Speakers

Session 01

David Gamble, AIA, FAICP, LEED AP

Cambridge, MA

MIT + Gamble Associates

David Gamble is an architect, urban designer, planner, and educator whose work connects design practice with civic planning and implementation. As principal of Gamble Associates and a member of the MIT faculty, he works across public-realm, district, and community-planning initiatives. His symposium presentation examines the productive tensions that arise as urban design moves among architecture, planning, public policy, development, and community priorities.

Past RUDC Leader

Session 01

Stephen Gray

Cambridge, MA

Harvard University

Stephen Gray is an urban designer, planner, and educator at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His teaching and practice focus on the relationships among design, planning, policy, governance, and social equity. Through research and applied urban work, he examines how the field’s position between disciplines can become a source of agency and how urban designers can contribute more effectively to public decision-making.

Session 01

Molly O’Neill Robinson, AICP

Salt Lake City, UT

Career-line Instructor · University of Utah

Molly O’Neill Robinson is an urban designer and planner whose work focuses on shaping the physical form of cities through policy, design, and public process. She teaches in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. She is lead editor of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Practice (2026), which explores how practice is evolving to address complex urban challenges. She led Salt Lake City’s Downtown Plan, a framework that guides growth and public realm investment in the city’s core.

Session 01

Richard Sommer

Toronto, ON, Canada

University of Toronto

Richard Sommer is Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Dean Emeritus of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and Director of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto. An architect, urbanist, educator, and scholar, his work examines the relationship between design culture, institutions, and the contemporary city. His contribution considers urban design’s civic agency and its capacity to shape shared agendas beyond individual projects.

Session 02

Liang Wang

Austin, TX

Assistant Professor · The University of Texas at Austin

Liang Wang is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. His research and teaching address the history and theory of urban form, the space and politics of the superblock, East Asian urbanism, and collective living. Liang is co-founder of Commons Office, a research-minded, trans-scalar design practice. He previously practiced internationally at Herzog & de Meuron, SOM, WW Architecture, and Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, working on multi-scalar architecture and urban design projects in Houston, Moscow, Singapore, and Shanghai. He holds a Doctor of Design and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Session 02

Matthew Bell, FAIA, FCNU

Washington, DC

Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland · Principal, Perkins Eastman

Matthew Bell, FAIA FCNU is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and Principal at Perkins Eastman in Washington, DC. His professional work includes buildings and master plans for mixed-use, higher-ed and institutional projects, including the Cleveland Park Library, the master plan for the NFL Commanders site and the recently opened Reservoir District. Bell’s work has received awards from the AIA, the Congress for the New Urbanism, the USGBC, and the Urban Land Institute, among others. He has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Cornell University and serves on the Historic Preservation Review Board in Washington, DC.

Session 02

Colin Brown, AICP

New York, NY

Senior Transportation Planner · TYLin

Colin Brown is a city planner specializing in transportation planning analysis, streetscape design, and pedestrian, bicycle, and emerging mobility systems. His work focuses on improving multimodal options, enhancing roadway safety, and designing a more equitable and pedestrian-scale public realm in cities. He works extensively within New York City as well as municipalities across the country.

Session 02

Harrison Fraker, FAIA

Berkeley, CA

University of California, Berkeley

Harrison Fraker received his MFA in Architecture from Princeton and Cambridge Universities. His teaching, practice, and research span more than 50 years, including roles at Princeton University, as head and founding dean at the University of Minnesota, and as the fifth dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. A pioneer in environmentally responsive architecture and urban design, he received the 2014 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion, the highest award in architectural education. His book, Minding the City, explores how cognitive neuroscience can help us understand what makes public space meaningful.

Session 03

Rubén García Rubio, PhD

New Orleans, LA

Associate Professor + Director, Sustainable Urbanism Program · Tulane University

Rubén García Rubio is an architect, urbanist, and Associate Professor at Tulane University, where he directs the Sustainable Urbanism Program. His research and teaching focus on urban design, territorial systems, water, and the relationship between architecture and landscape. He is co-director of the Atacama Desert Project and leads the Addis Ababa River City Research Project, which explores the “Riverhood” as a model for integrating ecological, infrastructural, and social systems. He is also co-founder of studioVRA, an architecture and urban design practice based in Spain and the United States.

Session 03

Scott Archer, AIA, AICP, LEED AP ND

Washington, DC

Principal, DAVID RUBIN Land Collective · Adjunct Faculty, Virginia Tech WAAC

As an urban designer, architect, and certified planner, Scott Archer has developed broad expertise in planning for cities and campuses, as well as experience designing cultural, civic, and institutional buildings. His belief that design can—and should—play a key role in creating equitable and livable cities drives his work. Scott is a Principal at DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, serves as Adjunct Faculty at Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, and served as Chair of the AIA Regional & Urban Design Knowledge Community in 2025.

Past RUDC Leader

Session 03

Brandon Surtain

New Orleans, LA

Tulane University · Small Center for Collaborative Design

Brandon Surtain is a designer and community-engagement leader whose work at Tulane University’s Small Center for Collaborative Design brings students, faculty, and community partners together through public-facing design. With experience spanning architecture, sustainable real estate development, affordable housing, and collective making, he explores how open-ended collaboration can make sustainability more participatory, culturally resonant, and grounded in local knowledge.

Session 03

Ifeoma Ebo, LEED AP, WEDG, NOMA

Brooklyn, NY + Abuja, Nigeria

Principal, Creative Urban Alchemy · Distinguished Lecturer, CCNY

Ifeoma Ebo is a Brooklyn-based designer and urbanist transforming urban spaces into platforms for equity, cultural expression, and design excellence. She is Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy, an award-winning design studio working at the intersection of art, architecture, urban design, and planning, with cultural heritage at the center of its practice. As Distinguished Lecturer in Design & Sustainability at the Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York, she teaches interdisciplinary courses exploring cultural, climate, and environmental justice.

Session 04

Jennifer Bolstad, RLA, ASLA, Associate AIA, LEED-AP, WEDG, ISA Certified Arborist

New York, NY

Driftless Landscape Architecture + Driftless Consulting Arborists · New York University

Jennifer Bolstad is Founding Principal of Driftless Landscape Architecture and Chief Operating Officer of Driftless Consulting Arborists. A registered landscape architect, LEED AP, WEDG professional, and ISA Certified Arborist, she has led urban landscape projects ranging from green roofs and gardens to city, campus, and waterfront frameworks. Her work combines ecosystem services with landscape construction, permitting, phasing, interagency coordination, and delivery. She has overseen more than $500 million in public landscape construction across New York City’s five boroughs. Jennifer also teaches and conducts research at New York University, with a focus on urban forestry, climate resilience, and green-economy workforce development.

Session 04

Sravani Gandu, MS

New York, NY

Founder + Lead Researcher, Urban Carbon · R&D Engineer, Clean Air Zone

Sravani Gandu is a mechatronics engineer based in New York City. She is the founder and lead researcher at Urban Carbon, where she studies the carbon outcomes of urban green spaces, combining field sensing with ecological design to understand how small plots of native planting perform against conventional turf. She also leads product development for BioCAZ at Clean Air Zone, where she is a co-inventor on three U.S. patent applications related to biological air purification and nature-based solutions.

Session 04

Liz Martin-Malikian

Oxford, OH

Chair, Architecture + Interior Design · Miami University

Liz Martin-Malikian is Professor and Chair of Architecture + Interior Design and Director of Graduate Studies at Miami University. A practitioner, educator, and academic leader, her work explores architecture, ecology, and collaborative design practices. She previously served as Executive Director and CEO of the Cosanti Foundation and has held academic appointments at Kennesaw State University, Auburn University, and SCI-Arc. Her teaching, scholarship, and professional service focus on expanding design education through interdisciplinary research, community engagement, and practice-based learning.

Session 04

Juana Salcedo Ortiz

Austin, TX

Assistant Professor of Practice · School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin

Architectural designer and scholar working at the intersection of architecture and urbanism. Salcedo's research draws concepts and methods from environmental history, urban political ecology, decolonial studies, and science and technology studies to reconnect architecture and cities with the larger environmental and socio-economic processes that shape them, focusing on Latin America. She also explores visualization and mapping as key means to foreground spatial issues and territorial discussions. Her project Jaguar Lens has been funded twice by the Graham Foundation (2020 and 2024).

Session 04

Anna Anisov, Assoc. AIA

Newport Beach, CA

Urban Architect · Secretary, AIA San Fernando Valley

Anna Anisov is an architect and urban sustainability researcher with nearly two decades of professional experience in architecture and urban design. Her research grew from a long-standing interest in responsibility, reuse, and the relationship between people and nature. Rather than asking only how to bring more nature into cities, she explores how restoring abandoned, contaminated, and post-industrial urban land can reduce pressure for continued expansion into natural landscapes. This work led to the development of the Full Circle Method, a framework integrating environmental remediation, adaptive reuse, ecological regeneration, and long-term stewardship. Anna serves as Secretary of AIA San Fernando Valley.

Session 05

Eric Corey Freed, AIA, LEED Fellow, EcoDistricts AP, LFA, ActiveScore AP

Portland, OR

Principal, Director of Sustainability · CannonDesign

Eric Corey Freed is an award-winning architect, author, and global keynote speaker specializing in organizational momentum and breakthrough design. As Principal and Director of Sustainability for CannonDesign, he pioneers innovative, high-performance strategies to optimize over 30 million square feet of space annually across healthcare, education, and commercial sectors. For two decades, he was the Founding Principal of organicARCHITECT, a visionary firm that disrupted traditional architecture through biophilic and regenerative design. A master at helping organizations remove institutional drag, Eric is the author of 13 books. His highly anticipated upcoming book, Frictionless: Overcoming the Drags that Shut Down Innovation (2026), provides a roadmap for leaders looking to eliminate corporate inertia and accelerate growth. Eric’s insights on design-driven innovation have been featured in Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as on Fox News and PBS. His career is defined by scaling cutting-edge paradigms; he has served as an executive for major think-tanks redefining the built environment and currently sits on the board of Design Museum Everywhere. Recognized globally for his visionary leadership, Eric’s accolades include being named a Net Zero Trailblazer for Innovation and one of the Top 10 Most Influential Architects in his field.

Session 05

Gautham Jayan, B.Arch., M.Plan.

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

ArborHaus Architects

Gautham Jayan is an architect and urban planner whose research examines geospatial conflict analysis, predictive urban systems, resilience, and rapidly urbanizing contexts in the Global South. His work integrates urban morphology, infrastructure, demographic pressure, political boundaries, and environmental vulnerability to identify overlapping spatial risks. He is interested in how mapping and urban indicators can support more inclusive, adaptive, and proactive design decisions.

Session 05

Joshua Treadway

Orlando, FL

Assistant Professor of Architecture · University of Central Florida

Joshua Treadway is an Assistant Professor of Architecture in UCF’s School of Visual Arts and Design and a licensed architect in the State of Florida. He holds a Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida. His academic and professional work bridges architectural design, computational methods, emerging technologies, and professional practice. His interest is in the complexity and dynamic nature of the built environment and how we can analyze and solve issues and represent these qualities through the built form.

Session 05

Daniel Inocente, AIA, NCARB, LEED

New York, NY

Founder + Principal Architect · Daniel Inocente Architecture D.P.C.

Daniel Inocente is Founder and Principal Architect of Daniel Inocente Architecture D.P.C. in New York and a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. His work spans architecture, urban design, and aerospace, with a focus on how technology, infrastructure, and environmental performance shape the built environment. He previously held roles at Blue Origin, SOM, and Gehry Partners. He is the author of Space Architecture: Principles, Challenges, and Innovations and leads projects and research across buildings, cities, and emerging environments.

Session 05

Conrad Kickert, PhD

Buffalo, NY

University at Buffalo · Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence

Conrad Kickert is Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo and Director of Programs at the Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence. His research examines the relationships among urban form, everyday life, economic systems, ecological change, and empirical evaluation. He challenges idealized end-state plans by asking how cities actually perform, adapt, and change after implementation—and how observation can help urban designers remain accountable to lived outcomes.