The Living Future Community is hosting a roundtable discussion on December 4th focused on community building as a vital activity and value-driven approach to creating our built environment. After our October roundtable that dove into the social context of building creation and maintenance, we will jump directly into creating the social relationships that sustain our selves and our communities.

We will be joined by an all-star cast of community builders. Nadav Malin from Green Commons; Daniela Villon-Maga from DVM Housing Partners; and Leigh Meunier with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) will join us to kick off a lively conversation about what it takes to build community relationships and why it matters. Join the conversation!

Nadav Malin is a passionate facilitator, leading workshops and retreats to help organizations of all types find alignment, inspiration, and leadership in pursuit of their goals. He convenes peer networks of architecture firm Sustainable Design Leaders, Sustainable Construction Leaders, and others. He facilitates gatherings and consults to USGBC, AIA, large corporations, government agencies, and architecture firms. And he helps project teams with charrette facilitation and design process support to achieve optimal outcomes.

Nadav is also the building industry’s acknowledged go-to resource when you need thoughtful perspective on the materials and design solutions that define sustainable building practice. When the LEED rating system was just starting out, Nadav was tapped to lead its new Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group, which he chaired throughout LEED’s formative years. Nadav also led the team that created the U.S. Department of Energy’s High Performance Buildings Database.

When he is not facilitating a rich conversation among design professionals, he can often be found chasing a hockey puck or a soccer ball, depending on the season.

Dariela Villón-Maga is the Founder and President of DVM Housing Partners, a 100% woman- and minority-owned firm based in Boston dedicated to creating equitable housing opportunities and advancing community-driven development. A lifelong Boston resident originally from the Grove Hall neighborhood, Dariela’s passion for affordable housing stems from her own lived experience with housing instability.

With over two decades of experience in real estate development, affirmative fair housing marketing, and community engagement, Dariela has led DVM to become a trusted partner to cities, developers, and nonprofits working to ensure that affordable housing truly reaches those it’s meant to serve. Under her leadership, DVM has helped hundreds of first-time homebuyers—many from historically marginalized communities—achieve homeownership and housing stability.

Dariela’s approach blends technical expertise with deep empathy, centering the voices of residents in every project. Through her work, she is redefining what equitable, community-rooted development looks like in Boston and beyond.

Leigh Meunier grew up near Atlantic City, NJ, spending many childhood days at the beach and on the water. This gave her a deep appreciation for nature as home and a commitment to protecting and cultivating more wild and sacred greenspaces for all people, plants, and creatures. Currently, she lives in Somerville, MA, which has less access to nature spaces and more pavement than most places in New England. She manages programs with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW), a group that helps residents and institutions respond to climate impacts, including flooding and extreme heat. She also co-organizes a local grassroots depaving initiative, DePAVE the WAY!, which removes pavement through a “barnraising” model and helps repair both the earth underneath and people’s relationship to the land. Leigh’s work has also involved music performance, teaching high schoolers, and caring for shelter animals, which all also give her a unique perspective on how the built environment can either foster or hinder creativity and safety and support or sever community-building.

Register for the conversation here!

This roundtable will discuss ways to generate value in the built environment by diverging from the conventional extractive / linear economy.

Subject Matter Expert:

Ace McArleton is Co-Founder, CEO and Director of Vision & Strategy at New Frameworks. Ace founded New Frameworks in 2006 to offer design/build services that blend natural materials and methods with high-performance design, to move the building industry toward climate regeneration and social justice. Ace is also co-founderof the Seed Program and Seed Collaborative, to democratically scale the use of structural straw panels in buildings; the Bio-Based Materials Collective, to advance the implementation of bio-based materials in the built environment; of the NESEA Diversity Caucus and Anti-Racism Action Group, to place social justice at the heart of the building industry; was a longtime instructor & board member at Yestermorrow Design/Build School and devoted to trades education for all; is co-author of The Natural Building Companion; and led New Frameworks’ conversion to a worker cooperative in 2016. Ace is passionate about finding practical, regional solutions to build healthy, just communities now and into the future.

Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP BD+C is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Built Buildings Lab. She is an internationally recognized expert in leveraging existing and historic buildings toward a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future. Her award-winning work as an architect, structural engineer, conservator, and educator combines broad policy development with deep technical insights to harness the existing built environment as a climate solution. In her past role as a Principal at Boston-based design firm Goody Clancy, she founded the Regenerative Renewal practice that re-envisions architecture at the intersection of decarbonization and heritage. Herwork establishing carbon accounting methods for historic buildings has been featured in publications ranging from the Journal of Architectural Conservation to Architect Magazine and presented on-stage at the UN COP climate conferences. She is a co-developer of Architecture 2030’s CARE Tool, which estimates the carbon benefits of reusing and retrofitting buildings.

Lori was the 2023 Chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment and serves as a Steering Committee representative of the Climate Heritage Network, a member of the BERDO Review Board, and a Senior Fellow of Architecture 2030.

Register for the conversation here!

Subject Matter Experts:

Ben Baldwin brings a wealth of experience with community land trusts and affordable housing, along with an extensive background organizing Somerville communities. Ben was on the founding board of the Union Square Neighborhood Council in 2017, and has been a core organizing volunteer with the SCLT since its founding in 2018. Ben’s career began with the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a well-known community land trust located in Boston’s Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods. Ben then spent four years developing affordable rental housing in Roxbury at the Madison Park Development Corporation, and he is a graduate of the Tufts Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning program.

Lydia Lowe is the Director of the Chinatown Community Land Trust, which works to stabilize Boston Chinatown through community control of land, development without displacement, permanently affordable housing, and shared neighborhood spaces. Her four decades of community activism include co-launching the first immigrant worker center in the region, helping tenants preserve more than a thousand units of affordable housing, securing bilingual ballots for Chinese and Vietnamese voters in Boston, and leading the Chinese Progressive Association for 30 years.

Register for the conversation here!

How does housing development provide more than just shareholder profit? Join the BE+ Living Future Community as we explore various models of housing development that go beyond generating private wealth to creating lasting community value.

Supportive housing, co-housing, and land trusts all lean on community engagement and empowerment to foster more equitable real estate development. By designing these projects with, rather than for, the community, the outcome is more likely to reflect their actual needs and concerns. Furthermore, the returns on such investments can take the form of stable housing, social capital, or financial wealth that remains within the community itself.

We’ll hear from various perspectives that illustrate the key differences between supportive housing and land trusts to offer bespoke solutions that expand the definition of a project’s success.

Subject Matter Experts:

Kyle Barker founded Primary Projects, an architecture firm committed to more communal, affordable, and sustainable housing. He’s a member of the Design Advisory Council for the Cohousing Association of the United States, teaches at RISD, and has taught several housing studios at Northeastern University. As the Rotch Traveling Scholarship recipient, he traveled across Europe, Australia, and Japan to study collective housing models. Over the past few years, he’s designed nearly a dozen projects with Croft, a Maine-based prefabricated panel manufacturer, furthering the use of straw as a building material. He’s an active Boston Society for Architecture member and the Small Practices Network Knowledge Community Co-Chair. He holds an MArch from MIT, a BSID from the Univ of Cincinnati, and is licensed in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Michigan.

Katrina Van Valkenburgh has more than 30 years of experience in social services and housing development. As the Central Region Managing Director at CSH, Ms. Van Valkenburgh provides leadership and coordination for the agency’s work throughout the center of the country, directly supervising CSH staff and their teams deployed in five offices, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Upper Midwest. She helps develop and implement strategies to maximize impact on high need communities in the Central Region, while also assisting with development of CSH’s national priorities, strategy and management, loan and program monitoring, and continuous quality improvement. She has a BA in Sociology fr om Kalamazoo College and completed the Urban Developers Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ms. Van Valkenburgh currently serves as Secretary of the Deborah’s Place II and Deborah’s Place III Board of Directors. She received the Gem of the Community Award from Archi-treasures in 2009 and the Legacy Award from the Chicago Rehab Network in 2014 in recognition of exceptional commitment and contribution to building strong communities.

Philip Crean is a Project Manager at the Planning Office for Urban Affairs. He has over six years of experience in affordable housing development and has worked to create over 800 affordable units, including 240 supportive housing units. He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Brown and a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers. Phil is also a United States Marine Corps veteran.

Mike Newman has more than 30 years of experience in architecture and design in Chicago. His work has focused on issues of public interest design, sustainability, affordability in housing, and social justice projects. As a co-founder of SHED Studio, Mike has worked on affordable housing, supportive housing, community planning design charrettes, small scale non-profits, urban farms, and even some market rate developments. Mike has been Adjunct Professor of Architecture for over 25 years at various universities teaching everything from design studios to technical systems classes and professional practice seminars, including at SAIC, IIT, UIC, and Andrews University, and has also been involved with Archeworks, an innovative design school that develops solutions for projects focusing on social issues. Mike has also been deeply involved with working with young architects trying to get licensed through in person classes with the AIA and as the content provider and presenter for the Black Spectacles online video courses. Mike is also a co-founder of Territory, a place-based program for young people building the(ir) future through urban design. Overall, he has been working for many decades at finding innovative ways to impact communities through design.

Register for the conversation here!

As we consider sustainable challenges faced in the built environment on a systems level, we continue the dialogue considering the social systems in which decisions are made. This roundtable will examine equity in firm operations, hiring and working with partners to start the conversation about how we use the principles underpinning the JUST label in our work every day.

Subject Matter Experts:

Kerry Bowie | Executive Director | Browning the Green Space, Inc.
Malaika Ventures General Partner and Browning the Green Space (BGS) Co-Founder, President, and Executive Director Kerry Bowie has 25 years of experience in private, public, and nonprofit management. Kerry previously served as Associate Commissioner and Director of Brownfields & Environmental Justice at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) in both the Patrick and Baker Administrations; worked as a manager in Facilities, Environmental, Safety, and Health at Texas Instruments’ (TI’s) Research & Development Fab in Texas (Dallas); and grew up in a fenceline community in Alabama (Anniston). In addition to Malaika and BGS, Kerry serves as a Partner at Msaada Partners, a Boston-based consultancy providing technical assistance to promote social impact in communities of color. Kerry also co-founded the Majira Project to address the lack of diversity in the traditional entrepreneurial ecosystem and the disparity in resources available that he observed while working in various entrepreneurship programs across Boston. Kerry holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as an MSE in environmental engineering from University of Michigan and an SB in environmental engineering science from MIT.

Susan Morgan, AIA | Boston Education Practice Leader | CannonDesign
As education practice leader in Cannon Design’s Boston office, Susan focuses on developing and leading the team in deepening our portfolio and advancing the quality of our work. With a breadth of design experience spanning early and higher education, academic libraries, student dining, academic success, nontraditional and adaptive learning environments, Susan has a proven track record of client leadership, community engagement and a commitment to student success.
It isn’t about the shape of the box, it’s about the occupants and the activities within it. That’s the foundation of Susan’s life-long investment in designing and activating learning spaces. For two decades, Susan has practiced and taught architecture concurrently — an unconventional track of dual service, but an invaluable asset to her work.

Tiffany Cogell | Principal | Design 4 Equity (and so much more!)
Tiffany Cogell is the Principal of Design 4 Equity, a JEDI+B (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) practice, where she collaborates with nonprofits and businesses to design processes and systems to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into their organizational structure and culture. From executive coaching and implicit bias workshop facilitation, to strategic plan and materials review, Tiffany provides insight and resources based on the principles of equity. She has a background in community organizing, construction project management, office management, businesses and career development, active transit advocacy, food sovereignty, urban planning, and racial justice activism.
Tiffany serves on multiple boards such as Boston Cyclists Union and serves as Benefit Director for The Green Engineer’s board. She is one of the founders of Cross Cultural Collective, an arts collaborative that amplifies diasporic art and its creators, a co-organizer for Ride for Black Lives Boston, and a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) with the League of American Bicyclists. A mother of four, and passionate about reflecting inclusion, economic equity, and collective empowerment through design, art, housing, and public spaces.

Register for the conversation here!

The December Living Future Roundtable is an opportunity to look back on the year we’ve had as a Community. It’s a chance to reflect on the year’s topics, what resonated, and what possibly we wish went deeper or in different directions. We’ll also take a moment to look ahead into 2025 and get excited for where the conversation will take us next!

Register for the conversation here!

In our October roundtable, we hope to build on the conversation of how our buildings can support ecological health, through things like green roofs, pollinator-friendly planting, and ecological landscape restoration, and think about how ecological patterns like watersheds, migratory pathways, etc. might start to inform urban planning and zoning at a larger scale and how these ideas should be integrated within the urban environment.

Join us and learn from experts in the industry as they discuss their experiences and perspectives.

Jeffrey Hyman is an environmental health & safety professional, principal partner at Green Hub Sustainability Agents, and owner of Forest Rhythm LLC. He holds a degree in management and has over 35 years of practical experience supporting mid to large-scale multinational organizations. Jeff received his certification as a Mindful Outdoor Guide from the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, and guides individuals, groups and teams in the Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku, often referred to as Forest Bathing. Jeff has supported numerous construction projects and he is deeply committed to sustainability by helping clients reimagine their operations with transformational solutions to delight occupants, and improve wellness while supporting biodiversity and “The More Than Human World.” Throughout his career, he has crafted a culture of breakthrough thinking and has helped organizations achieve ISO 14001 status, Platinum and Gold LEED certification, WELL Gold and platinum certification, zero-poison pest exclusion programs, and supported teams who achieved Wildlife Habitat Council certification. 

Josh Wilson is an experienced ecologist and field scientist in the disciplines of soil science, botany, wildlife biology, and wetland ecology. He received his master’s degree from Yale University School of the Environmental with a concentration in wetland and watershed science and management. His master’s thesis examined the effects of human activity on tidal freshwater submerged aquatic vegetation with additional research experience including work on tidal marsh ecology in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Josh is a Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS #1992) and senior soil scientist with Biohabitats. His responsibilities include overseeing and/or performing wetland and watercourse delineations, vegetation surveys, and ecological surveys in accordance with State and Federal regulations. His experience includes: delineating wetlands and deep water habitats; assessing ecological integrity of existing water resources including rivers, streams, and lakes as well as freshwater and saltwater wetlands; designing and evaluating constructed wetlands for various purposes including enhancement, mitigation, compensation, and water treatment alternatives; applying for and assuring compliance with local, State, and Federal permits potentially affecting wetlands and watercourses. Josh has worked closely with analysts and regulatory agencies and has been a member of the East Hampton Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency since 2003, serving as Vice Chair and current Chair.

Lisa Cowan leads StudioVerde’s team for SITES (Sustainable Sites Initiative) certification and advisory services for sustainable land development and conservation. She is one of the first SITES AccreditedProfessionals (SITES AP) in the US, achieved after her pioneering work in the restoration of natural wetland and upland systems between 1990-2007 which was featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine (2015). Most recently, Lisa assists teams pursuing SITES certification for public projects in Atlanta and Salt Lake City and will be sharing her insights on how the SITES framework supports the development and management of healthy ecosystems in urban environments.

Register here.

We’re not reconnecting with nature but remembering what it means to truly be part of it.

As we shift our mindsets from an extractive to a regenerative approach, we ask ourselves, “As stewards of the built environment, What is our critical role in the ecosystem?”

Join us as several experts from inside and outside the building industry share their perspectives and inspire dialogue. Collectively, we will all dig into our impacts system-wide in discussing displaced ecosystems, pollinator health, green roofs, and much more. Considering deeper our role in the ecosystem, we question, can we build for human occupants and maintain—be part of—conservation corridors?

Julia Kane Africa is a biophilic design and landscape research consultant. She provides public health-related design and programming input to landscape architects, planners, and ecologists tasked with creating biodiverse and regenerative designs. Previously, she led the Nature and Health program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, an academic research center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, from 2012-2017. In this role, she explored the ways in which nature (parks and green spaces) and natural design cues (natural features in built environment settings) support psychological and physiological health and resilience. Julia completed graduate coursework in environmental health, exposure assessment, and sustainable design at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (MDesS. 2011).

Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D., is founder, CEO, and Chief Scientific Officer of the non-profit Urban Bee Lab as well as The Best Bees Company, the largest bee and biodiversity service in the US. He is a 20+ time published author, including The Bee book with Princeton and Oxford, and 3 time TEDx speaker with nearly 3 million views. He’s on a mission to improve pollinator health worldwide as a means to support our global food system and support the transformation of urban areas from gray to green.

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Mark Winterer is the Co-Founder and Owner of Recover Green Roofs. He is an accredited Green Roof Professional and licensed general contractor with a diverse background in landscaping, operational logistics, supply-chain management, and customer service. He received his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, where he became involved with Net Impact, an international organization committed to responsible business leadership. Net Impact inspired him to develop a business that would contribute to a more sustainable economy and healthy community. Since starting Recover in 2009, Mark has helped design, build, and maintain hundreds of green roofs throughout the nation.

Register here.

What does it take to make a multi-disciplinary team work in an integrated way?  Deeply integrated.

 In our June roundtable, we continue building our understanding of the interdependent parts at play – this time exploring the project team & community (I.e., stakeholders) as the system.

Rather than focusing on the resulting masterplan from the Franklin Park Action Plan Project, we invite involved members from the process to kick off a community dialogue by exploring together what makes an integrated design successful. How do we refresh this trusty tool to help build better buildings and communities?

Not familiar with the Franklin Park Acton Plan? Check out this link to learn more: https://franklinparkactionplan.com/

Mayrah is a senior architect and educator based in MASS’s Santa Fe office. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to living ecosystems, environmental justice, and architecture’s role in equitably redefining territory worldwide. Prior to MASS, she worked with Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, Urban- Think Tank, Global Citizens for Sustainable Development, and Enterprise Community Partners. Mayrah holds a Master of Architecture with Honors from Columbia University, a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Environmental Studies with Honors from Wellesley College, and is the recipient of Kinne, Watson, Schiff, Albright, and Noble Foundation Fellowships and the airWG Artist Residency. She has taught at Kent CAED, Barnard College, and the Santa Fe Art Institute Summer Design Workshop, and is the author of “On Fragile Architecture: Exploring Causes of Indigenous Housing Insecurity” and “Bangalore: Urban Development and Environmental Justice.” Mayrah is fluent in English, Deutsch, Español, हिंदी, and اردو.

As Head of Climate Policy for Clearloop, Winston Vaughan works to accelerate the decarbonization of the US electric grid and promote climate impact and equity. His career 20 year career in sustainability and renewable energy includes work in sustainability consulting, investor engagements, climate policy advocacy, campaign management, and new market development for clean energy companies. He has extensive experience advising health care institutions, investors, and major companies to advance climate solutions, develop clean energy strategies, plan for climate resilience, and support equitable and climate resilient communities. Prior to joining Clearloop, Winston served as the Senior Sustainability Strategist at Edison Energy. He graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Politics and lives with his wife in a 125 year old house in Dorchester powered entirely with renewable electricity.

An urban planner with a background in architecture, Rhiannon Sinclair’s work focuses on complex urban systems across multiple scales. She uses data-driven strategies to better understand and enhance the relationship between people, buildings, systems and the public realm. Rhiannon has considerable experience communicating information to broad audiences to promote strong community exchange and empowerment within a planning process. In her work, she finds that the role of this type of exchange and master plan facilitation contributes to plans that are visionary, comprehensive, and implementable. Rhiannon is currently working on downtown plans for Wilmington, North Carolina and Seattle, Washington, and open space plans and designs in Maryland, New Jersey, and Utah.

Register here.

We all know about Integrative Design and what an Integrative Design Charrette is. Don’t we? But is the powerful tool actually being used well? Our experience shows that there are serious barriers to pulling the full set of team members together, especially very early in a project. The Living Future Community wants to use this upcoming Roundtable to have a wide-ranging discussion with many different voices to see how project teams might reach the full potential of this “well-known” tool. Join us and offer your experience and perspective!

Charley Stevenson, LFA, LEED AP, is Integrated Eco Strategy (IES) Consulting Principal. Charley Stevenson’s interest in sustainable design began in the early 1990s when he graduated from Williams College with a concentration in Environmental Studies. He received his MS in Natural Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2002. Since then, he has worked on sustainable projects in a variety of capacities and, as a volunteer, has been active in a range of land conservation and renewable energy projects.

In 2008, Stevenson joined a consulting engineering firm specializing in energy modeling and sustainability certification. Two years later he founded IES, where he soon focused on helping clients meet the demanding, industry-changing Living Building Challenge standards. His company has now managed the green aspects of institutional projects ranging from 1,000 to 500,000 square feet. As LBC projects grew in number and complexity, IES began, concurrently, development of Red2Green software to support materials research and documentation.

Charley’s work in regenerative design is rooted in his passion for teaching. A former high school math and science teacher, Charley is chair of the Burr and Burton Academy, Manchester, VT, board. He is a member of the ILFI Material Health technical advisory group and a frequent presenter at Living Future and other sustainability conferences.

Matt Root, Integrated Eco Strategy (IES) Associate Principal, works with owners and design/construction teams to implement strategies for improving building performance, including energy efficiency, indoor air quality and building durability. His primary focus is on managing healthy materials and energy related projects through strong project management, with a focus on building science. Currently Root serves as the lead project manager coordinating IES materials vetting services for a group of academic institutions. Previously Root worked at Conservation Services Group/CLEAResult for thirteen years, where he led a team of mechanical engineers, enclosure experts and building scientists.

Representative Experience
● Science & Engineering Complex, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA- LBC Project Manager on the largest Materials Petal project certified to date.
● Center for Economic Development, Williams College, MA – LBC Energy Petal project

Amanda Garvey is Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti, and member of the Sustainability and Resilience Practice. Her focus is sustainability consulting for higher education institutions and independent schools, implementing a highly integrative process by engaging diverse stakeholders throughout the design phase. She oversees sustainability scope on building projects and campus plans, and through sustainability visioning workshops, helps teams arrive at solutions with multiple synergistic outcomes across a wide range of potentially competing objectives including cost, quality, schedule, and sustainability. Additionally, she manages projects pursuing LEED, SITES, Fitwel, WELL and ILFI Programs, and leads the healthier materials and sustainability planning services for the practice.

Register here.

We often talk about the indelible link between climate change and social justice, but usually we’re speaking in abstract terms – such as how planetary warming will impact the global south. In this month’s conversation, we’ll bring the focus home by discussing the connection between combustion-sourced heating systems, the respiratory health of our neighbors in Roxbury, and how community engagement shaped the BERDO 2.0 regulations.

Sofía Owens is ACE’s Senior Attorney and the Director of the Environmental Justice Legal Services Program. She has a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, a Masters in Environmental law and Policy from Vermont Law School, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. When not at work, Sofia organizes with the Deeper Than Water coalition and volunteers with the Boston chapter of Black & Pink. She enjoys practicing yoga and watching soccer, particularly the US Women’s National Team and the Uruguayan national teams.

Dwaign Tyndal has over twenty-five years of professional experience in economic development, community and neighborhood development, youth development and workforce development. Throughout his professional experience, Dwaign has effectively led capable and diverse teams and has also been able to communicate complex public policies to various stakeholders to show how community-based partnerships can build stronger communities and empower residents and businesses to take active roles in their neighborhoods.

Register here.

Land ownership confers rights of extraction of resources and use of land on the land owners. Obvious enough. Some land is owned privately by individuals while some land remains public, not free from ownership, but reserved for collective use (and extraction). Public parks, streets, and rights of way are shared, so many may benefit, yet they are usually designed for a specific subset of people, to the exclusion of other groups and other parts of the ecosystem.

Niel Angus, Director of Land Use Planning for the Devens Enterprise Commission, will kick-off the conversation by providing background on how Devens thinks about public space and its role in protecting and enhancing natural systems. We’ll continue exploring these ideas with an open discussion to rethink how “Public Space” can restore people and the land rather than extracting from it? What does it take for us to fulfill our responsibility as a critical species within the ecosystem?

Subject Matter Experts:

Neil Angus | Director and Environmental Planner | Devens Enterprise Commission
Neil Angus is the Director and Environmental Planner for the Devens Enterprise Commission, overseeing the planning and sustainable redevelopment of Devens, a former military base located in North Central Massachusetts that operates as one of North America’s premiere eco-industrial parks. Neil specializes in green building and green infrastructure and holds a Professional Design Degree in Environmental Planning from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He is a Fellow with the American Institute of Certified Planners, a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners, a US Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional (ND, BD+C), as well as a Living Future Accredited Professional.

Register for the Roundtable here.

Rewilding: balancing the ecosystem through the built environment. What does solving for the system look like? How do we achieve balance?

Subject Matter Experts:

Luke Dias | Sustainability Manager | Superior Essex Communications
Luke works closely with all departments internally to facilitate sustainability initiatives, communicate progress, and drive the Superior Essex Communications MissionNext program. Additionally, Luke is a Sustainable Intelligent Buildings ambassador and works with the Superior Essex Communications product development teams to educate on the sustainability and technical benefits of PoE/ELV technologies. In his role as an ambassador Luke works with many industry groups and is a member of the mindfulMaterials Manufacturer Forum, TIA SPIRE Sustainability Smart Buildings Working Group, and iMasons Climate Accord Equipment Working Group.

Tyler Guidroz, AIA, LEED Green Associate | Associate/ Project Architect | EskewDumezRipple
Tyler moved from Lafayette, LA to pursue architecture at Tulane University. Studying and working during the rebuilding of New Orleans enhanced his understanding of progress and growth, now refined through the lenses of place, culture, history, and context. After serving as Project Architect for the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, a unique 215,000sf multi-use space of collaboration, coworking, and corporate offices, Tyler’s recent studio work has focused on feasibility studies for a range of higher education institutions, including at Tulane, LSU, and for Tulane’s School of Medicine and their migration to the former Charity Hospital. Tyler believes that designing is an act of giving, both to the public and the client. Highly collaborative inside the studio and with our clients, he enjoys sharing his knowledge through tutorials and teaching. He strives to push forward the use of advanced software to create architecture that is a register of our time and a reference to our place.

Clare is a circular systems thinker with over 20 years of experience as an architect in NYC, designing buildings to the highest environmental standards. In 2017 she led the development of the Zero Waste Design Guidelines through a multidisciplinary collaborative process, to show how design of the urban environment plays a crucial role in achieving zero waste. As a biomimicry professional, Clare takes inspiration from natural systems, and has founded a consultancy – ThinkWoven – which designs ways to weave urban systems into ecosystems.

She also set up the non-profit Center for Zero Waste Design, where recent work includes the advocacy campaign Put Waste to Work: Vibrant Streetscapes, Green Jobs and Healthy Neighborhoods to transform the inequitable way NYC manages waste, and get trash bags off sidewalks and compost into soils.

Gina is recognized as a national leader in advancing human and environmental health. A champion of equity and environmental justice, Gina is an innovator with a proven track record of creating leading-edge, nationally recognized sustainable spaces where we live, work, and play.

Prior to HBN, Gina was Vice President at a Minneapolis-St. Paul area real estate developer, where she spent two decades creating thousands of healthy, high-performance affordable homes. Her efforts culminated in the construction of The Rose, a 90-unit apartment building in Minneapolis that set a new national standard for healthy materials.

Gina was named to Finance and Commerce’s Top Women in Finance (2012 & 2015), and in 2021 received a Women in Sustainability Leadership Award (WSLA), one of the most prestigious awards honoring leadership in sustainability across the globe. She completed the Achieving Excellence program at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and holds a B.S degree in Housing from the University of Minnesota.

Casey Lee Bastien, RLA, CPSI | Landscape Architecture and Habitat Design Specialist | BSC GroupMr. Bastien has over 24 years of landscape architecture experience with a focus on Ecological habitat design bringing insight to landscapes as well as community and regional planning efforts. His passion to research and innovate adds meaning and value to a wide variety of project types including parks, streetscapes, transportation, institutions, and natural habitats. He prides himself on delivering designs that are both meaningful and impactful, creating harmonious, inspiring, and functional spaces for both people and nature. Recent endeavors include the Island End River Living Shoreline in Chelsea and Everett, MA,  Ayer Devens Pocket Forest, Habitat at Rivergreen on the Malden, Nashua River Watershed, Forest and Landscape management guides, and multiple Regional MVP Resilience planning projects.

Keith Zaltzberg-Drezdahl | Managing Director + Head of Planning | Regenerative Design Group Cooperative
As a resilience planner and environmental designer, I’ve dedicated my career to shaping and stewarding human landscapes as a force of regeneration by awakening people’s capacity to understand, engage, and manage landscapes as living ecosystems. My current work is focused on accelerating the adoption of nature-based solutions and regenerative agriculture to address climate resilience and equity. Since founding Regenerative Design Group in 2009, I have led an incredible team of creative designers and planners on scores of projects ranging from a statewide assessment of soil health in Massachusetts to implementation of urban green stormwater projects in New England and farm planning in the Sahel of West Africa.

For our first roundtable of the year, we would like to discuss each of our unique perspectives on our roles, actions, and effects in the ecosystems within which we work– in which aspects of the ecosystem are you most heavily involved? How does your emphasis relate to a whole systems approach? How can we see the whole systems we are working in?

Jim Newman
Principal, Linnean Solutions

DiAnn Tufts, LFA, LEED AP
PCA, Senior Associate & Director of Sustainability

Jacob Bloom, LFA
Associate, CambridgeSeven

Bob Donohue, LEED AP
enviENERGY Studio, Building Performance Analyst

Melissa Mattes, LC, LFA, LEED Green Associate, IALD
Sladen Feinstein, Senior Lighting Designer / Sustainability Specialist

Nicole Voss, LEED AP BD+C
isgenuity, Associate Principal & Director of Sustainability

December – Declare + Material data/ transparency

October – Biophilic Design + Local Wood

August – Biophilia and The Beauty Petal
The August Living Future Roundtable discussion on Biophilia and The Beauty Petal will host Julia Africa and Sonja Bochard as our featured experts.

Julia Kane Africa is an independent Biophilic Design and Landscape Research Consultant. In her current role on the Franklin Park Action Plan Team, she provides public health-related design and programming input to the consortium of 40+ landscape architects, planners, and ecologists tasked with creating a community driven action plan for the revitalization of the historic 500-acre Boston Park. Previously, Julia led the Nature and Health program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, an academic research center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, from 2012-2017. In this role, she explored the ways in which nature (parks and green spaces) and natural design cues (natural features in built environment settings) in urban settings support psychological and physiological health and resilience. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute’s Health Leaders Network, the Biophilic Cities Network Steering Committee, and is a contributing author to a forthcoming APA publication on climate change and mental health.

Sonja Bochart, a design leader in health and wellness, has had an extensive background in creating spaces to support individual, community, and ecological wellbeing for over twenty-five years, working nationally as a living-systems design consultant. Sonja is a recognized leader and educator in the industry, teaching at Arizona State University’s Herberger School of Design, advising on biophilia, health and wellness councils, including the International Living Future Institute, and as a board member of Green Plants for Green Buildings. As a director at Lens Strategy – Shepley Bulfinch, Sonja works as a regenerative design and development strategist fostering human ecological connection and wellbeing. Sonja is one of the foremost facilitators for living-systems community design workshops, organizational firm development- and LEED, Living Building Challenge, and Well Building Standard charrettes.

June – LBC Petal Certification: Air Quality Testing & Monitoring

April – Let’s Chat Petal Certification

February – What’s up with ILFI Core Certification