The Little Bridge that Could: Connecting Lower Mystic River Communities

Amber Christoffersen, Mystic River Watershed Association

Amber Christoffersen is the Greenways Director as the Mystic River Watershed Association. She is a designer and planner who has worked on active transportation, open space and affordable housing projects in the Boston area and around the country. She is leading the participatory planning process for dozens of path and park projects across the watershed. Amber holds a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the College of William and Mary. As an avid long distance runner, she is constantly exploring the region's many waterfronts and parklands, looking for opportunities to make them more beautiful and accessible.

Go Boston 2030: Not on a Shelf

Louisa Gag, LivableStreets Alliance

Louisa is the Public Policy & Operations Manager for LivableStreets, deep-diving into policy research and relationships, developing programmatic positions, and handling operations for the organization. In 2019, Louisa will be focused on building an accountability framework for implementation of the City of Boston's Go Boston 2030 plan.

Previously, Louisa worked at the South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation, where she managed the South Boston Farmers Market and coordinated business development events. She completed a self-designed degree at the University of Rochester, studying the relationship between people and their environment. A semester abroad in Copenhagen sparked her interest in the livability of cities. Louisa cut her teeth on Boston's public transportation system while growing up in Roslindale.

Achieving the Perfect Fit: New Strategies for Assessing Residential Parking Demand

Kasia Hart, Metropolitan Area Planning Council

Kasia Hart is a Policy Analyst with the Government Affairs Department at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. As part of the Government Affairs team, Kasia works with internal departments to identify and advocate MAPC’s legislative and budget priorities through each legislative session. Kasia focuses on transportation-related initiatives and legislation, and coordinates the agency’s municipal and regional engagement efforts around the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In her former role with MAPC’s Transportation Department, Kasia worked on a broad range of transportation policy and planning projects, including managing MAPC’s regional bike share and micromobility coordination efforts, performing municipal parking management studies, and researching innovative transportation funding strategies. Previously, Kasia worked with the Boston pedestrian advocacy group WalkBoston while completing a Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.

Why redesign a bus network?

Chistof Spieler, Huitt-Zollars

Christof Spieler, PE, LEED AP is a Vice President and Director of Planning at Huitt-Zollars and a Senior Lecturer at Rice University. He served as a member of the board of directors of Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) from 2010 to 2018, where he initiated the Transit System Reimagining process, a blank sheet re-design of the entire local bus network. His book, "Trains, Buses, People: an opinionated atlas of US transit" was published in 2018 by Island Press. He lives in Downtown Houston and relies on transit and walking for most of his daily trips.

The Cost of Greenways

Ambar Johnson, LivableStreets Alliance

Ambar is the Program Director for LivableStreets, overseeing Vision Zero, Better Buses, and managing all aspects of the Emerald Network including advocacy, project oversight, and technical assistance.

Ambar's work is guided by her belief that "transportation is freedom" to create abundant, safe and accessible infrastructure and options. Previously, she served as a transportation planner at VHB, leading technical analysis for a range of transit feasibility studies and comprehensive plans in the Southeast. Before that, she worked with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and her neighbors to expand Relay Bike Share by using transportation as a tool for community building. Ambar is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology where she received her Bachelor of Science in History, Technology, and Society with a concentration in Civil Engineering.

Organizing for Second Chances: Why We Don't Give Up

Becca Wolfson, Boston Cyclists Union

Becca Wolfson has served as executive director of the Boston Cyclists Union since August of 2015. She works with residents, advocates, municipal staff, and policymakers to advance infrastructure projects and state and local transportation policy to fulfill the organization’s mission to transform the streets of greater Boston into equitable and inviting people-centered spaces affording access and connection for every body. Her passion and work not only focus on expanding access to biking as a means of transportation, but on addressing issues of mobility justice, getting people out of single occupancy vehicles, and creating physical and emotional space for bicycles, people, transit, and vibrant city life. Her experience liaising in local government and community, environmental ethic, and grassroots organizing skills were honed in the six years she spent on Cape Cod working for Barnstable County’s Resource Development Office and environmental AmeriCorps program. While not working, attending public meetings, or cooking to fuel her many trips by bike, Becca can be found doing coursework, working towards earning her Masters in Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning at Tufts University.

Becca's commute mode share is ~97.5% by bicycle, ~1.8% bus, and ~.7% commuter rail. She has been known to be insufferable.

From Boston to Gateway Cities, TransitMatters

Tracy A. Corley, PhD, MassINC

Dr. Tracy A. Corley, MassINC’s Transit-Oriented Development Fellow, thrives on creating economic opportunities and sustainable livelihoods for people in our world’s metropolitan regions. She brings expertise in economic development, business, labor markets, architecture, law, and public policy to MassINC. As the TOD Fellow, she convenes political and community leaders to spur inclusive development in Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities.

Prior to joining MassINC, Dr. Corley split time between Boston and the German Rhineland, conducting doctoral research on informal work in Germany’s skilled trades and crafts sector. She obtained multiple grants for this research, including German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) funding. The Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG), and Institute for Labor, Skills and Training (IAQ) hosted her during her investigations in Germany.

Previously, Dr. Corley lived in Seattle, Washington, where she coordinated strategy and planning for Seattle Jobs Initiative, founded two consulting firms, and served as the Vice Chair of Small Business on the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees. Her diverse experience included work in sustainability, energy efficiency, clean technology, finance, banking, and telecommunications. She has also worked as an architect and graphic designer in Seattle, WA, and Greenville, SC.

Dr. Corley attained her B.A. in Architecture Design from Clemson University in 1995 and her M.S. in Public Policy and Ph.D. in Law and Public Policy from Northeastern University in 2018.

Josh Fairchild, Hackett Feinberg P.C.

Josh is an attorney and transit advocate. As an attorney with Hackett Feinberg P.C. in Boston, Josh concentrates his practice on commercial real estate transactions and financing, including leasing and affordable housing development. Josh co-founded and serves as President of TransitMatters, a nonprofit advocating for a better public transit system for the Greater Boston region. In this role, he hosts a monthly podcast, which is produced by CommonWealth Magazine. TransitMatters advances global best practices and high return initiatives in a way that makes the transportation conversation in Greater Boston more accessible to residents, business leaders and policymakers. Josh's legal experience includes real estate, tax, business and nonprofit organizational matters in a variety of settings. Josh has additional professional experience in commercial and residential real estate brokerages, state government, and the energy sector. He is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and before the United State Tax Court. Josh has visited 46 states and has hit the halfway mark in his life goal to visit every National Park in the U.S. He lives with his wife and children in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

Lessons from Back Alleys

Alice Brown, Boston Harbor Now

Alice Brown is the Director of Planning at Boston Harbor Now. Her work primarily focuses on expanding mobility choices and activating open spaces. She is working to promote and expand water transportation options, including the development of business plans for new ferry routes, and she is also shaping a vision for Harborwalk 2.0 to make the Boston waterfront and harbor islands more accessible and resilient. Prior to joining Boston Harbor Now, Alice has worked at the Boston Transportation Department (as the project manager for Go Boston 2030), at Sasaki, and at LivableStreets. Alice holds a B.S. in math and a B.A. in philosophy from the Ohio State University, an M.S. in teaching from Pace University, and an MUP from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She enjoys leading unconventional tours, curating events calendars, and taking long, leisurely bike rides.

Plazas for the People: Carving out Community Space in Boston Neighborhoods

Jacob Wessel, City of Boston

Jacob Wessel currently serves as the City of Boston’s Public Realm Director, working with the City’s Streets Cabinet on implementation of people-oriented interventions on streets and sidewalks.

Jacob previously served as Director of City Hall to Go, a mobile City Hall program that visits Boston’s neighborhoods throughout the year. He also founded Open Newbury Street, a mile-long pedestrianization event series which attracts more than 50,000 attendees each summer.

Jacob began his stint in Boston government as a neighborhood liaison in Mayor Walsh’s Office of Neighborhood Services, where he facilitated neighborhood outreach regarding City service delivery, zoning variances, licensing, permitting, and community benefits. A native of Los Angeles, Jacob previously worked as a Research Director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and as a field organizer for Senator Ed Markey. He graduated with a degree in political science from Tufts University.

Communicating with Young Adults of Color Through Digital Media

Tevin Charles, The Loop Lab

Tevin Charles is an alumnus of The Loop Lab's workforce development program and has produced over 20 videos in the last year, with topics ranging from music to gentrification to transportation. He also serves as an Inclusion Youth Worker with Cambridge Youth Programs.

Matt Malikowski, The Loop Lab

Matt Malikowski is Program Manager at The Loop Lab. He brings two decades of experience in producing music, broadcast, marketing, and other media to developing curriculum and content for The Loop Lab, a non-profit social enterprise and workforce development program based in Cambridge that serves young adults of color throughout Greater Boston. He is also the Supervising Producer for LivableStreets' and T4MASS' ongoing video campaigns.