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Speaker and Facilitator Biographies

Cathy Costakis, M.P.H., works for Montana State University (MSU)–Bozeman and is a senior consultant to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services’ Nutrition and Physical Activity (NAPA) program. NAPA is a statewide obesity prevention program funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For the past 12 years, Ms. Costakis has worked on statewide initiatives focused on the connection between public health and community design. In partnership with statewide advisors and mentor counties, she developed the Montana Building Active Communities Initiative (BACI), and works statewide to provide technical assistance and training to cities and towns working to build better places for walking, biking, and transit. Multisector leadership teams attend a statewide BACI Action Institute annually. Ms. Costakis holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in health promotion from MSU–Bozeman.

Janet E. Fulton, Ph.D., is an epidemiologist and chief of the Physical Activity and Health Branch in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Fulton has published more than 100 scientific articles on the epidemiology of physical activity. She was the science coordinator and a member of the writing group for the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Strategies to Increase Physical Activity among Youth, and most recently for Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities. She also served as a technical consul-

tant to the World Health Organization for the Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health. She is the 2010 recipient of the American Heart Association’s Steven N. Blair Award for Excellence in Physical Activity Research. She is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Her research interests include the epidemiology of physical activity and chronic diseases, measurement and quantification of physical activity, and population-based promotion of physical activity. She earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Texas–Houston School of Public Health.

Karen Glanz, Ph.D., is the George A. Weiss University Professor, professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Nursing, and director of the UPenn Prevention Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania. A globally influential public health scholar whose work spans psychology, epidemiology, nutrition, and other disciplines, she focuses her research in community and health care settings on obesity, nutrition, and the built environment; reducing health disparities; and health communication technologies. Her research, funded for more than $40 million over the past 25 years, focuses on cancer prevention and control, theories of health behavior, obesity and the built environment, social and health policy, and new health communication technologies. Beginning in the 1980s, her research and publications on understanding, measuring, and improving healthy food environments have been widely recognized and replicated. She is a member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s advisory council and served on the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force for 10 years. Dr. Glanz was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine in 2013. She was designated a highly cited author by ISIHighlyCited.com, is in the top 0.5 percent of authors in her field over a 20-year period, and was named a highly cited author and one of the world’s most influential scientific minds, 2015, by Thomson Reuters. She earned her M.P.H. (health behavior and health education) from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, and her Ph.D. (health behavior and health education) from the University of Michigan Rackham School of Graduate Studies, Ann Arbor.

Parris N. Glendening, Ph.D., M.A., is the president of Smart Growth America’s Leadership Institute and the Governors’ Institute on Community Design. In these roles, he speaks across the country and around the world about smart growth, sustainability, global climate change, land conservation, transit-oriented development, and equity. He regularly speaks to environmental advocacy groups, business leaders, and professional organizations. Governor Glendening served as governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. While governor, he created the nation’s first state-level

smart growth program, for which he received Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Award. Prior to being elected governor, he served three terms as elected county executive of Prince George’s County, Maryland (population 800,000) and 10 years as a city and county council member. He was elected president of the Maryland Association of Counties, the Democratic Governors Association, the National Governors Association, and the Council of State Governments. For his leadership, Governing Magazine twice named him “Outstanding Public Official of the Year,” making him the first ever to receive that prestigious award at both the local and state levels. Governor Glendening was a highly regarded professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, for 27 years, repeatedly recognized for his innovative, quality teaching and receiving the Regents’ Excellence in Teaching Award. He continues to be involved in the National Academy of Public Administration as an elected fellow. He has served as a senior advisor to the president and National Council of the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA). His unique mix of academic, political, and nonprofit careers has led to numerous public service awards, including ASPA’s Donald C. Stone Award and the Hubert H. Humphrey Award. He is currently the founder and president of Scarlett Oak Strategies in Washington, DC. Governor Glendening holds a doctorate in government and politics from Florida State University, as well as eight honorary degrees.

Sara Hammerschmidt, Ph.D., M.S., is senior director, content, at the Urban Land Institute, where she develops content and programs focused on the impact of the built environment on public health through the Building Healthy Places Initiative. Throughout her career, she has done extensive work on issues that lie at the intersection of health and the built environment. Previously, she worked at PolicyLink in Oakland, California, researching the inclusion of social and economic equity into projects, plans, and policies being implemented at this intersection. She has spoken at several national conferences on the topics of health impact assessment, the role of urban planning in creating healthier cities, and recommendations for incorporating health into all built environment decision making. Dr. Hammerschmidt holds a B.S. in industrial operations and engineering from the University of Michigan and worked for 8 years in the technology industry prior to graduate school. She holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in community and regional planning from The University of Texas at Austin, where her research focused on developing recommendations for how planning departments across the country can incorporate public health considerations into their work.

Shiriki Kumanyika, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S.W., is professor emerita of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and research professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention

at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University. Dr. Kumanyika has a unique interdisciplinary background that integrates epidemiology, nutrition, social work, and public health methods and perspectives. The main themes of her research concern prevention and control of obesity and other diet-related risk factors and chronic diseases, with a particular focus on reducing the prevalence and health burdens of obesity in black communities. In 2002, Dr. Kumanyika formed the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network, a national network of academic scholars and community research partners who generate and translate research on nutrition, physical activity, and weight issues in African American children and adults. She is a past president of the American Public Health Association and has served in numerous advisory roles related to public health research and policy in the United States and abroad. She is currently co-chair of the Policy and Prevention Section of the World Obesity Federation, a member of the Lancet Commission on Obesity, and a nutrition advisor to the World Health Organization. Dr. Kumanyika has served on the Food and Nutrition Board and a number of committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She received her M.S. in social work from Columbia University, her M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University, and her Ph.D. in human nutrition from Cornell University. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Shai Lauros, M.Arch., M.Sc., is the national health program director at LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) National and oversees the organization’s health and community development initiatives at the national and local levels, encompassing more than 30 cities and 2,000 rural counties across 44 states. Ms. Lauros has worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors in planning, design, development, community health, and sustainability. Trained professionally as both an architect and a planner with a focus on sustainable community development, she has been working on the intersections between these issues for more than 15 years. Her previous consulting and advisory work spanned strategic planning, development, and policy initiatives, with a focus on sustainability and equity to create local and regional economic generators and healthy environments. Her work has included the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Invest Health initiative with the Reinvestment Fund and Bennett Midland, as well as several sustainable community development projects in New York. Ms. Lauros has presented publicly on issues of community development, public health, equitable development, strategic planning and redevelopment, affordable housing policy, and the use of metrics in sustainability initiatives. She holds an M.Sc. RUP (regional and urban planning) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an M.Arch. (architecture) from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Barnard College-Columbia University, and

has taught site planning and social and economic geography at Temple University and the City University of New York (CUNY)-NYC College of Technology.

Steven Lavrenz, Ph.D., M.S., is a technical programs specialist for the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). In this role, he also oversees the technical services program for the National Operations Center of Excellence. Dr. Lavrenz works on a number of projects at ITE involving active transportation, context-sensitive design, and transportation safety. He is staff liaison for the ITE Vision Zero Task Force and the recently launched Transportation and Health Task Force. His research background is in traffic safety, operations, and infrastructure management, and he has a number of committee roles and peer-reviewed publications in these areas. He received his B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Purdue University.

Leslie Meehan, Ph.D., A.I.C.P., oversees the Office of Primary Prevention in the Commissioner’s Office of the Tennessee Department of Health. Her focus is on increasing physical activity through the built environment as the foremost way to combat the state’s largest health issues. Previously, Ms. Meehan served 10 years as director of healthy communities for the Nashville Area metropolitan planning organization (MPO) in Tennessee. At the MPO, she focused on the intersection of transportation and health, specifically on transportation’s impacts on physical activity, air quality, and injury. Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally. Ms. Meehan is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the Association of Bicycle and Pedestrian Professionals, and the Tennessee Public Health Association. She co-authored the Transportation Sector of the National Physical Activity Plan, served as expert advisor on the U.S. Department of Transportation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Transportation and Health Tool, was appointed by Transportation Secretary Peters to the National Safe Routes to School Task Force, and has presented at a White House event on transportation and health. She currently serves as a panel member for the Research Roadmap for Transportation and Health of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Michelle E. Nance, M.P.A., A.I.C.P., is the planning director for the Centralina Council of Governments, providing planning services to nine counties in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina, region. She directs the Council’s work related to land use and transportation, healthy community initiatives, energy, and the environment. Her work is focused on helping local govern-

ments address shared long-term issues through collaboration and partnerships. She co-founded the Centralina Health Solutions Center, one of two coalitions in the Southeast to receive the American Planning Association’s Plan4Health grant, and currently manages the statewide Planners4Health NC initiative. Ms. Nance is the former director of planning and development services for the city of Gastonia and has experience in state, regional, and local government planning. She is a past president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association, was named 2014 Health Champion for Active Living by the Region 4 Community Transformation Grant Project Team, was honored as one of the 50 most influential women in the Charlotte region in 2017, and was named 2017 Woman of the Year by the Mecklenburg Times. She holds an M.P.A. and a B.S. in urban and regional planning from East Carolina University.

Bill Purcell, J.D., is an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee, and an adjunct professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University. While serving as mayor of Nashville (1999 to 2007), he earned Public Official of the Year honors in 2006 from Governing Magazine for his accomplishments as a civic leader. Elected to five terms in the Tennessee House, he held the positions of majority leader and chair of the Select Committee on Children and Youth. After retiring from the General Assembly, Mr. Purcell founded and became director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies. From 2008 to 2010, he served as director of the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was then appointed special advisor and co-chair of the Work Team for Allston in the Office of the President at Harvard University. He previously served in various capacities on obesity-related committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He graduated from Hamilton College and Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Rodrigo Reis, Ph.D., M.S., is a professor of public health and chair of the urban design and public health M.P.H. specialization at the Washington University in St. Louis. He previously worked as a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana and at the Federal University of Parana in Curitiba, Brazil. His research focuses on physical activity and public health, with particular emphasis on community interventions for promoting physical activity, the built environment and health, active transportation and health, and surveillance of physical activity. His policy and research experience includes working as a consultant for the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the development and monitoring of the national plan for combating noncommunicable diseases in Brazil and being involved in international projects, such as Project GUIA (Guide for Community in Latin America), the International Physical Activity and Environment Network, and the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and Prevention physical activity courses in Latin America. Dr. Reis is also a founding member and former president of the Brazilian Society for Physical Activity and Health and is a current board member of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health. He is a member of the Lancet Physical Activity Series Group, which developed a series of studies published in summer 2012 and 2016, and is co-author of the Urban Design and Public Health Series, published in summer 2016 by The Lancet. He received his Ph.D. from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Daniel A. Rodríguez, Ph.D., M.S., is chancellor’s professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the reciprocal relationship between the built environment and transportation and its effects on the environment and health. He is currently involved in several studies examining the built environment and health outcomes in several countries. Dr. Rodríguez’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Wellcome Trust, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. He has a distinguished publication record, including co-authoring the book Urban Land Use Planning (University of Illinois Press). He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, Journal of Architectural Planning and Research, Journal of Transportation and Health, and Journal of Transport and Land Use. Dr. Rodríguez earned his M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

James F. Sallis, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor emeritus of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. His primary research interests are promoting physical activity and understanding policy and environmental influences on physical activity, nutrition, and obesity. He has made contributions in the areas of measurement, correlates of physical activity, intervention, and advocacy. Dr. Sallis’s health improvement programs have been studied and used in health care settings, schools, universities, and companies. He is the author of more than 600 scientific publications and is one of the world’s most cited scientists. He is a frequent consultant to universities, health organizations, and corporations worldwide. Dr. Sallis is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Memphis State University.

James Siegal, J.D., is the CEO of KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit that seeks to give children the childhood they deserve, filled with balanced and

active play, so they can thrive. Prior to joining KaBOOM!, he served as chief of staff for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that supports citizen engagement to address community challenges through AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund, and other programs. Mr. Siegal has broad experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including serving as vice president of nonprofit programs and practice at the leading nonprofit coalition, Independent Sector. He also served as registration section chief and assistant attorney general at the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau and associate at the global law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Patricia Smith, J.D., serves as the senior policy advisor for the Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution dedicated to creating economic opportunity for low-income people and places through the innovative use of capital, data, and partnerships. Ms. Smith is responsible for the Reinvestment Fund’s federal policy agenda. In 2009, she helped launch the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a national campaign that to date has yielded more than $197 million in federal investments to improve access to and expand the supply of and increase the demand for fresh and healthy foods in rural and urban communities. She works with a range of partners and is a well-regarded resource to the private, public, and philanthropic sectors on programs for access to healthy food. During her career, Ms. Smith has held leadership positions in the foundation, government, and nonprofit sectors and managed award-winning community development and capacity-building programs. She is a contributor to several Reinvestment Fund reports, most recently Feeding the Line or Ending the Line?: Innovations Among Food Banks in the United States (2016). She was also featured in the PBS documentary Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment, Edens Lost and Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities. She holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law Center.

Monica Hobbs Vinluan, J.D., is a senior program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). She joined RWJF in 2015 as part of the childhood obesity team. Her work focuses on supporting policy strategies to help children attain their optimal physical, social, and emotional development and well-being. Prior to joining RWJF, she directed YMCA of the USA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives, which catalyzed nearly 250 community- and state-level leadership teams to advance policies that allow people to make healthy choices where they live, work, learn, pray, and play. Ms. Vinluan has spent her career advocating for strategies that help individuals and communities live well, including policy issues connected

to physical activity, healthy eating, and health equity. She has served as a government relations professional on a variety of health and well-being issues for 18 years and has been a professional advocate for health promotion issues for more than two decades. Her experience includes working for a U.S. senator and serving as a child and family advocate, a regulatory counsel, a legislative counsel, and a lobbyist. She completed her J.D. at the American University Washington College of Law and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech.

Kimi Watkins-Tartt serves as deputy director of the Alameda County Public Health Department, where she is responsible for overseeing the department’s operational divisions, which include Family Health Services, Community Health Services, Public Health Nursing, and Communicable Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, she oversees the management of internal department policies, program budgets, grant coordination, and personnel management. Ms. Watkins-Tartt has worked for more than 25 years within the local public health community and brings a wealth of experience in public health administration, policy development, and community health planning and coordination. Prior to taking on the role of deputy director, she led the Division of Community Health Services, driving its strategic initiatives, including the launching of new efforts aligned with the department’s strategic direction to achieve health equity. She was instrumental in helping the department design and implement its health equity and local policy efforts and recently spearheaded its first Chronic Disease Prevention Planning process. Ms. Watkins-Tartt has a long-standing passion for and commitment to health equity and social justice. She is a founding member and current Internal Capacity Committee co-chair for the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative and recently joined the Health Equity and Social Justice Committee of the National Association of County & City Health Officials.

Ken Wilson is a principal and design director of interiors in the Washington, DC, office of Perkins and Will. His portfolio includes architecture, interiors, graphics, and product design—all with a focus on sustainability and wellness. He is the only architect in the United States to have been named a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), and the Green Building Certification Institute (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED] fellow). His work has been published in seven different countries and has received more than 120 national and local design awards. His projects include headquarters offices for the U.S. Green Building Council, the International Interior Design Association, and the American Society of Interior Designers.

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