Veronica Rivas Plaza has a background in architecture, urban design, placemaking, and sustainability with over 8 years of experience. She advocates for creating more walkable and bicycle friendly communities to improve the quality of life for everyone. She currently works at Street Plans and is focused on the design, plan, and execution of multiple tactical urbanism projects. Some of these include the streetscape improvement plan for the Meatpacking District in New York City and the placemaking efforts to activate open spaces at Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings Housing Projects in Washington, DC.

Dolores Hayden is professor emerita of architecture, urbanism, and American studies at Yale University. A renowned scholar of the history of the American urban landscape and the politics of place, her works have been translated into over a dozen languages.

Devaki Kesh is an architect and urban designer who is passionate about vernacular and local architecture, public space design, conservation, and form-based codes. She believes in three opportunities through urban design – social bonding, cultural expression, and ecological sensitivity.

Emily Talen is Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago, where she teaches urban design and directs the Urbanism Lab. She holds a PhD in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s in city planning from Ohio State. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Becky Nicolaides is a historian specializing in American cities, suburbs, and metro areas. She earned her doctorate in American history at Columbia University, then served on the faculties at Arizona State University West and UC San Diego. Her work focuses on the history of North American suburbanization, especially histories of suburban diversity.

Marina Khoury is an expert in sustainable urban redevelopment, regional and master planning, transit-oriented developments, and form-based codes. As a partner at DPZ CoDesign, she has been Director of its Washington D.C. area office since 2007. A licensed architect and fluent in several languages, Khoury has worked on the design and implementation of projects in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and the Middle East including ground-breaking new codes around the world that mandate resilient urbanism.

Galina Tachieva is the managing partner of DPZ CoDESIGN, directing the work of the firm in the US and around the world. With more than 25 years of expertise in sustainable planning, urban redevelopment and form-based codes, Galina is the author of the “Sprawl Repair Manual”, an award-winning publication by Island Press, which focuses on the retrofit of auto-centric suburban places into complete walkable communities.