Kathleen Matthews
Thomas A.W. Miller
Peter Strebel
Lisa Rathje
A. Robert Jaeger
Scott Standish
Bill Strickland
Jonathan B. Tourtellot
Peter R. Tyson
Nell McCormack Abom
Joseph J. Kelly
Dan Shilling
Anthony Smith
Linda McKenna Boxx
John S. Brenner
Christine Buzinde
Scott Doyle
Gary Esolen
Bill Fontana
Cheryl M. Hargrove
Matthew Jackson
(Maurice) Pres Kabacoff
Jennifer Kent
Karen Kimbrel
Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District
Bernard F. Lynch
Anne B. Pope
Richard E. Starr
Gerard Stropnicky
Andrew Vick
Todd A. Vonderheid
Gilda Lamar Watters
James E. White
Donald T. Cunningham, Jr.
Kathleen Matthews is Marriott International's Executive Vice President Global Communications and Public Affairs. She is responsible for the company's external and internal communications, including global brand and corporate public relations, corporate social responsibility and community engagement, diversity initiatives and government affairs. She also co-chairs Marriott's Executive Green Council. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Matthews was an award-winning producer, reporter and news anchor who covered news in Washington, DC for 25 years. She was the evening news anchor at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC. She also hosted Capital Sunday, a half-hour talk show focusing on current events in the nation's capital, and Working Woman, an internationally syndicated magazine show. A graduate from Stanford University, Matthews has been awarded nine local Emmys. She also has been honored as a Woman Who Means Business by the Washington Business Journal and as a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine. Matthews is active in Catholic Charities and serves on the boards of Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre and Academy of Achievement.
Tom Miller is a noted market researcher, marketing strategist and public opinion pollster who has worked with Fortune 500 clients and the U.S. Government on major global assignments for 30 years. He is a founding board member of Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA) and, since 2006, serves as its Vice President. With BDA, Miller oversees a number of global program initiatives, including the World Citizens Guide program and the development of CultureSpan, a new course on global corporate diplomacy in partnership with the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is the principal author of BDA's position paper America's Role in the World: A Business Perspective on Public Diplomacy, released in October 2007. Prior to joining BDA full-time, Miller was Managing Director and a board member with the Roper Organization, where he managed all of the company's consumer and public opinion insight services both in the United States and globally, including Roper Reports, Roper Reports Worldwide (which he created and launched in 1995), Roper Youth Report and Green Gauge Environmental Report (which he created and launched in 1988). He was previously Managing Director with Hudson Research Europe, a futures think-tank based in Paris, where he oversaw the company's consulting practice, directed its conference programs and edited its bi-monthly newsletter of international forecast, The Hudson Letter. He also supervised the GLOBE Project, a comprehensive social, economic and political risk forecasting service for 40 countries, conducted in collaboration with Chase Econometrics of the United States. Miller has published widely in the global media, appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and given speeches before business and government audiences around the world. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.
Peter Strebel is President of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, where he oversees the operation, growth, performance and strategic direction of Wyndham's lodging franchise and management portfolio. He previously served the Hotel Group as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, with responsibility for marketing the group's franchised hotel brands as well as strategic planning, market research, promotions, worldwide sales, media relations and employee and franchisee communications. Strebel directed the launch of the company's TripRewards® loyalty program, the largest of its type in the lodging industry, which helped boost systemwide revenue per available room. He joined the company in 2001, serving first as Senior Vice President, Hotel Marketing, then as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Marketing for Omni Hotels in Irving, Texas. Earlier, he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Florida Hospitality Group of Tampa (a franchisee of Howard Johnson, Days Inn and Omni hotels) and served Prime Management Inc. in sales, marketing and operational positions in New York and Florida. Strebel serves on the board and executive committee of the Travel Industry Association of America and is an adjunct professor for the International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He holds a degree in business administration from Hofstra University.
Lisa Rathje is a folklorist and Arts and Heritage Specialist with the Institute for Cultural Partnerships in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which facilitates opportunities for understanding among diverse cultures and communities. She administers the Fellowships and Apprenticeships in Folk and Traditional Arts Program for the Commonwealth, including technical assistance, program management, site visits and documentation. Rathje is also involved with multiple projects relating to the development of curriculum and youth programs using traditional arts and ethnographic process. In an ongoing research project, Rathje is assisting a faculty member from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a documentary film on Afro-Cuban artist Nancy Morejón and others of her generation. Her documentation, through photos and film, will form a part of the Afro-Cuban Special Collection housed at the University of Missouri. Rathje has worked with the Smithsonian's Latino Chicago folklife program, conducting cultural survey research, and as a presenter with "Nuestra Musica" at the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She received her MA and is a PhD candidate in Folklore from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
A. Robert Jaeger co-founded Partners for Sacred Places in 1989, along with other religious, historic preservation and philanthropic leaders. Partners for Sacred Places is the only national, non-sectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to the sound stewardship and active community use of America's older religious properties. It provides assistance to people who care for sacred places and promotes a greater understanding of how such places sustain communities. Partners for Sacred Places is headquartered in Philadelphia with an office in Ft. Worth, Texas and one opening soon in Chicago. Prior to co-founding Partners, Jaeger worked with the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation as Senior Vice President for the Historic Religious Properties Program. He is the co-author of Sacred Places at Risk (1998) and Strategies for Stewardship and Active Use of Older and Historic Religious Properties (1996), author of Sacred Places in Transition (1994), and editor (from 1985 to 1989) of Inspired, a bi-monthly magazine with news and technical articles on religious property preservation. Jaeger holds a master's degree in preservation planning from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
A native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Scott Standish is Director for the county's Long Range and Heritage Planning, overseeing implementation of its Comprehensive Plan and growth management strategy. He is also working to complete and implement several of the plan's elements, including the Tourism, Cultural Heritage, Water Resources and Green Infrastructure plans and related initiatives. In the 1990s, Standish was responsible for overseeing and developing the award-winning Lancaster County Heritage Program. More recently, he oversaw the enhancement and expansion of that program, which was re-launched in February 2008. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Lancaster-York Heritage Region in 2001. Standish serves on the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission's Historic Review Board and the Lancaster Central Market Trust Board. He is also Vice Chair of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership and serves on the Lancaster County Tourism Development Council. He holds a degree in geography from Millersville University and a professional certificate in tourism destination management and marketing from The George Washington University.
Bill Strickland is President of Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Bidwell Training Center, and has turned a near bankrupt community training center in Pittsburgh into one of the most successful organizations in America. He has chaired the Expansion Arts Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, DC and served a six-year presidential appointment as an NEA council member. Strickland was also a council member on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, a trustee at the Carnegie Museums and a consultant with the British/American Arts Association in London. In 1996, Strickland received the MacArthur "Genius" Award for leadership and ingenuity in the arts. In 1998, he was honored with the Kilby Award and the Coming Up Taller Award, presented in a White House ceremony by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 1999, he was presented with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Arts Leadership and Service Award. He earned a bachelor's degree in American history and foreign relations from the University of Pittsburgh.
Jonathan B. Tourtellot is the Director of National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations and Geotourism Editor of National Geographic Traveler magazine. A National Geographic Society senior editor since 1980, he launched what would become the Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD) in 2001. Writer, self-taught geographer and sometime photographer, Tourtellot originated the concept of geotourism, defined as "tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents." He is the primary author of the Geotourism Charter, a set of principles now being adopted by various world destinations, including Honduras, Norway, Romania, the Cook Islands, Guatemala and the states of Rhode Island, Arizona and Sonora (Mexico). Tourtellot helped develop the study Geotourism: The New Trend in Travel, the first major survey of U.S. traveler behavior and attitudes about sustainability and destination stewardship. He initiated and supervises the Destination Stewardship Surveys reported in National Geographic Traveler magazine — the 2007 survey is on islands, published in the November/December issue — and writes the column "DestinationWatch" for Traveler, as well as other articles on tourism impacts and destination management. He represents National Geographic in the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Peter R. Tyson joined the Philadelphia office of PKF Consulting, LLC, in 2005, after founding and serving as President of Tyson Hospitality Consulting, LLC. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Smith Analytics, an affiliate of Smith Travel Research, the leading information provider for the lodging industry. Before that he was a partner in Laventhol & Horwath and managed the Leisure Time Industries, Appraisal and Real Estate Consulting Practices of the Philadelphia office. In late 1990, Tyson formed his own firm and, in 1992, affiliated with Horwath International to offer personalized consulting services to clients in this specialized industry. His experience encompasses economic feasibility studies; programming, financial projections and return on investment analyses; acquisition/disposition analyses; economic valuations; impact analyses; operational analyses; management company and franchise selections and contract negotiations; litigation support analyses; and strategic plans. Tyson's clients have included the Marriott Corporation, the Sheraton Corporation, the Hyatt Corporation, Holiday Inns, Inc. and Worldwide, General Motors, Four Season Hotels, Doubletree Hotels, Choice Hotels, Resorts International, Inc., Lincoln Properties, The Trump Organization, Bally Manufacturing and numerous other corporations, as well as developers, banks, insurance companies, law firms, appraisers and municipalities. He has performed engagements throughout the United States and internationally.
Nell McCormack Abom is an award-winning broadcast journalist and host, for the past six years, of Central Pennsylvania's only primetime live weekly public affairs program, Smart Talk. Smart Talk has received awards from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association for the last six seasons, and McCormack Abom and Smart Talk have received Emmy Award nominations from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. McCormack Abom also hosts Talk to the Governor and Issues PA on the Pennsylvania Public Television Network. McCormack Abom previously helped direct media relations for Pennsylvania Governors Tom Ridge and Bob Casey. She also co-produced the award-winning live broadcast and webcast of the historic Safe Schools Summit; produced and directed Pennsylvania's first-ever, multi-live shot, interactive state budget address in 1998; and collaborated on the 1995 Emmy Award-winning documentary Fighting Back: Pennsylvania's Special Session on Crime. She has worked as a field producer/writer for KYW-TV in Philadelphia, as State Capitol Correspondent for WITF-TV and as a reporter for television stations in Baltimore, Charleston and Duluth. She has received numerous awards for her reporting and public relations work. McCormack Abom has a degree in television and radio communications from Ithaca College.
Joseph J. Kelly is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC), a private nonprofit organization that seeks to inspire individuals to enjoy and share a life of learning enriched by human experience across time and around the world. PHC represents Pennsylvania in the Federal-State Partnership of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kelly works to maximize the effect of core PHC programs — grants, Commonwealth Speakers and a book discussion series — while forging partnerships with such state agencies as the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Commonwealth Libraries and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). In 2008, Kelly is working with DCED on developing new "Live and Learn Weekends" for the Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom network, with PHMC on planning for the upcoming anniversary of the Civil War in 2011-15 and with the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He frequently advocates for the humanities to Pennsylvania's congressional delegation. On a national level, he chairs the Legislative Committee of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. A native of Philadelphia and a Penn State graduate, Kelly holds a master's degree and doctorate in literature from Temple University. Recent publications include "Historians Sharing a Life of Learning," in Pennsylvania History (Autumn 2007) and "Pennsylvania and Life-Long Learning: A Role for Public Libraries," in The Future of Pennsylvania: Essays on the Role of Libraries in Education (Spring 2007).
A native Pennsylvanian, Dan Shilling is recognized for his work in cultural heritage tourism, helping to position museums and other heritage institutions to play an important part in the tourism industry of the West. From 2004 to 2007, he directed a federally funded project on place-based tourism, which resulted in the book Civic Tourism: The Poetry and Politics of Place. A second conference on civic tourism, now international in its scope, will be held in Rhode Island in October 2008. Shilling also teaches a seminar at Arizona State University (ASU) on the history of sustainability. ASU recently awarded him a fellowship to research the connections between cultural heritage and sustainable development. Shilling previously served as Executive Officer of the Arizona Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A former Fellow at the Kettering Foundation, Shilling has served on the boards of the Arizona Tourism Alliance, the Federation of States Humanities Councils and the Grand Canyon Association. He guided Arizona's early research on cultural heritage tourism, eventually editing three publications and earning several honors, including the Arizona Office of Tourism Person of the Year Award and the Museum Association of Arizona Distinguished Service Award. In 2005, he received Arizona State University's most prestigious honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, for his service to the state's communities. He earned his undergraduate degree from Penn State University, his MA from Shippensburg State College and his PhD from Arizona State University.
Anthony Smith is Deputy Director at Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD), which is transforming a low-income Newark, New Jersey neighborhood into an urban eco-village. Leading the revitalization of an emerging arts and cultural district, LPCCD is implementing the nation's best practices in sustainable urban development. Smith is responsible for planning, reviewing, monitoring and directing the overall programmatic and infrastructure support operations. He is also Owner/Operator of Jambalaya Productions, a full-service marketing and promotions company devoted to providing project management, corporate entertainment, conference/meeting planning, sports and special events. In 1996, Smith returned to his native New Jersey to work with the newly constructed New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), where he helped to develop marketing strategies to attract diverse and eclectic audiences. He also chaired the Alternate Routes Advisory Committee (formerly the World Festival Advisory Committee), securing international artists and developing NJPAC artists-in-residence partnerships throughout New Jersey. Smith previously consulted in the Mayor's Office of Tourism, Arts and Entertainment in the City of New Orleans, where he focused on raising public awareness of the cultural and historical heritage of the City. Smith holds a BA in marketing from Stockton State College and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He also studied international business at Wroxton College in the United Kingdom. He completed course requirements in property and casualty insurance at the Saint John's University School of Insurance and is a licensed property and casualty producer in New Jersey and New York and a candidate for designation as risk manager.
Linda McKenna Boxx is President of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, the coalition of trail organizations that are building the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile rail-trail connecting Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland. Boxx also serves on many other community-based and conservation related boards in western Pennsylvania. She lives and works in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and is chairman of the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation. She enjoys the trail resource she is helping to build and has hiked and biked the length between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC.
John S. Brenner was sworn in as the 23rd and youngest-ever Mayor of the City of York, Pennsylvania in January 2002. He previously served for two years as the City Controller and, before that, as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute, a statewide nonprofit group charged with educating elected officials and the public about fire and life safety issues. Earlier, he was a staff assistant to the Lieutenant Governor and chief of staff to a state senator. Mayor Brenner has served as a firefighter and executive officer of the Lincolnway Volunteer Fire Company and as a Second Class Petty Officer in the United States Naval Reserve. He is on the board of directors of South George Street Community Partnership and is an executive board member of the York-Adams Area Council of Boy Scouts of America and a founding member of the York Young Professionals. He also serves on the board of directors of the York County Chapter of the American Red Cross, on the advisory board of the Salvation Army and on the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities Board. He was recently elected to the board of the National League of Cities. Mayor Brenner received the 2005 Governor's Award for Local Government Excellence and was named the 2006 – York County Chamber of Commerce, Local Elected Official of the Year. He holds a B.A. in political science from Lebanon Valley College.
Christine Buzinde is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Management at Pennsylvania State University. Her journal articles and book chapters on tourism have focused on how chosen frames of portrayal can affirm positive elements of a given community while relegating some local stakeholders to subservient roles. This line of research emphasizes ways in which communities can involve local stakeholders in using tourism as a tool to harness the commonalities within communities to project a unifying and pluralistic message. In addition, Buzinde has published articles focusing on marginalized communities that illustrate ways in which grassroots approaches to tourism development can bring about long-term successes that ameliorate existing negative socio-cultural and economic problems. She has obtained research funding for and is working on international heritage tourism projects in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Buzinde earned her undergraduate degree in tourism management at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada, her master's degree in tourism and leisure studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and her Ph.D. degree in recreation, sport and tourism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Scott Doyle is the Division Chief for Grant Program and Historical Markers administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which he joined in October 1999. As the official history agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Commission is responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of the state's historical heritage, working through the Pennsylvania State Archives, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Historic Sites and Museums, the Pennsylvania Trails of History, the Bureau for Historic Preservation and the Bureau of Management Services. Doyle has a strong background in historic preservation construction, web-based applications and grant program management. From 2004 to 2007, he managed the Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program. From 1999 to 2004, he worked with the Federal Rehabilitation Investment Tax Credit program. Prior to that, he was employed as a construction specialist for two construction firms that specialized in historic rehabilitation projects in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania region. Doyle holds a bachelor of arts in American studies from Hobart College, a certificate in historic preservation from Bucks County Community College and a master's of science in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gary Esolen is the lead marketing consultant to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office. He previously served as Executive Director of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, creating television advertising campaigns that set national standards for measured efficiency and one of the early tourism Internet sites, including the world's first 24-hour computer-generated simulated live Internet music radio station, Radio Free New Orleans. Earlier, as a freelance journalist, Esolen published in Newsweek and the New York Times and Cox wire services. He founded the award-winning New Orleans newspaper Gambit Weekly, which is still publishing after almost a quarter of a century. In the early 1980s, when the New Orleans economy took a dive because of falling oil prices, Esolen helped put together a broad coalition of business leaders to market tourism as a means for economic development. He co-chaired the committee, left its board to consult for the organization, and led the group to permanent funding and a multi-million dollar annual budget. The effort resulted in a successful tourism marketing program that spurred the recovery of the regional economy. Esolen began his career in the academic world and served for five years as Assistant Dean in Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences.
Bill Fontana is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Downtown Center (PDC), a statewide nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and support the vitality of Pennsylvania's downtowns and traditional neighborhood business districts. Prior to joining PDC, Fontana served as Executive Director of the Rahway Center Partnership, a New Jersey special improvement district, and chaired the Rahway Historic Preservation Commission. Fontana also worked on redevelopment efforts in western Pennsylvania, including the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, The Allegheny County Department of Planning and the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development. During that time, he served as Commercial Revitalization Coordinator, Enterprise Zone Coordinator and Senior Planner, working in more than 20 municipalities in the County. He was instrumental in helping to lay the groundwork for the quarter-billion-dollar Waterfront project that spans the communities of West Homestead, Homestead and Munhall. Fontana's planning experience ranges from work on multi-municipal federal and state empowerment and enterprise zone plans to municipal comprehensive plans, sub-municipal redevelopment plans and business district revitalization plans. He holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Pittsburgh. Fontana was recently appointed to the City of Harrisburg's Historic Architectural Review Board by Mayor Stephen Reed.
Cheryl Hargrove is president of The HTC Group, which specializes in heritage tourism planning, development and marketing. Current and former clients include American Express Company, the Coca Cola Company, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Freedom Frontier's National Heritage Area, Kansas Department of Travel & Tourism Division, City of San Antonio, Appalachian Regional Commission, Pennsylvania Artisan Trails and the Asheville (North Carolina) Convention & Visitors Bureau. In 2007, Hargrove served as Associate Director for National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD). CSD is dedicated to protecting all the world's distinctive places through wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship. She previously helped CSD produce the first regional geomap for Appalachia. Hargrove continues to work on contract with CSD and recently wrote the copy for the 2008 "Driving Tours of Appalachia" map for the April issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine. A travel industry veteran, Hargrove is best known as the National Trust for Historic Preservation's first Director of Heritage Tourism, where she developed key steps and principles for sustainable tourism. She also produced the publication Getting Started: How to Succeed in Heritage Tourism and its companion video, Preserving the Past...Building the Future. A faculty member for the National Trust's Share Your Heritage program and Southeast Tourism Society's annual Marketing College, she frequently lectures at national and international conferences and universities.
Matthew Jackson is the Economic Development Director and Redevelopment Authority Coordinator for the City of York, Pennsylvania. A York County native, Jackson is a graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. As a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar, he earned a master's of philosophy degree from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. A licensed attorney, he holds a juris doctorate from University Chicago Law School. Jackson's interests include brownfield redevelopment, contractual negotiations, architectural preservation, market-rate housing and cultural and heritage tourism.
Pres Kabacoff is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of the Board of HRI Properties, which he co-founded in 1982. Based in New Orleans, HRI is a full-service real estate company and a leader in the adaptive reuse of historic structures. Its mission is to revitalize cities by creating diverse, vibrant and sustainable communities. Kabacoff previously practiced real estate law and general litigation, and was Assistant to the Managing Partner of International Rivercenter, the developer and managing partnership of the New Orleans Hilton Riverside and Towers, Riverwalk and International Cruise Ship Terminal. He was also the attorney and team member in the development of Beau Chene, a 3,000-unit recreational community in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Kabacoff serves on the Council of the Urban Land Institute and on the advisory board of the Brooking Institution's Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. He is also a board member of Preservation Action and the MetroVision Executive Committee, whose mission is to increase regional cooperation, and a member of Metropolitan Neighbors, the Task Force on Regionalism, and the National Advisory Council of the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization that works to conserve land for people. He holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Denver and a juris doctorate from Louisiana State University Law School.
Jennifer Kent is Business District Manager for the Lawrenceville Corporation (LC), where she manages activities with Lawrenceville's three business districts and the 16:62 Design Zone, a niche marketing program that promotes arts and interior design businesses in Lawrenceville. Her responsibilities include marketing and communications, public relations, promotions, strategic planning, business recruitment, neighborhood beautification, event management and community relations. Kent also manages the Main Street program for the LC, where she works on branding and identity, marketing and promotions, neighborhood appearance and beautification, and business recruitment. Lawrenceville is one of the oldest and largest neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, with more than 11,000 residents and 450 businesses and was recently noted in The New York Times as a "go-to destination." Since the Design Zone program was launched in 2000, more than 70 arts- and design-related businesses have moved into the neighborhoods. Kent previously held communications, technical writing, marketing and management positions at both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including IBACOS (Integrated Building and Construction Solutions) and Carnegie Mellon University. A native of Pittsburgh, she has a master's degree in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University and an undergraduate degree in English from Point Park University.
Karen Kimbrel is the founder and owner of Karen S. Kimbrel Consulting, which focuses on creative community and economic development using culture, heritage, art and tourism. She is also a founding member of Swamp Gravy, Georgia's Folk Life Play, which started in 1991. She served for 11 years as Executive Director of the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council, during which time she and other citizens of the community increased the Arts Council's assets from 0 to $4.5M and created a cultural tourism industry that employs 60 people, has a budget of $ 2.2M and attracts thousands of visitors each year to Colquitt (population 2,000). An accomplished grant writer and frequent speaker and presenter for various conferences, panels and workshops on tourism, community arts and cultural programming, Kimbrel also enjoys writing music and has served on numerous boards, including an advisory committee for The Ford Foundation's Listening Tour. A native of Colquitt, Georgia, Kimbrel and holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing from Troy State University.
Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District
Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD), a nonprofit arts and cultural community development corporation, is one of Newark's most dynamic organizations, blending arts, cultural planning and event programming with community economic development. Its mission is to plan, design, and build a premier historical, eco-arts district in Newark. The redevelopment of the Lincoln Park community is an ambitious project geared toward revitalizing one of Newark's most historic, accessible communities. Lincoln Park Arts District, located at the southern end of the Central Business District, will be a comprehensive arts and cultural district. The project includes the building of 300 new "green" units of housing, new lighting, wireless technology, re-built sidewalks, eateries and entertainment venues, culminating with the creation of the Museum of African American Music (MoAAM), a Smithsonian affiliate and the first institution of its type to capture the spirit of African American musical genres under one roof. Through cultural exchange in the form of exhibitions, dialogue and performance, the MoAAM will educate visitors in an entertaining way about the enormous impact that African-American music, particularly as it relates to Newark and New Jersey, has had on America and the world and its interconnectedness with other modes of popular musical expression. The Lincoln Park redevelopment project will create a 24/7 urban life dynamic in downtown Newark.
Bernie Lynch is the City Manager of Lowell, Massachusetts, where he is responsible for coordination of all municipal programs and executive supervision of all city departments. His initiatives include the establishment of a series of Downtown Summits to proactively address issues associated with the economic development of the downtown district. The City is poised to begin a $500 million redevelopment partnership with Trinity Financial of the Hamilton Canal District that will transform downtown Lowell from a long-blighted district into a mixed use "urban village" linking major transportation routes with the existing downtown. The project is the continuation of a 15-year revitalization project focused on adaptive reuse, historic preservation and partnerships with area stakeholders, including the University of Massachusetts, Middlesex Community College and the National Park Service as well as the business community. Prior to assuming his current position, Lynch spent 17 years as Town Manager of the Town of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Lynch holds a bachelors of science degree in political science from the University of Lowell and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he is a periodic faculty member/visiting lecturer in political science and public policy. In 2006, he earned credentialed manager status from the International City Management Association.
Anne B. Pope is the federal Co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), an economic development partnership between the federal government and the governors of 13 states. Established by an act of Congress in 1965, ARC initiates economic and community development programs and serves as a key advocate for the 23 million people in the Appalachian Region. The Commission also oversees work on the 3,090-mile Appalachian Development Highway System, designed to connect the Region to the nation's transportation grid. Pope previously served in the cabinet of Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, and as Executive Director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission. In the private sector, Pope was President of Proffitt's of the Tri-Cities, Inc., a division of Saks, Inc., and President/CEO of the Parks-Belk Company, a department store group in northeast Tennessee. Pope has served on the boards of Bank of Tennessee, the Watkins School of Art and Design, and the Johnson City, Tennessee, Chamber of Commerce. She is a past President of the Arts Council of Greater Kingsport, Tennessee, and served on Governor Sundquist's Council on Excellence in Higher Education and on his Commission on Practical Government. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.
Richard Starr is Senior Vice President of Economics Research Associations in Chicago. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Real Estate Research Corporation, also in Chicago, as Housing Development Director in the City of Chicago Planning Department and as Executive Director of Model Cities in Worcester, Massachusetts. His expertise is in development strategy and planning projects for public and private clients, market research for real estate development and impact analysis, and consensus and capacity-building for real estate development entities. Recent projects that Starr has managed include downtown revitalization and development of a number of cities, including Battle Creek, Memphis, Des Moines, Anchorage, Omaha, West Palm Beach, Cincinnati, Baton Rouge and Oklahoma City; marketing, impact and financial strategies in Owensboro, Lorain, Davenport, Rock Island, East Peoria and Oshkosh; marketing, feasibility, impact analysis and financing concepts for convention arena and performance centers in Des Moines, Branson, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Calgary, New Orleans, Erie, Greenville, Idaho Falls and Anchorage; and marketing and feasibility analysis for mixed-use development concepts for major developers and public entities involved in economic development. Starr served for 10 years as a visiting professor to the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught public policy at Loyola University and DePaul University.
Gerard Stropnicky, co-founder and the Producing Ensemble Director of the 30-year-old Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, is a writer, director, actor, activist and theatre consultant. He also co-founded the Network of Ensemble Theatres and is a leading proponent of what writer Todd London once described as "Theatre of Place," focusing on the power of theatre on local characters, issues and stories. Stropnicky has created several seminal documentary theatre pieces, most notably Letters to the Editor (1996), which was featured in American Theatre magazine and on NPR's Weekend Edition and was published as a script by Baker's Plays/Samuel French and later as a book version by Touchstone/Simon and Schuster. From 2000 to 2002, he served as Interim Artistic Director for Swamp Gravy in Colquitt, Georgia. He was also founding Artistic Director of Crooked Rivers in Camden County, Georgia, and is currently Artistic Director of the Higher Ground Project in Harlan County, Kentucky. Stropnicky is founder and director, with his wife, Kathy Baas, of CampEmerge, for families touched by autism, in Millville, Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor of science degree in speech from Northwestern University.
Andrew Vick has been the Executive Director of the Allegany Arts Council since April 2003. The Allegany Arts Council is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote awareness, understanding and appreciation of the literary, visual and performing arts in Western Maryland. Its goals are to support practicing artists and local arts organizations, to encourage economic development through the arts and to facilitate the growth of the community into a regional arts destination. Prior to his career in the arts, he was a Marketing Director and Manager of Human Resources for businesses in the Washington, DC area. In addition to his current role, Vick serves on the Maryland Tourism Development Board and the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He is also the current President of the Rotary Club of Cumberland. Vick is the Coordinator for the City of Cumberland's Arts & Entertainment District, a member the City of Cumberland's Downtown Development Commission (Main Street Program) and a member of The Greater Cumberland Committee. He serves on the statewide Advisory Board for Maryland Life magazine.
Todd A. Vonderheid is President and CEO of The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, an economic and community development umbrella organization dedicated to making Greater Wilkes-Barre a community of choice for talented individuals and businesses. He is responsible for three operating affiliate organizations: the Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Industrial Fund, Inc. and the Greater Wilkes-Barre Development Corporation. In addition, the Chamber provides staff and financial support to the Diamond City Partnership, Downtown Wilkes-Barre's revitalization organization. Vonderheid also serves as Director of Strategy for 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, which works to create a climate for systemic policy reform in Pennsylvania to improve government effectiveness, community quality of life and economic competitiveness. His current focus is on crafting and supporting legislation that enables and encourages the voluntary functional consolidation of municipal services throughout the state. Vonderheid previously served as a majority Luzerne County Commissioner and as a legislative staffer for Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA) in Washington, DC. A Wilkes-Barre native, he is a graduate of Wyoming Seminary and holds a degree in political science with minors in history and English from Salisbury State University.
Gilda Watters is Managing Director of the Georgia Tourism Foundation, a public-private entity and non-profit organization that leverages investments and forges partnerships to strengthen the state's tourism marketing. A public servant for more than 27 years, she most recently directed the Georgia Department of Economic Development's Marketing and Communications division. Prior to that she was Director of the agency's Small Business and Innovation team within the Global Commerce division with responsibility for the Regional Project Manager program, the Governor's Entrepreneur and Small Business Office, the Mentor-Protégé program and the state's Innovation and Technology Office. Watters was previously the first director of the Governor's Small Business Center. In 2004, she was named Georgia Minority Business Partner of the Year by the U. S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency and Advocate of the Year by the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council. She also has been recognized as one of the Atlanta Business League's 100 Most Influential African American Women. Watters serves on the Board of the Arts Development Council of Georgia and is a member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism.
James E. White is Economic Development Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The Department's goal is to foster opportunities for businesses and communities to succeed and thrive in a global economy and to ensure the growth and development of businesses and communities across the state. White was previously President and CEO of White Roberts Inc. T/A Griffith Custer Steel and before that, Economic Development Director of Keystone Development Corporation. He serves as Board President of Pennsylvania Downtown Center and as a member of the Johnstown Area Regional Industries Advisory Board, the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission and the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Committee. White has also served as an executive board member of the Governor's Economic Development Advisory Board and as President of Pennsylvanians Together for Better Business. White holds a B.A. in journalism and communications from Point Park College. He is also certified as an Economic Development Finance Professional by the National Development Council and as an Economic Development Planner by the Council for Urban Economic Development.
Donald T. Cunningham, Jr. is County Executive of Lehigh County, the first Democrat to be elected to that seat. He previously served under Governor Ed Rendell as Secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of General Services, where he oversaw the core business operations of state government, managing nearly $4 billion in annual spending, most of the state's capital construction projects, the state vehicle fleet, the Capital Police force and the purchase, sale and management of all Commonwealth real estate. Cunningham also played a central role in the Rendell Administration's initiative to improve the management and productivity of state government, leading the effort to reduce $250 million in spending by streamlining government and introducing modern business management practices. Prior to that, Cunningham was Mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he guided more than $1 billion of new development and the creation of 2,500 new jobs into the city. Cunningham received national recognition for his work in economic development and urban revitalization for leading an economic renaissance and transforming Bethlehem from an old steel town into a New Economy city. Before his term as mayor, he served for two years as a member of Bethlehem City Council. He also worked in the private sector as Senior Information Specialist at Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. in Allentown and Media Relations Director at Moravian College in Bethlehem.
Cunningham was recognized for his innovations in the delivery of local government services by both the U.S. Conference of Mayors (1999) and former Governor Tom Ridge (2001). The Democratic Leadership Council named Cunningham one of the top 10 state and local "rising stars" in the Democratic Party in 2000. A native of Bethlehem, Cunningham graduated from Shippensburg University with a B.A. in Journalism and earned a Master of Arts in Political Science from Villanova University.
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