’s General Plan, which received APA’s Daniel Burnham Award for Excellence in Comprehensive Planning. Prior to his tenure at the City of San Diego, he was a Senior Vice-President with Economics Research Associates, where he worked on almost 300 assignments in twenty states and eight countries. From 1995-2003, he was a member and chair of the City of San Diego Planning Commission He currently serves on the Board of Directors of APA, co-chairs APA’s “Sustaining Places” initiative, and is a member of the California Planning Roundtable. Mr. Anderson is a Full Member of ULI’s Inner City Council, Lambda Alpha, and was President of C 3, San Diego’s oldest local planning and conservation advocacy group. He has a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, and a Masters in City & Regional Planning from Harvard University.

David Barsotti
CEO, European Motors, Ltd.

As President of European Motors, Mr. Barsotti leads the Barsotti Family’s Mercedes-Benz dealership that has been serving generations of Bay Area Mercedes-Benz owners and enthusiasts for the past 42 years. As one of the oldest family-owned Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Northern California, Mr. Barsotti has continued his company’s long-standing reputation of top-notch client treatment within the community for future generations. The company’s history is as follows: 1950’s – started out as a Studebaker dealer in San Francisco. 1958 – San Francisco Mercedes-Benz Dealer founded as European Motors San Francisco. 1967- Oakland Mercedes-Benz Dealer serving the entire East Bay founded as European Motors Oakland. Today the company is known as Mercedes-Benz of Oakland.

Amitabh Barthakur
Partner, HR&A Advisors

Amitabh is a Partner in the Los Angeles office of HR&A Advisors, an international consulting firm focused on real estate, public policy and economic development.  He brings over 20 years of national and international experience with a focus on public private partnerships to support a wide range of public infrastructure investments and economic development.  Prior to joining HR&A in 2013, Amitabh was a Vice President with AECOM and Regional Director for Planning, Design, and Development for AECOM in India. During his tenure at AECOM, he also led AECOM’s Economics practice in the US-West region and served as the Global Practice leader for the firm’s Economic Planning and Real Estate sector. Prior to this Amitabh was a Principal with Economics Research Associates. Amitabh holds a Master of Urban Planning and a Master of Building Science from the University of Southern California. He also holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, India. Amitabh is a member of  – the American Institute of Certified Planners, the national Public Private Partnership product council of the Urban Land Institute, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Los Angeles Business Council, and serves as a Planning Commissioner in the City of South Pasadena. 

Marlon Boarnet
Director, Graduate Programs in Urban Planning, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy

Dr. Marlon Boarnet, Professor of Public Policy and Chair of the Urban Planning & Spatial Analysis Department, is a renowned authority on urban economics, urban growth patterns, transportation, and regional science. He is an expert in transportation and land use, and has served on the National Research Council committee that authored “Driving and the Built Environment.”

His research focuses on land use and transportation; links between land use and travel behavior and associated implications for public health and greenhouse gas emissions; urban growth patterns; and the economic impacts of transportation infrastructure.

Marlon Boarnet has published extensively in leading journals such as Regional Science and Urban Economics, Environment and Behavior, Urban Studies, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Planning Education and Research, National Tax Journal, and Journal of the American Planning Association and is also co-author of Travel by Design: The Influence of Urban Form on Travel (Oxford University Press, 2001).

For twelve years, Dr. Boarnet co-edited the Journal of Regional Science, is an associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Planning Literature, Journal of Transport and Land Use, Transport Policy, and previously on Papers in Regional Science.

In recognition for lifetime scholarly achievement, Dr. Boarnet is fellow of both the Regional Science Association International and the Weimer School of the Homer Hoyt Institute for Real Estate. He serves as vice-president/president-elect of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (2017-2019).

He has been an Executive Committee Member for the National Center for Sustainable Transportation since 2014 and has acted as principal investigator on over 1.8 million dollars of funded research, supported by agencies that include the U.S. and California Departments of Transportation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Policy Research Center, the California Air Resources Board, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Linda Bohlinger
Vice President, Parsons Brinckerhoff

Ms. Bohlinger joins Parsons Brinckerhoff following a 36-year career in both the public and private sectors. She was a VP with an international engineering firm, leading its national management consulting practice and prior to that she served as Executive Director of South Florida’s Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority (Tri-Rail), where she secured a $327 million federal full funding grant agreement for Tri-Rail’s double track program. During her 15-year tenure with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), Ms. Bohlinger become LACMTA’s interim chief executive, with operational, construction, planning, and fiscal responsibility for a $3 billion budget, 8,000 employees, and a 13-member board. At LACMTA she secured more than $2.4 billion in federal full funding grant agreements for the Metro Red Line Subway. Ms. Bohlinger’s earlier public service career influenced major infrastructure programs across the state of California. As the Deputy Director for Transit Development for the California Transportation Commission, she started the Commission’s first five-year program of rail transit guideway projects and assisted in increasing state legislative support from $10 million to $100 million per year. As the Manager of Highway and Transportation Systems Management Programs for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, she directed the development of the Commission’s $2.2 billion capital improvement programs for state highways, rail transit, and local roadways. She also held key management roles for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and for the Southern California Association of Governments in systems planning and programming of regional and local projects. Ms. Bohlinger received a master of public administration degree from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She serves as Chair of the North American Transit Services Association and is a former executive committee member of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and immediate past chair of the APTA Foundation. She is a member of the California Transit Association and the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). She has garnered leadership awards for her contributions to the industry including the Book of Leaders Award, Miami Today; Woman of the Year Award, Los Angeles Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar; Outstanding Leadership Award, California Transit Association; and Woman of the Year Award, Sacramento Chapter of WTS.

Marty Borko
Executive Director, Urban Land Institute Los Angeles

Marty Borko is the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles. Borko left his post as Principal at Gensler in Los Angeles to command the day-to-day workings and long-range planning of one of ULI’s largest and most active regional chapters. As Executive Director, Borko pilots the organization as it confronts the most critical land-use challenges in the city, including the homeless and housing affordability crisis, as well as city planning, infrastructure, transportation, open-space and historic districts. In his tenure at the global design firm’s Los Angeles office, Borko grew the firm’s Planning and Urban Design, Entertainment, and Mixed Use practices and had been principal-in-charge on numerous international and Los Angeles projects. In addition to being a Sustaining Member of ULI’s Entertainment Development Council and member of the USC Price School Planning Program Advisory Board, Borko is: Associate Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA); Member, American Planning Association (APA); Member, International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC); Member, International Association of Amusement Parks (IAAPA); Dean’s Council, University of Oregon College of Design; Board Member, Los Angeles Downtown Breakfast Club; Member, Southern California Development Forum; and Member, Central City Association.

Steve Brown
Executive Vice President, Fehr & Peers

Mr. Brown is a Senior Principal with 30 years of experience in transportation planning and engineering. In addition to his 25 years of consulting experience, Mr. Brown was the Director of Transportation Planning for the City of Sacramento. Mr. Brown is known and respected for his ability to communicate technical information to the general public and decision-makers, and he is very experienced in building consensus around difficult topics in communities. Mr. Brown earned a Master’s Degree in Transportation from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He is a licensed traffic engineer in California. Mr. Brown is a Licensed Traffic Engineer, State of California (TR1510). His professional associations include Member of Bicycle Sub-Committee of NCUTCD, 1995/96, Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE): Member, Northern California Section President 2000-2001 and Co-chair ITE District 6 Conference, 2004. Mr Brown received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with Honors, University of California, Berkeley, 1985 and his Master of Science in Transportation, University of California at Berkeley, 1987. He also earned a Master in Business Administration, Golden Gate University, 1998. Mr. Brown was either the project manager or principal-in-charge of more than 500 studies in eight states that include the following disciplines: transportation master plans, traffic calming, environmental impact assessments, parking and circulation studies, bicycle and pedestrian facility plans, new-urbanist planning, freeway interchanges, intersection/signal designs and corridor studies.

Weijen Chen
Principal, Urban Planner, The LCW Group, Inc.

Weijen Chen serves as Principal at LCW Group with focus on large scale master planning, site planning and city planning activities. Ms. Chen also oversees all financial and business management aspects of the company, as well as all company accounting, risk management, and human resource duties. In the three years prior to joining LCW, Ms. Chen served as Vice President, Project Manager at PCG (a land investment, entitlement firm) with focus on land investment activities. Ms. Chen was involved in all aspects of the planning, processing, development, and management of the company’s residential land projects. In addition, Ms. Chen played a key role in the firm’s economic and market due diligence analysis in support of the firm’s investment decision-making process. She was responsible for oversight of PCG’s unique market research capabilities and for identifying future growth patterns, and developing investment strategies and opportunities within target investment areas. In the six years prior to joining PCG, Ms. Chen served as a Project Manager at IHP Capital Partners where she was responsible for assessing market feasibility of housing and land development projects, urban growth policies, and entitlement processing activities within municipalities throughout California. In this area of responsibility, she worked intensively with planners/engineers and developers/builders in each market. Prior to joining IHP Capital Partners, Ms. Chen served as Senior Planner at the Comprehensive Planning Company, a leading Taiwan-based planning consulting firm, where her duties encompassed land planning, entitlement processing, feasibility analysis and Community/General Plan consulting.

Susan DeSantis
Senior Associate, Arellano Associates

Susan is the principal and owner of SDS Associates, a firm which she established in 2001 to provide professional services to the public and private sectors bridging the gap between public programs and the communities they serve. Susan has been affiliated with Arellano Associates since 2008, where she is a consulting professional in public policy, urban planning, community outreach and communications. She specializes in the planning and implementation of integrated land use and transportation, sustainable communities and smart growth strategies. She has also affiliated with Cambridge Systematics and Productivity Apex on freight movement studies and demonstration projects. Susan served as Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development in the early 1980s where she was responsible for state housing programs as a Governor’s appointee. She served as spokesman for the Governor on all housing and community development related matters. Prior to starting her own consulting firm, Ms. DeSantis’ was a Principal of The Planning Center, a private sector urban planning firm. She previously served as Director of Government Services and Policy Planning for the California Association of REALTORS. Susan is a Past President of the California Planning Roundtable as well as a Founding Member and Past President of the Orange County Forum. She received her Bachelor of Arts and completed the Executive Management Program at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.

Cecilia V. Estolano
CEO and Founder of Estolano Advisors and CEO of Better World Group

Cecilia V. Estolano is a leading expert on contemporary urban planning issues, with experience in economic and workforce development, land use, environmental policy, and urban revitalization. She has worked directly with public, private, institutional, and non-profit clients to plan, finance, design, implement, and operate policy-driven programs and projects that promote sustainable solutions tailored for each community. Cecilia is a Regent of the University of California and has served as President of the California Community College Board of Governors. She received an A.B. from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Berkeley. Prior to founding Estolano Advisors in 2011, Cecilia served as CEO of CRA/LA, practiced land use and environmental law while Of Counsel and an Associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, served as Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. EPA during the Clinton Administration, and served as Environmental Policy Advisor to former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley. In addition to her work at Estolano Advisors, she became the CEO of Better World Group, an environmental strategy firm, in 2018.

Bill Fulton
Director, Kinder Institute for Urban Research Rice University

William Fulton is Director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. He is a former Mayor of Ventura, California, and Director of Planning & Economic Development for the City of San Diego. In his career, Mr. Fulton has also served as Vice President for Policy at Smart Growth America, Principal in the California-based urban planning firm now known as PlaceWorks, and Senior Fellow at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He is the founding editor and publisher of California Planning & Development Report [www.cp-dr.com] and author of five books, including Guide to California Planning, the standard urban planning textbook in California, and The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles, which was an L.A. Times best-seller. At the Kinder Institute, Fulton coordinates Rice’s research partnership with the City of Houston and its involvement with the MetroLab Network. Rice and Houston are currently exploring ways to use Smart City technology to improve both the city’s operations and its policymaking process. He holds master’s degrees in mass communication from The American University and urban planning from UCLA.

Namia Greffon Ganaba
General Manager, Greater Watts Development Corporation

Naima Greffon currently serves as Vice President of the Greater Watts Development Corporation. Naima has extensive experience in community development, housing and planning in private, public and non-profit entities where she developed projects, authored planning policies and design guidelines – In her curent position and previously as a General Manager, for the last 23 years, Naima is one of a leading advocate in under-priviledged communities ensuring equity in development, planning and environment. She serves as an advisory board member for the urban planning graduate programs USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy and also served in many other advisory committees, taskforces for public agencies and community groups – Naima enjoys giving back to USC and highlights the university for providing the fundamentals of urban planning and public policy which helped her further her interest and passion in community development and advocacy for participatory planning in our cities and states. Naima earned her degree in architecture and urbanism from Ecole Polytechnique d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme (EPAU) in Algiers. She then attended USC where she earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning.

S. Gail Goldberg
Executive Director, Urban Land Institute

Since May 2011, Ms.Goldberg has served as Executive Director for The Urban Land Institute where she is responsible for leading the District Council’s program of work, including developing and executing strategies that manage the Los Angeles District Council and Institute resources, expertise, and leadership to constructively impact local, state and regional development issues and land use policies. This includes developing and managing an annual plan and long range plans for the District Council, and hands-on management of sponsorship, membership, programs, conferences, key alliances, committee meetings, technical assistance panels, and collaborative public ventures. From 2006 to 2010, Ms. Golberg was Director of Planning for the City of Los Angeles where she was responsible for organizing and directing the policies and activities of the City’s Planning Department, including the development, maintenance and implementation of all elements of the City’s General Plan as well as a range of other special zoning plans. From 2001-2005, Ms. Goldberg was Director of Planning for the City of San Diego where her responsibilities included all Long Range and Community Planning activities, Housing, Facilities Financing, Transportation Planning, the Multiple Species Conservation Program, Historic Resources Programs, Special Projects and all land use policy development; Support City Planning Commission, several boards and more than 40 Community Planning Groups. Ms. Goldberg also served as Assistant Director, City Planner as well as Program Manager for the City of San Diego. Additionally, Ms. Goldberg was the Reuse Project Director for the San Diego Naval Training Center (NTC) where she created and implemented multifaceted work program to implement reuse plan for NTC; Supervised several full-time employees and directed the activities of Citywide NTC team; Negotiated, acquired and managed almost $2 million in federal grants; Directed and managed $1.5 million in consultant contracts; Successfully negotiated with the Navy the return of an 18-acre hotel site worth $15 million to the redevelopment of NTC; Successfully negotiated with the local BRAC office for almost two million square feet of NTC buildings for interim reuse; Facilitated a $7.5 million agreement with homeless assistance providers to meet federal requirements.

Clifford Graves
Former Community Development Department Director, City of Carson

Cliff brings more than 40 years’ experience in planning, urban development, and finance to his engagements. His career includes executive roles with federal, regional, local, and special-purpose agencies, and professional services in finance, urban development, and environmental management. His experience includes the planning and development of the University of California campuses at Merced and San Francisco’s Mission Bay, and executive positions at the US Office of Management & Budget, and Housing & Urban Development in Washington, DC.

At the local level, Cliff was General Manager, Community Development for the cities of Los Angeles and Carson, Chief Administrative Officer for the County of San Diego, Executive Director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and Senior Planner for the San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission. Cliff was a Town Planner & Civic Designer for the East Sussex County Council in the U.K. He served as an interim manager for the cities of Bell and Compton.

An adjunct professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, he has also taught planning and public policy at the University of Maryland, Howard University, the University of California Berkeley, and San Diego State University. He has advised the US Government Accountability Office, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Public Policy Institute of California on their research programs.

Emile Haddad
Chairman & CEO, Five Point Communities

Emil Haddad is FivePoint’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Haddad leads the executive team that manages FivePoint’s communities. Haddad cofounded FivePoint in 2009 and has headed it since then. Previously, Haddad served as the Chief Investment Officer of Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, where he was in charge of the company’s real estate investments and asset management. In this capacity, he led the acquisition, capitalization an development of Great Park Neighborhoods, Newhall Ranch and The San Francisco Shipyard. Haddad serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the University of California, Irvine Foundation. He sits on the Real Estate Advisory Board of the University of California, Irvine and the University of California Berkeley. He is also a member of the University of Southern California’s Price School Planning Program Advisory Board and the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate Executive Committee. In addition, he currently serves on the boards of PBS So-Cal and Claremont Graduate University.

Con Howe
Managing Director, CityView Los Angeles Fund

Con Howe is Managing Director of CityView’s Los Angeles Fund, which has built or renovated 21 projects with over 2500 units in Los Angeles County. CityView is an institutional housing investment firm chaired by Henry Cisneros and active throughout California and the Southwest. Prior to joining CityView, Con was Director of Planning for the City of Los Angeles for 13 years, responsible for the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, the Downtown Housing Incentive Ordinance and zoning codes that incentivized mixed-use, infill, small lot and affordable housing. Previously he was Executive Director of the New York City Planning Department, working extensively on Times Square and Lower Manhattan. He holds degrees from MIT and Yale University and teaches a course in planning and redevelopment at USC.

Bea Hsu
Senior Vice President, Development and Forward Planning, Related California

Bea Hsu is a Senior Vice President for Brookfield Properties Development. She is based in Brookfield’s Los Angeles office and oversees a pipeline of urban residential and mixed-use development projects throughout California. Prior to joining Brookfield in 2016, Ms. Hsu was a Senior Vice President for Development and Forward Planning for Related Companies of California.

Ms. Hsu is a member of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners and a past member of the Board of Directors for Larchmont Charter Schools and the Los Angeles Industrial Development Authority. She has been twice recognized by Bisnow as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in LA Commercial Real Estate.

Ms. Hsu holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Yale University.

Hasan Ikhrata
Executive Director, Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)

Considered one of the preeminent transportation planning experts in the nation, Hasan Ikhrata is the Southern California Association of Governments.

Shelby Jordan
Executive Director/President, Community Resource Talent Development

Steven Kellenberg
Sr. Vice President Community Planning, Urban Planning and Design

Michael Kodama
Executive Director of Eco-Rapid Transit

Mr. Kodama is the Executive Director of Eco-Rapid Transit, a joint powers authority consisting of 12 members in Los Angeles County who are working together to bring the West Santa Ana Branch and High-Speed Rail to a local transit corridor. The project is more than a train, it is an  economic and community development project linking together over 1 million people from Burbank Airport, Glendale to Southeast Los Angeles County. Mr. Kodama has an extensive background in transportation planning, parking management, and transportation demand management. His work combines transportation and land use planning. He has spent his career helping communities, working on local and regional transportation projects with elected officials, regional and local planning staff to implement a wide variety of projects. He also has his own consulting practice and is nationally recognized for his work in parking management which includes projects from New York to Denver to Portland and throughout the State of California. He is an adjunct professor at USC teaching transportation planning.  

Larner, Todd
Senior Principal, WHA Inc.

Todd Larner has nearly 30 years of experience in creative master planning and implementation of dynamic projects all over the globe.  As a managing principal and studio director, his portfolio includes project management and design directives for large-scale master planned communities, commercial / mixed-use, urban infill, site-specific neighborhood design, education facilities, resorts and theme parks.  Todd has focused his practice to include the integration of architecture, planning and landscape design to create memorable places within the built environment.  He understands the importance of a cohesive story-line and incorporating brand identity for each project.  By seamlessly incorporating marketing and visioning into his designs, his projects have thrived in an incredibly competitive marketplace.  

His professional experience and relationships with some of the largest developers and home builders has proven invaluable to his clientele.  Beyond design he provides strong leadership in branding, project programming, market segmentation/ absorption modeling and yield analysis.   As a project lead on over 12 large scale master plans, each over 1,500 acres, he is able to partner with his clients providing project leadership of multiple consultant teams.  He believes in fostering a collaborative environment that delivers thoughtful creativity achieving clients’ market goals.   

Todd is active in numerous professional and academic organizations.  He has spoken multiple times at Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC) and The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) lending his experience and insight to panelist discussions.  As a ULI full member, he is an active contributor to CDC Green Flight Product Council leading content development for conference working groups.  As a board member and adjunct professor at the Price School of Policy Planning and Development, at the University of Southern California, Todd is helping develop academic curriculum for graduate programs as well as conducting guest lecture series at the school.   

Arthur Leahy
CEO, Metrolink

Barbara Lichman
Of Counsel, Buchalter Nemer

Barbara E. Lichman, Ph.D. has an extensive and successful record representing airports, municipalities, developers, and other public and private clients in litigation and administrative proceedings under Federal
Aviation statutes such as the Airline Deregulation Act and Airport Noise and Capacity Act; the California Public Utilities Code governing land use in airport environs (Aeronautics Act); and federal and state environmental statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Clean Air Act, the Federal Clean Water Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and the California Coastal Act. She has also successfully represented clients in litigation involving land use issues such as inverse condemnation,
development agreements and specific plan amendments. Dr. Lichman holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning.

Dr. Lichman’s experience is both national and international. As a Registered Federal Lobbyist, Dr. Lichman successfully lobbied and testified before Congress on behalf of aircraft owners and operators on issues including the grant of investment tax credits for noise reduction of aircraft engines. She also served as counsel to Air AAA Group, a consortium of international architectural, engineering and construction companies in their airport development activities at Pudong Airport, Shanghai, China. Dr. Lichman served as managing partner of Chevalier, Allen & Lichman, LLP, for sixteen years, and has been at Buchalter for six years.

Dr. Lichman’s clients include public entities, airport owners/sponsors, land developers, major power generating companies, airport fixed-base operators (FBOs), and aircraft owners.

John Molloy
Executive Director and COO, Path Ventures

Wendy Nowak
Principal, PlaceWorks

Wendy Nowak, AICP, Principal, is an experienced and versatile planner that has a passion for public outreach and relationship building between public and private clients in Southern California.  Wendy serves as the Outreach Practice Area Lead for PlaceWorks and serves as an Ambassador for the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2 USA).  She has managed projects of a diverse variety including general plan updates, specific plans, public outreach and visioning, corridor infill development, grant writing and entitlement coordination.  She has managed over 16 specific plans, and her background in local government provides her with the know-how to successfully navigate a Specific Plan through complex processes.   Wendy recently led the consultant team for the Southeast Area Specific Plan (SEASP) a controversial 1,500-acre area in Long Beach, challenged by ongoing traffic, coastal, wetland, and infill-related issues over the past two decades. Previously, she led the Westminster General Plan Update, where, in less than a year since the adoption of the General Plan, the City is seeing dramatic changes in the type and scale of new projects in the new Mixed Use districts that could not have taken place prior to its adoption.  

Wendy also oversaw the preparation of the Moran Street Specific Plan – a mixed-use infill development in Westminster’s Little Saigon- where she worked with staff to develop an outreach program that earned the trust of a divided community and unanimous adoption of the plan.  She is now overseeing the preparation the Westminster Mall Specific Plan, which aims to reposition one of the City’s most prominent properties into a vibrant community gathering space and regional destination. 

Susan O’Carroll
President, Pareto Planning and Environmental Services

Mark Pisano
Senior Fellow, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy

Mark Pisano is Professor of Practice at the Sol Price School of Policy at University of Southern California. He is on the Board of the National Academy of Public Administration and Co-chairman of the Standing Panel on Intergovernmental Relations. Chairman of a national non-profit Infrastructure Funding Alliance. He is co-chairmen of the Infrastructure Working Group of California Forward. He recently published a book called the Puzzle of the American Economy: How Demography is changing America’s Economy and Politics. Member of the Advisory Board of the Geophysical and Planetary Science Department of Caltech. Co-convener of the CliMA national workshop on Climate Change. He participated in the legislative process in drafting and enacting SB 375 Sustainable Communities and Climate Change Act and SB 628 Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts.

Mark Pisano directed the activities of the Southern California Association of Governments from 1976 to 2008, the nation’s largest regional planning agency. The counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura, and cities within these counties are members of the Association. The purpose of this voluntary association of local governments is to provide an open forum where region-wide problems can be explored and comprehensive plans dealing with air and water quality, transportation, regional growth and development, housing, and other areas critical to the region can be developed.

Marsha Rood
Principal, Urban Reinventions

Frank Villalobos
President, Barrio Planners

Eddie Wang
President, TDC China, a member company of F&T Group

Mr. Eddie Wang is the founder and president of GLC Enterprises, LLC, an international real estate development service company. Amongst its various projects, Paradise Valley has embarked on an extraordinary undertaking to apply the principles of social, economic and environment sustainability to the design and development of a smart growth community, which is in Coachella Valley, California. As well, Mr. Wang was the president of TDC China, F+T Group China, which acted as the development manager of a four million sf mixed use Nanjing World Trade Center located at Hexi, Nanjing, China. Mr. Wang is partner of G Capital, LLC, a real estate investment group and partner of 4 Corners Group, LLC, an urban infill housing developer. Being professionally licensed in 24 states in the United States, Mr. Wang has consistently supported the design profession and community and acted as speakers at various forums including, inter alia, Urban Land Institute, International Council of Shopping Centers and summer school of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He serves as an Advisory Board Member at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development. He was also on the Board of Trustee of Woodbury University, Burbank, California. He was honored as a member of the International Who’s Who of the Professionals in 1996 and was on the Board of the Los Angeles National Bank and California Chinese-American Construction Professionals. 

Al, Zelinka
Community Development Director, City of Riverside

Al Zelinka, FAICP, is City Manager for America’s 58^th largest city, Riverside, CA.  After leaving his community-based revitalization, planning, and urban design practice as Vice President and Principal of RBF Consulting’s Urban Design Studio in 2008, Al served as Planning Manager and Community Development Director with the City of Fullerton, followed by Community & Economic Development Director, Assistant City Manager, and, now, City Manager for the City of Riverside, CA. With Riverside, Al has empowered staff and community to: establish a second-to-none on-line and in-person One Stop Shop; implement GrowRiverside, a communitywide effort to develop a sustainable and self-reliant local food system; inspire over $1 Billion in downtown urban development; improve the City’s Municipal Equality Index from a score of 65 to 100 in less than 3 years; implement an Office of Sustainability and drive outcomes toward environmental stewardship, economic prosperity, and social responsibility; and effectively manage the City’s  financial stability. Throughout his professional journey, Al continues to carry out his professional mission: To make a difference in the communities for whom he serves.