The Healthy Places Research Group end-of-the-year meeting in May will feature contributors from the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) book Building Metropolitan Atlanta: Past, Present & Future which is a comprehensive look at the region's evolution, its current challenges, and the many recent and planned efforts to address them. This panel comes at an ideal time, as the 18th Annual CNU Meeting will be held on May 19-22 and the topic is "New Urbanism: Rx for Healthy Places."

Panelists include:
William J. de St. Aubin- William J. de St. Aubin, (Bill) is a Senior Principal at Sizemore Group, LLC and is an expert on Sustainable New Urban Development and Design in suburban retrofits. Bill combines best LEED and LEED-ND practices with Marketing Analysis to create healthier communities from a physical, social and fiscal standpoint. He is a founding and board member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism. Bill brings over 25 years of experience leading successful designs involving complex, multi-use suburban environments. His process involves collaboration in an open forum with multi-disciplinary teams, user groups and community members. His goals are to assure that projects and studies are completed within the constraints of the market and that solutions are achieved to the highest aspirations possible of both the client and the community. The results are communities that provide a sense of heritage, civic pride, and unity. In addition, the results were often the catalysts for the ultimate sustainable redevelopment of entire communities.

George Dusenbury- George Dusenbury is the Executive Director of Park Pride, a nonprofit organization that works for more and better parks all over Atlanta. Since 2004, George has led Park Pride's focus of building and strengthening relationships with geographically diverse neighborhood organizations and community groups. Under George's leadership, Park Pride launched its successful Community Micro Grants & Community Grants programs-providing Capital Improvement Project grants, for parks, of $1,000 to $50,000. He also brought on staff to build and strengthen "Friends of the Park" groups and in 2005 started the Park Visioning program to work with communities on developing conceptual master plans for Atlanta's neighborhood parks. Through its advocacy efforts, Park Pride also encourages increased City budgeting and higher maintenance standards for parks and promotes the creation of more parkland, including the new greenspace that will be added to the City as part of the BeltLine plans. These steps are all part of George's vision that Park Pride get neighborhoods more involved in their parks and better educate residents about the park and greenspace issues that confront all communities. Before joining Park Pride, George worked for Congressman John Lewis for ten years, both in Washington, DC and Atlanta, where he served as District Director. He also spent a year working as a policy analyst on water issues for the Northeast-Midwest Institute, a Washington, DC think tank that works closely with Members of Congress. He holds a B.A. of English from Cornell University and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Christina Corley- Christina Corley is EarthCraft Communities Program Manager for Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. Southface is an environmental nonprofit with a longstanding reputation for promoting sustainable homes, communities and workplaces through education, research, advocacy and technical assistance. Christina provides charrette facilitation, community site plan reviews and developer support for developments across the Southeast. She also represented Southface on Atlanta's Green Building Task Force, works to integrate sustainable strategies into low income housing developments in Georgia, and supports regional and national sustainable community development by serving on the Atlanta Regional Commissions Green Communities Program committee and the Home Depot Foundation's Awards of Excellence in Sustainable Community Development Advisory Committee. She has a background in Environmental Science and Sociology, studied international planning in Ghana, West Africa as a Rotary International Ambassador and is currently pursuing a MS in Building Construction from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Rob LeBeau- Rob LeBeau is a Senior Principal Planner in the Land Use Division of the Atlanta Regional Commission. He serves as project manager for the Livable Centers Initiative program, provides assistance to local governments in meeting state planning requirements, and works with jurisdictions throughout the Atlanta Region on quality growth issues. Prior to joining ARC in 2000, Rob worked for ten years as a consultant and in local government focusing on comprehensive planning, zoning, and neighborhood redevelopment. Rob has a Master of Public Administration with emphasis in Urban Planning from the University of Central Florida and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Rob recently served as the District 3 Director and Vice President for Programs for the Georgia Planning Association.

K. Rashid Nuri- K. Rashid Nuri is the Executive Director of Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms. He lived in Southeast Asia for 3 years, Nigeria for 5 years, and Ghana for nearly 2 years. He has managed public, prive, and community-based food and agriculture businesses in over 30 countries around the world. Rashid also served four years as a Senior Executive in the Clinton administration, including Deputy Administrator of the Farm Service Agency and Foreign Agriculturl Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied Political Science and has a M.S. in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Moderator:
Harry West- Harry West joined the CQGRD as Professor of Practice in 2007. Mr. West has more than 45 years experience managing and planning public projects and reviewing private development proposals. Early in his career he was the County Manager of Fulton County, Georgia's largest and most diverse county as well as home to the City of Atlanta. For twenty-eight years (1972-2000), Mr. West was employed by the Atlanta Regional Commission, the comprehensive planning agency for the Atlanta metropolitan area, serving as ARC's Executive Director for twenty-seven years. During his tenure at the ARC, Mr. West was responsible for the preparation and update of three Regional Development Plans, three Regional Transportation Plans, numerous sub-area and corridor plans, alternatives analysis, and major investment studies. Plans for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), local bus service, Regional Airport Systems Plans and in most cases programming the capital investments necessary for implementation were also accomplished under his direction. Prior to joining the CQGRD, Mr. West held a senior position with Parsons Corporation, participating in the management, planning, public involvement, and agency coordination projects.

Transportation Directions:
Parking: On-street parking is available on the surrounding streets. Deck parking is available in Lot H, G Deck, Lot K, Lot S, and Lot N.

Bicycle: Bicycle parking is available in the parking deck off of Collins Street.

MARTA: The nearest MARTA station is the Georgia State Stop- a 1/2 block south from the Urban Life Building.