2021-2022 ULI Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program Participants
2021-2022 ULI Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program Participants
Around the world, communities face pressing health challenges related to the built environment. Individual and public health outcomes are the result of many factors related to where people live and work and the influence that their homes, workplaces, and communities exert on their well-being. A core component of thriving communities, health is shaped by an accumulation of factors from housing to transportation, education, and job opportunities — the social determinants of health.
Despite a growing understanding of connections between health and the built environment, many places are created in ways that do not support holistic health and wellness for people and the planet. Deep structural and longstanding inequities and injustices plague U.S. cities and communities and jeopardize the health and the promise of too many people.
Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of already marginalized people, exposing them to myriad health and financial risks. These challenges require urgent solutions, and the real estate industry has a key role to play in addressing pressing health challenges and proactively promoting health and social equity.
In 2013, ULI’s Board of Directors approved a focus on healthy communities as a cross-disciplinary theme for the organization. The Building Healthy Places (BHP) Initiative is managed by a dedicated team with a strong understanding of the connections between health and the built environment. The Building Healthy Places Initiative staff works to connect ULI’s powerful global networks with research and resources to move the conversation forward.
In 2017, Building Healthy Places became one of the three flagship programs of the ULI Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance, along with the Urban Resilience Program and the Greenprint Center for Building Performance. The Center is dedicated to driving more sustainable, environmentally responsible, and financially successful outcomes in real estate development and investment, and to helping ULI members create healthy, resilient, and resource-efficient communities around the world. The Center advances knowledge and catalyzes adoption of transformative market practices and policies that lead to improved sustainability, health, resource efficiency, and resilience.
Since its inception, Building Healthy Places has produced a wide variety of reports and publications, provided technical assistance to cities across the country, and has held regular member convenings with the goals of cultivating champions, driving industry change, and making cities and regions healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable.
For more information or to be added to our mailing list, contact us anytime at [email protected].
Rachel MacCleery
Senior Vice President, Building Healthy Places
Rachel MacCleery is Senior Vice President at the Urban Land Institute, where she leads the organization’s Building Healthy Places Initiative and other programs. Rachel is spearheading ULI’s efforts to leverage the power of its global networks to shape projects and places in ways that improve the health of people and communities, through design and programming strategies that increase opportunities for physical activity, social engagement, access to healthy food and nature, and other ingredients of holistically healthy living. Rachel has extensive knowledge of land use, environment and sustainability, social equity, and infrastructure policy and practice issues. Rachel has worked at ULI since 2008 and previously worked for AECOM and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation. She has a Masters Degree in Public Administration and Urban and Regional Planning. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and has lived in China off and on since 1994. She currently lives in Washington, DC.
Sara Hammerschmidt
Senior Director, Building Healthy Places
Sara Hammerschmidt 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, Sara 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 that are being implemented at the intersection of health and the built environment. Sara has spoken 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 at several national conferences.
Sara holds an M.S. and 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. She also holds a B.S. in Industrial Operations and Engineering from the University of Michigan, and worked for eight years in the technology industry prior to graduate school.
William Zeh Herbig, AICP
Senior Director, Building Healthy Places
William Zeh Herbig is Senior Director, Content at the Urban Land Institute, where he oversees a portfolio of content and programs focused on the intersection of health and social equity in the built environment. Prior to ULI, he co-led Kimley-Horn’s Atlanta-based Planning and Urban Design Studio. He has also directed a variety of design-related projects at Midtown Alliance in Atlanta, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Congress for New Urbanism both in Washington, D.C., and the Markle Foundation in Manhattan.
Will holds a Masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a B.S. in Urban Studies from Georgia State University, and studied architecture at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Will is a graduate of ULI Washington’s Regional Land Use Leadership Institute and was named a 2010 Next City Vanguard. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for PEDS (Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety) and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
Matthew Norris
Director, Building Healthy Places
Matthew Norris supports the Building Healthy Places Initiative and works on projects linking health, sustainability and development. He is the primary or contributing author of several ULI publications, including “Healthy Housing for All: How Affordable Housing is Leading the Way”, and “Cultivating Development: Trends and Opportunities at the Intersection of Food and Real Estate”.
Matt previously worked at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign where he focused on improving access to safe, reliable and equitable modes of transportation throughout southern New Jersey and the Greater Philadelphia area. Matt earned his Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2010, where he focused on international development and comprehensive planning. Matt also holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Kansas.
Beth Giltner, LEED AP ID+C/BD+C, WELL AP
Senior Manager, Building Healthy Places
Beth Giltner is Senior Manager, Content at the Urban Land Institute, where through the Building Healthy Places Initiative she focuses on creating content and programs centered on the impacts of the built environment on health, well-being, and social equity.
Prior to ULI, Beth worked at rand* construction as Senior Sustainability Specialist where she fostered an environment dedicated to advanced sustainable construction and creating healthy buildings and communities. Beth holds a MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics, where her studies centered on health and sustainability in urban and regional planning. She also holds a B.A. in Interior Design from Marymount University.
Diana Schoder
Manager, Building Healthy Places
Diana Schoder contributes to research and writing on health, social equity, and development.
Diana holds a B.A. in economics and environmental studies from Haverford College. She was previously an Economics Editorial Fellow at the American Economic Association and worked at the Council on Foreign Relations as Research Associate, Global Health, Economics, and Development. Diana is a Fitwel Ambassador and EcoDistricts AP.
Christina Contreras
ULI/Martin Bucksbaum Senior Visiting Fellow
As Principal and Founder of Living Ecology Studio, Christina Contreras uses research, design, and community involvement in her work to prioritize equity in urban planning and design processes. She recognizes the value and importance of community-led projects to reinforce unique expression of local culture and community, to support community ownership, and to support the community’s health and economic goals. Key principals of the Living Ecology Studio practice include: by the community, for the community; recognizing life experience is expertise; studying relationships between the built environment and health; and celebrating Native American philosophies and relationships with land. Christina is particularly interested in exploring mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships between humans and the land and connecting with generations past and future through places and plants in the landscape.
Learn more about the fellowship.
Calvin Gladney
ULI Senior Visiting Fellow for Equity
Calvin Gladney has spent the past 15 years working around the country to ensure that the revitalization of neighborhoods and corridors is done equitably, and that people in those areas have an equal shot at participating in the prosperity that can result from change. Mr. Gladney is Managing Partner of Mosaic Urban, and is a public-private partnership strategist, real estate developer, and trusted advisor to organizations seeking to sustainably transform urban communities. He is a trustee of ULI and a member of its national Public Private Partnership Council.
Juanita Hardy
ULI Senior Visiting Fellow for Creative Placemaking
Juanita Hardy has over 41 years of business experience, including 31 years with IBM, and over 35 years in the arts as a nonprofit leader, trustee, collector, and patron of the arts. She is the former Executive Director of CulturalDC, a nonprofit committed to making space for artists and art organizations and fostering cultural and economic vibrancy in communities through its creative placemaking services.
Ed McMahon
Charles E. Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
Ed McMahon is nationally known as an inspiring and thought-provoking speaker and leading authority on topics related to sustainable development, land conservation, smart growth, and historic preservation. McMahon is the author or coauthor of 15 books and more than 300 articles.
September 13, 2021
2021-2022 ULI Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program Participants
August 25, 2021
The thirteenth in the series of Building Healthy Places Forums will be held in conjunction with ULI's Fall Meeting in Chicago.
November 18, 2020
We are asking interested ULI members to submit 'third place' projects that can be studied to further inform and enhance ongoing research.
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