College of Architecture and Planning University of Colorado Denver

Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold is the Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use at the University of Louisville, where he teaches in both law and urban planning and chairs the Center for Land Use and Environmental Responsibility. Professor Arnold is a nationally recognized expert on the environmental regulation of land use. His work addresses environmental justice and land use, land use regulation to sustain healthy watersheds, environmentally responsible concepts of private property, and the structure of the land use regulatory system. His current interdisciplinary work is on discretionary land use decision making and how it can be improved as a mediating force between people and places. These improvements include healthier natural environments (“vital places”) for children and youth, and the engagement of children and youth in deliberative, equitable, and participatory land use processes, as Arnold’s recent grant-funded project with low-income and minority youth in West Louisville demonstrates. He has served in various planning and legal roles, including as a city attorney and as a planning commission chairman, and in community service roles on the environment and social justice. He taught at Stanford University, the University of Puerto Rico, the University of Wyoming, and Chapman University. In 2008-09, he is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cincinnati School of Planning.

Meredith Banasiak is interested in exploring the dialogue between human factors and the designed environment through the lens of cognitive science. During her tenure as a Research Associate with the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), Meredith engaged in cognitive neuroscience research at the Krasnow Institute of Advanced Studies, George Mason University where she used behavioral paradigms and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate environmental context effects on cognitive processes across the life cycle. Currently, Meredith is researching "Design for Active Outdoor Play and Nature Exploration" with the Children's Youth and Environments (CYE) research center.

Samuel Dennis is interested in the intersection of urban open space and issues of social justice. His work examines the ways public open space can support the positive development of children, youth and families—particularly where planning and design processes include the meaningful participation of marginalized social groups. For the past two years, his Harrisburg Studio hasworked with at-risk youth on several participatory design/build projects in the South Allison Hill community in Harrisburg, PA. He also continues to be involved with the American Indian Housing Initiative’s partnership with the Northern Cheyenne (www.engr.psu.edu/greenbuild/intro.html). His community-based work is strongly influenced by the emerging idea of Public Scholarship, an approach to theory and practice that seeks a more profound University-Community partnership.

Margaret Eisenhart is University Distinguished Professor and Charles Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her areas of special interest are educational anthropology, ethnographic research methods, and women in science, engineering and technology. Recent projects include outreach and research with urban Latina and African-American middle and high school girls to raise their interest in science, engineering, and information technology as career possibilities. In 2006-08 she and her students conducted research on the cultural meanings of play and social interactions among elementary school students on the redeveloped playgrounds of the Denver Learning Landscapes Initiative.

Ben Kirshner is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Education in the area of educational psychology and adolescent development. His research examines how young people learn to exercise agency in social and political arenas. His ethnographic research about youth activism led to findings about effective adult guidance strategies and the roots of collective agency. In recent work, Ben developed a participatory action research study to understand the impact of a school closure on students. Dr. Kirshner also has an ongoing study of a community organization that mentors and supports young people who seek to become the first in their families to go to college. His publications have discussed youth civic engagement and activism, youth-adult research partnerships, and cultural influences on identity development. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association and the Society for Research on Adolescence. From 1993 to 1997 he was education program manager in a youth organization in San Francisco's Mission District.

Dr. Litt is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health and the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Litt received her PhD in environmental health and public policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has extensive experience in the area of urban environmental health working over the past decade in the neighborhoods of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Denver on a variety of issues related to the built environment and health including urban brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, lead poisoning, residential demolition, environmental justice, chemical risk assessment, and most recently, housing, community gardens and local food systems. As an interdisciplinary researcher, Dr. Litt utilizes the methods of community-based participatory research, epidemiology, risk assessment, and ethnography to study the relationships between residential environments and health. Dr. Litt is currently the Concentration Director for MPH in Environmental Health at the CSPH and is Past Chair of the Environment Section of the American Public Health Association. She is also active in local organizations and is a Board of Directors member for Groundwork Denver Inc., a local non-profit dedicated to the revitalization of urban neighborhoods and Denver Urban Gardens, a local non-profit dedicated to growing community one garden at a time.

Brian Muller is interested in Land Use Modeling, Geographic Information Systems, Agricultural/Open Space Land Preservation, and Regional Economic Development