Dawn Blobaum, AIA, is the Assistant Town Manager for the Town of Davidson, NC. She has 20 years of experience as a licensed architect specializing in infill construction in historic neighborhoods in St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1996 co-founded the Lawrence Group, Architects and Town Planners, in Davidson. Blobaum joined the Town of Davidson staff in 1998. She attended Montana State University and Washington University in St. Louis. Session: Design-Based Codes (presented with Craig Lewis).

Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, is a principal and vice president with EDAW, where he has worked since 1985. As one of two landscape architecture principals in the Alexandria office, carmichael has won projects that have grown the design studio both in numbers and breadth of experience. Even before the word was coined, Carmichael's focus had always been on placemaking. With dozens of award-winning built projects around the country, his work in public places is characterized by the use of narrative, cultural and historical references in landscape solutions. Rather than a signature style, his approach to design is about revealing the special qualities of a given place, seeking to make the landscape visible, comprehensible and valuable. His work has given several cities renewed vigor as it created opportunities for new investment. Carmichael, who received a degree in landscape architecture from the State University of New York at Syracuse, is the National President-elect and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Session: Work to Live: Strategies for Active Workplaces.

Michael S. Cole, RLA, has 25 years of planning, design and management experience and is a co-founder and managing principal of ColeJenest & Stone, a regional, full-service land planning, landscape architecture, civil engineering and urban design firm in Charlotte with an office in Raleigh. Cole has experience in all aspects of property evaluation, master plan development and zoning, subdivision regulations and detailed site development. He has participated in several award-winning projects throughout the Southeast and has collaborated on numerous national design projects. Notable projects include streetscapes for Elizabeth Avenue and Albemarle Road in Charlotte, Spartanburg's Morgan Square, TreeTops, the UNC-Charlotte master plan, the mixed-use Gateway Gardens at Gateway Village, the Green at Wachovia, and the Pack Square revitalization in Asheville, N.C. Cole is an active member of the North Carolina American Society of Landscape Architects, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, and the Design Guild Board of the NC State College of Design. Cole holds a bachelor of landscape architecture from the NC State University College of Design. Session: Urban Action: City Design for Healthy Lifestyles.

Cara Crisler is the Executive Director of the NC Smart Growth Alliance, located in Carrboro. Her seven years of advocating for better planning practices began after returning from a three-year stay in the Netherlands. While there, she became inspired by the creative means used to meet the challenges that accompany a large population living in a limited land area. As an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA), she coordinated “FutureScapes,” a sustainable community planning program at the East Tennessee Community Design Center and authored the manual FutureScapes: Guidelines for Creating Community-based Development Strategies. Crisler later worked as a planning consultant in eastern Tennessee, primarily responsible for engaging the public in growth management planning processes and coordinating Visual Preference SurveysTM and charrettes. Since living in North Carolina, she helped found the Triangle Smart Growth Coalition and joined the 1999 class of Leadership Triangle. She has served as a board member of Triangle Growth Strategies and The Village Project, co-chaired the Orange County Commission for the Environment, and volunteered as a facilitator for the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center. Crisler holds a B.A. degree in Geography from the University of Tennessee and a Doctorandus (master’s degree) in Spatial Science/Community Planning from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands. In 2002, she completed the National Smart Growth Leadership Training Program at the University of Maryland. Session: Community Planning for Active Living (presented with Ben Hitchings, David Stein and Jimmy Newkirk.)

Charles A. "Chuck" Flink, FASLA, is founder and president of Greenways Incorporated, an environmental planning and landscape architecture company established in 1986 and based in Durham, N.C. He is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading greenway planners having completed comprehensive greenway and open-space plans for more than 100 communities within 31 states. Flink has co-authored two award-winning books Greenways. A Guide to Planning, Design and Development, and Trails for the Twenty First Century. Both publications have been cited by the American Planning Association as the "best single reference" on the creation of trails and greenways. Flink has been featured in prominent national and international publications including National Geographic, Landscape Architecture, Walking, American Planning, Rails-to-Trails, Good Housekeeping, Buzzworm Environmental Journal, Southern Living, Business Journal Magazine and American City County. In 2001, Flink received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his involvement with the Grand Canyon Greenway project. In 1995, he received an Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration for his work on the Swift Creek Recycled Greenway, the nation's first greenway built from recycled trash. Flink is the recipient of numerous other national, state and local planning and de­sign awards for his work on greenway, open space and trail projects throughout the United States. Session: Green Infrastructure: The Link for Healthier Cities.

Christine Hilt, ASLA, is president of CLH Design. Hilt is a leader in environmentally friendly site design. She has designed multiple projects applying Green Building Design standards, the LEED rating system and High Performance Guidelines to site design applications. Hilt’s field of specialization is innovative educational/ institutional design with an emphasis on public participation in environmental education. Under Hilt’s guidance, CLH Design, PA has become an award-winning firm for taking site design a step further in developing a “Sites That Educate” program to teach educators and students about environmental issues through hands-on wetlands plantings and stream buffer projects. Hilt also participated in the Randallstown, Maryland UDAT (Urban Design Assistance Team) in the fall of 2003. Recent projects include several sites each at East Carolina University, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, and Wake Technical and Nash community colleges. Hilt earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Landscape Architecture at NC State’s College of Design in 1983. She’s served on the board of commissioners for Apex as well as the town’s Rotary Club president. Session: School and Campus Environments.

Ben Hitchings, AICP, is Land Use Program Manager for the Triangle J Council of Governments, an intergovernmental organization for local elected officials that works proactively on regional issues in order to sustain and improve quality of life. He provides technical assistance to local governments on land use and water resources issues; works with stakeholders throughout the region to build regional cooperation on resource management and growth issues of mutual concern. He is currently working with six communities in the center of the Triangle to complete a linked network of pedestrian, bicycle and greenspace facilities. He has helped Chatahm County develop an ordinance for walkable, mixed-use villages and is now working on a program with Orange County to promote physical activity for senior citizens by assessing the pedestrian and bicycle network at a planned senior center. Past projects include the Triangle GreenPrint project to develop a regional green space plan for the Triangle and the Triangle Green Space Database project. He provides staff support to the TJCOG Smart Growth Committee and the Regional Principles Project, which is preparing strategies to implement a set of regional development principles. He holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Session: Community Planning for Active Living (presented with Cara Crisler, David Stein and Jimmy Newkirk.)

Brian Jenest, RLA, has 25 years of urban design and landscape architectural experience and is a co-founder and managing principal of ColeJenest & Stone, a regional, full-service land planning, landscape architecture, civil engineering and urban design firm in Charlotte with an office in Raleigh. Jenest has experience in all aspects of land planning, landscape design, design-build development, and landscape construction administration. He has participated in a variety of private and public projects ranging in size from large corporate and residential master planning to small-scaled detailed design. Notable projects Charlotte's Gateway Gardens at Gateway Village, an urban mixed-use development containing a two-acre centerpiece park, the new Charlotte Arena, the Green at Wachovia integrating retail shops and residential condominiums, downtown master plans for Hickory and Mooresville, N.C., and revitalization of the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort, S.C. Jenest is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, the Congress for New Urbanism, the National Association of Homebuilders, the Charlotte Business Roundtable, and serves on the Town of Davidson Planning Board. Jenest holds a bachelor of landscape architecture from the NC State University College of Design. Session: Urban Action: City Design for Healthy Lifestyles.

Douglas Kelbaugh, FAIA, is Professor and Dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan. He received his B.A. and Master of Architecture degrees from Princeton University. Between degrees, he founded a community design center in Trenton, New Jersey, and later worked for five years in local government there as a planner and architect. His 1975 passive solar house in Princeton was the first of his many pioneering passive solar buildings. His designs have been published in more than 100 books and magazines and featured in many exhibitions. Professor Kelbaugh has taught design at eight schools of architecture in the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia, and delivered lectures at many other schools. He has been dean of Taubman College since 1998. Prior to that, he was chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington for eight years. Kelbaugh has co-chaired many national and international conferences on energy, urbanism and design, spoken to hundreds of professional and community groups, and served on more than a score of regional and national design juries. With Peter Calthorpe he edited and co-authored in 1989 The Pedestrian Pocket Book, a national bestseller in urban design that documented their pioneering work in transit-oriented development and helped jump-start the New Urbanism and Smart Growth movements. Kelbaugh also authored COMMON PLACE: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design, a book on the theory, design and practice of regionalism published by the UW Press in 1997, now in its second printing. Its sequel, Repairing the American Metropolis: Beyond Common Place, was published in 2002. Closing Keynote: Sprawl, A Conspiracy of Good Intentions.

Rich Killingsworth is a national expert on the relationship of the built environment and physical activity and director of Active Living by Design, a national initiative supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote physical activity through community design, transportation and architecture strategies. He also serves as an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and focuses his research on the impacts of the built environment on active living. Killingsworth also provides technical assistance to federal agencies and numerous national organizations on issues related to socio-environmental determinants of physical activity and health. Prior to his current position he served in the federal government for 15 years, and was a health scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the lead interventionist on CDC’s Active Community Environments Initiative, the first national effort to increase physical activity and improve health through community design and transportation alternatives. Killingsworth’s ultimate vision is to see walking and bicycling become widely accepted and practiced forms of transportation and physical activity. Opening Address: Making the Link Between the Built Environment and Physical Acitivity.

Craig Lewis is a Managing Principal and Director of Planning with The Lawrence Group, a Town Planning and Architecture firm with offices in St. Louis, New York, Davidson, N.C., Austin, and Denver. Previously the Assistant Town Manager with the Town of Cornelius, NC, Mr. Lewis has been a leader for more than a decade in promoting Smart Growth across the country. With The Lawrence Group, he has assisted dozens of communities throughout the Southeast in the development of neighborhood, town and regional master plans using the charrette process. Additionally he is widely regarded for his expertise with form-based codes and urban design guidelines. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a member of the Congress of the New Urbanism and the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). Session: Design-Based Codes (presented with Dawn Blobaum).

Buddy Milliken, a native of Shallotte, N.C., is the founder of Woodsong (A Traditional Neighborhood Development) and the owner of The Milliken Company, a real estate firm specializing in development based on new urbanism and sustainability principles. Milliken holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Relations and Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a licensed real estate broker. He is a founding member and current board member of the N.C. Smart Growth Alliance, is a member of the Congress for New Urbanism and is on the board of The Cape Fear Green Building Alliance in Wilmington, N.C. Session: Traditional Neighborhood Developments-“Fitness by Design”

Paul Morris, FASLA, is a recognized leader in community revitalization, context-sensitive design, and sustainable development — creating settings that connect people to a unique sense of place. His 25-year career has been devoted to assisting clients with solving politically sensitive and technically complex challenges. He specializes in facilitating community planning, design and development projects that regularly affect large audiences and require broad-based consensus building. Morris is a registered landscape architect and mediator, and graduate of the University of Oregon and Harvard University. He presently serves as managing principal of PB PlaceMaking, offering a unique blend of services from regional growth management, land use planning and policy to urban design, housing initiatives and landscape architecture….and focusing on the integration of land use and transportation to build and rebuild communities. Morris’s work has taken him across the United States to Canada, Europe and Japan. One of his most recent assignments includes the West Hyattsville Transit Village project in Hyattsville, Maryland, selected by AASHTO as “Best Project of The Year.” He has taught and lectured widely and is the recipient of numerous professional awards and recognitions, including most recently the Medal of Excellence from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Session: Active Transportation–An Aging Agenda.

Jimmy Newkirk serves as the Physical Activity Coordinator for the N.C. Division of Public Health, in the Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch. He leads the division's efforts to promote physical activity to prevent obesity and other chronic diseases. He works to develop and support state and local partnerships to create policy and environmental changes promoting healthy lifestyles. His efforts focus on community environment issues and physical activity opportunities for schools, while also addressing faith communities, health care and worksites. He serves as liaison to numerous state and national partnerships promoting physical activity and health. Prior to coming to the Division of Public Health, Newkirk served as Cardiovascular Health Program Director for Southeastern N.C. Newkirk has also served as Director of Health Promotion and Wellness for one of three regional U.S. Military Hospitals in Germany; Assistant Director for the University of Maryland Wellness Research Laboratory; and photojournalist for the U.S. Army. Session: Community Planning for Active Living (presented with Cara Crisler, Ben Hitchings and David Stein.)

Bill Purcell is the mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, elected first in 1999 and reelected to a second term in 2003 with a record setting 84.8 percent of the vote. As mayor his priorities are good schools in every neighborhood, safe neighborhoods in every part of the city and a quality of life shared by all Nashvillians. Purcell has focused on improving the city’s infrastructure and amenities. The Shelby Street Bridge, a newly renovated walking bridge linking the downtown and East Nashville, has become an icon for the city. Following the completion of a strategic plan for sidewalks and bikeways, the city added 100 miles of new sidewalks and new bikeways. Purcell also created an Office of Affordable Housing to spur the development of 11,103 affordable housing units in his first term. He is focused on increasing the availability of downtown residential units and preserving housing stock in the city’s historic neighborhoods. Prior to being elected mayor, Purcell served as director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies, a nationally recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics and best practices to benefit children and their families. An attorney by profession, Purcell received his law degree from Vanderbilt University and received the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt Law School.

Phil Szostak, AIA, has more than 25 years of experience in a broad variety of architectural design and planning projects. He first opened Philip Szostak Associates in 1980, demonstrating design abilities in projects ranging from small renovations to complex, multi-million dollar facilities. In 1990, he merged his practice and was the North Carolina principal for NBBJ, the country’s second largest architectural practice. After 12 years of leading the design, planning and management of national projects, he left NBBJ to re-open Philip Szostak Associates. In February 2003 he curated the well-received exhibition, The North Carolina School: The Art of Architecture at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Along with overseeing his architectural firm and teaching as a adjunct faculty member at the NC State University College of Design’s School of Architecture, Szostak has developed several major projects in the Triangle. As the lead developer and planner for the residential developments of Winsome Lane, Windsor Park and Winmore, he has led the communities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in rethinking how we build our communities. Szostak is co-developer and the architect for the American Center for Performing Arts in downtown Durham, a mixed-use project central to Durham’s downtown economic development and revitalization plans. Session: The Winmore Community: A Personal Journey.

Rodney Swink, FASLA is conference chair of Designing Communities for Healthy Living. (Click name to go to college web site profile.) Conference Introduction,

David Stein (Click name to go to college web site profile.) Session: Community Planning for Active Living (presented with Cara Crisler, Ben Hitchings and Jimmy Newkirk.)