Return to the Classroom: Advancing Urban Sustainability
Date
May 29, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
Venue
Washington, DC
Event Details
learn | connect | network
mini-lectures | q&a | reception
Faculty lectures and learning don’t have to end when you graduate from Cornell. Return to the Classroom examines interesting, current topics from faculty and expert alumni right in your community. No need to travel to Ithaca, and definitely no homework! We’ll be in DC this month exploring urban sustainability. Read on to learn more.
The world’s urban population will increase to 60% by 2050*. What changes in urban planning, policy, and the environment will keep cities thriving? How will urbanization impact people and the planet on a local and global level? Please join us to learn how Cornell faculty and alumni are making an impact to improve urban living for all.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 2019
TIME: 6:00-9:00 p.m.
6:00-6:45 p.m. – reception – includes appetizers, wine, beer, and soft drinks
6:50-7:00 p.m. – opening remarks – Bridget Lowell, CALS ’96, Moderator
7:05 p.m. – mini-lecture 1 – Bob Perciasepe, CALS ’74 on “Bringing Communities Together: Building Climate Resilience”
7:25 p.m. – mini-lecture 2 – Timur Dogan, Assistant Professor, AAP, on “Architecture & Environment: New tools to empower architects to design livable and sustainable urban habitats”
7:45-7:55 p.m. – break
8:00-8:20 p.m. – mini-lecture 3 – Victoria Beard, Associate Professor, AAP, on “Looking Forward: The Challenge of Sustainability in the Context of Urban Informality”
8:20-8:55 p.m. – q&a
8:55-9:00 p.m. – closing remarks, Terry Horner, HumEc ’92, PhD ’98.
LOCATION: Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University | 950 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20052
COST: $40.00 general alumni, $30.00 young alumni (Classes 2009-2018)
QUESTIONS: Karen Barnes
* World Resources Institute
About our speakers:
Victoria Beard, Associate Professor, Department of City & Regional Planning, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art & Planning. Victoria Beard’s research and teaching focus are on urbanization and international development planning. More specifically, she is interested in comparative urbanization, inequality, poverty and access to infrastructure services in cities in the global South. Her research explores the intersection of collective action, social movements, transnational processes, and planning.
Beard served as the Director of Research for the Ross Center for Cities at the World Resources Institute from (2015 to 2017). In this role she was the lead author on World Resources Report framing paper, Towards a More Equal City, and led the program’s analytical work. Over the past 20 years, she has worked in various capacities for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, AusAID, Mercy Corps, and the Research Triangle Institute, and RAND.
At Cornell, Beard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and a faculty member in Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program. She is an Einaudi Center International Fellow (2014-2019) and she is a faculty fellow in the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.
Beard received her B.A. in urban studies and planning from the University of California–San Diego in 1992. She received her M.A. in urban planning from UCLA in 1995, and she received her Ph.D. in community and regional planning from the University of British Columbia in 1999.
Timur Dogan, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art & Planning. Timur Dogan is an architect, building scientist, and educator. His research expertise is in daylighting, energy modeling, passive climate control strategies, and performance driven design workflows in both urban and architectural scale. His work empowers non-specialized architects and urban designers to optimize their design proposals regarding their energy demand and supply, comfort, and livability. To date, he has authored and coauthored several books, journal papers, and peer reviewed scientific articles.
Prior to joining Cornell in 2015, Dogan was a member of the Sustainable Design Lab at MIT and Harvard where his research was supported by an MIT Presidential Fellowship, Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, and the German Academic Exchange Service-DAAD. In practice, Dogan worked for KSP Architekten, Wandel Hoefer Lorch Architekten, Transsolar, and recently started his own practice.
Dogan holds a Master in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Dipl. Ing. in architecture with distinction from the Technical University Darmstadt, where he was a fellow of the German National Academic Foundation.
Terry Horner, HumEc ’92, PhD ’98. Terry Horner is an Assistant Director at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which advises Congress and the heads of executive branch agencies about ways to make government more efficient, effective, ethical, and equitable.Terry received his Bachelor of Science with Honors in Nutritional Sciences in 1992 and Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences in 1998 from Cornell University. Since moving to Washington, DC, Terry has continuously engaged with Cornell’s class, college, unit, regional, and diversity alumni organizations in a variety of strategic advisory and voluntary roles. He is currently a member of the Cornell Annual Fund’s Washington DC Regional Committee, Vice President of the Class of 1992, and President of Cornell Club of Washington.
Bridget Lowell, CALS ’96, Moderator.
Since 2012, Bridget Lowell has served as Chief Communications Officer
at the Urban Institute , where she is overseeing an organization-wide
effort to boost the visibility and accessibility of Urban’s research
with innovative communications strategies, digital platforms and
features, and engagement approaches with new audiences.
Before joining Urban, Lowell was director of strategic communications at
The Nature Conservancy, the world’s leading environmental conservation
organization. In this capacity, she was known for her work in media
relations, reputation management, and strengthening organizational brand
identity.
Lowell also worked for nearly five years on Capitol Hill as
communications director for a senior member of Congress from North
Carolina. During that time, she completed stints on local and national
political campaigns. She began her career as an on-air television news
reporter, working first at a cable network in New York’s Hudson Valley
and later at the ABC affiliate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is
an advisory board member of the Anthony Graves Foundation and is on the
board of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust. Lowell is a graduate
of Cornell University.
Bob Perciasepe, CALS ’74. Bob Perciasepe is President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), which is widely recognized in the United States and internationally as a leading, independent voice for practical policy and action to address our energy and climate challenges.
Mr. Perciasepe has been an environmental policy leader in and outside government for more than 40 years, most recently as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is a respected expert on environmental stewardship, natural resource management, and public policy, and has built a reputation for bringing stakeholders together to solve issues.
While Mr. Perciasepe served as Deputy Administrator from 2009 to 2014, EPA set stricter auto emissions and mileage standards, increased protections for the nation’s streams and rivers, and developed carbon emissions standards for power plants. Mr Perciasepe was previously assistant administrator for both the agency’s water and clean air programs, leading efforts to improve the safety of America’s drinking water and development of a new infrastructure revolving fund for drinking water. He also led efforts to lower sulfur levels in gasoline and diesel fuel to reduce smog.
In 2002, Mr. Perciasepe joined the National Audubon Society, one of the nation’s oldest conservation organizations, as its senior vice president for public policy. He served as the group’s chief operating officer from 2004 to 2009, and worked to protect wetlands and expand environmental education, especially in urban areas.
He has also held top positions in state and municipal government – as Secretary of the Environment for the state of Maryland from 1990 to 1993 and as a senior planning official for the city of Baltimore, where he managed the city’s capital budget.
Mr Perciasepe is a member of the Bank of America National Community Advisory Council and the National Petroleum Council. He serves on the boards of the Keystone Policy Center and the Environmental Law Institute. He has received American University’s William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership, the Chesapeake Water Environment Association’s Able Wolman Award, the American Lung Association’s Distinguished Service award and the Walter G. Wells Conservation Award.
Mr. Perciasepe holds a master’s degree in planning and public administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resources from Cornell University.
