Tony Williams, the former Mayor of Washington, D.C. (1999 – 2007), is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Federal City Council, an organization which serves as a catalyst for progress in the Nation’s Capital by focusing the creative and administrative talents of Washington’s business and professional leaders on major problems and opportunities that are facing the City. Prior to this he served as the Executive Director of the Global Government Practice at the Corporate Executive Board in Arlington, Virginia. He also serves as the William H. Bloomberg Lecturer in Public Management at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he is a Senior Consultant to the firm McKenna Long and Aldridge, with particular emphasis on its municipal restructuring practice. During his two terms as Mayor, he is widely credited with leading the comeback of Washington D.C., restoring the finances of our nation’s capital, and improving the performance of government agencies, all while lowering taxes and investing in infrastructure and human services. Before his election as Mayor, he was the independent Chief Financial Officer of the District from 1995 to 1998, working with and on behalf of local officials, the D.C. Financial Control Board, and the U.S. Congress. Before his service in local Washington, Tony worked in a variety of positions in federal, state, and local government, including as the first CFO for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, appointed by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In addition to his work on company boards, Tony devotes his attention to issues of education and the environment, serving on the board of Fight for Children and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He holds a BA from Yale and an MPP from the Kennedy School and a J.D. from the Harvard Law School, as well as a number of awards and honorary degrees, including Governing Magazine Public Official of the Year in 1997. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and former President of the National League of Cities. Williams holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1971 to 1974. The former Mayor serves on the board of directors of a number of charitable organizations, including Catholic University, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Fight for Children, the Newseum, the National Geographic Education Foundation, and the Urban Institute.

Hans Riemer, first elected to the County Council in 2010, represents one million Montgomery County residents as an At-Large Member. Hans has dedicated his public service career to creating opportunity for all people to achieve their potential. As a Councilmember, he works towards this vision by advocating to fund public education and public transportation, early childhood programs, libraries, recreation, human services, housing and economic development. A dedicated environmentalist, Hans works hard to strengthen Montgomery County’s superb rural, suburban and urban areas by placing walkability, public transportation and sustainability at the center of our planning goals. Hans entered public office during difficult economic times, and he has worked with his colleagues to address some of the toughest challenges that local governments face. While restoring fiscal health to the county budget and advocating on behalf of Montgomery County before state policymakers, Hans has demonstrated balance, creativity, and leadership. Before serving on the County Council, Hans established a record as an innovator in political engagement. He served as National Youth Vote Director for the historic Obama for America campaign in 2007, and previously as political director for Rock the Vote, where he helped register nearly a million voters. Hans also served as a senior advisor at AARP and, since his earliest work in Washington, has been a national leader on protecting Social Security from Republican efforts to privatize the program. Hans is the Chair of the Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee and also serves on the Transportation & Environment (T&E) Committee. Hans and his wife Angela have two young boys. They are members of the MCCPTA.

Dan Reed represents the smart, creative next generation of smart growth leader. He began the blog Just Up the Pike in 2006, chronicling his experiences as an urbanist in eastern Montgomery County. In addition to his blog, he is a senior editor at Greater Greater Washington, writes for Washingtonian magazine, and is a professional urban planner. Dan’s family came to the Washington area from Guyana and North Carolina. This native of Montgomery County has brought a fresh perspective to smart growth, urbanism, transportation and education in our changing suburbs. He uses his writing and speaking talents to explain issues to a broad audience, to engage the community, and to persuasively advocate for sustainable and inclusive urban communities. Among his achievements as an activist, Dan has helped advocate for the Purple Line and Bus Rapid Transit on Route 29; highlighted issues of segregation and inequality in Montgomery County Public Schools; and led a community effort to reuse a vacant Art Deco movie theatre. Dan has worked for Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, and today he is an urban planner at Toole Design Group and an agent at Living In Style Real Estate. Dan sits on the board of the Action Committee for Transit, and lives with his partner in downtown Silver Spring.

I am a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution studying commercial real estate. My recent publications can be found at https://www.brookings.edu/experts/tracy-hadden-loh/

A pioneer of innovative urban revitalization, community planning, and regional design, Peter Calthorpe’s long and honored career spans decades and numerous publications. Calthorpe is known for developing the concept of transit-oriented development—an idea that is now the foundation of many regional policies and city plans around the world. In 2001, he published The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl with Bill Fulton, explaining how regional-scale planning can integrate urban revitalization and suburban renewal into a coherent vision of metropolitan growth. His seminal plans for U.S. cities—Portland, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and post-hurricane southern Louisiana—demonstrated a more interactive approach to environmental design at an urban scale. For his contribution in redefining the models of urban and suburban growth, Calthorpe was honored with Urban Land Institute's prestigious Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development Award in 2006. His latest book, Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change, documents his work relating patterns of development to energy and carbon emissions, along with other environmental, social, and economic impacts. Calthorpe Associates, the award-winning sustainable urban design and planning firm founded by Peter Calthorpe—joined HDR in 2019 and is now known as HDR | Calthorpe. Full bio: https://www.hdrinc.com/person/peter-calthorpe

Alisa Brem Rosenberg serves as the Managing Director of Development for Republic Properties Corporation. Alisa is responsible for executing projects on the east coast and strategically growing the multifamily and mixed-use development pipeline for the Mid-Atlantic. She also pursues opportunities for existing multifamily transactions. Prior to Republic, Alisa served as the Mid-Atlantic Partner for Fore Property Company, Vice President at Bozzuto Development, and as a developer with Edens, Grosvenor, and Insight Property Group on mixed-use developments across the Mid-Atlantic. She has led the development of more than 5,000 residential units and 440,000 SF of mixed-use retail.