Biographies of 2009 Conference Speakers

• Bingo Barnes | Urbane Farms (Boise, ID)
  Bingo Barnes grew up on a farm doing all that 4H and FFA stuff, gardening and selling at farmer’s markets since the age of eight. He took a 20-year farming sabbatical and pursued a journalism degree, designed jewelry in Bali, Indonesia, became an award winning art director, got married, had a couple kids, ran the best muckraking newspaper in Idaho with his wife, got a divorce and moved to Alaska but found the growing season too short and the ground too cold. So he returned to Idaho. He has been a member of Boise’s Capital City Farmer’s Market since 2008 and currently in finishing up his volunteer service to become a Master Gardener while managing eight small urban farms ranging in size from an unused dog kennel to a quarter acre.


• Tim Breuer | Land Trust of the Treasure Valley (Boise, ID)
  Tim is the Executive Director of the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley, a non-government organization dedicated to conserving wild and scenic places close to home. He grew up in a small farming community in South Dakota, moving west after college in pursuit of outdoor adventure and a career. For ten years Tim was involved in investment management, trusts and estates where he discovered the tax benefits available to landowners for conserving land. In 1992, Tim was hired as the first Ridge to Rivers Coordinator a collaboration of agencies formed to create a trail system in the Boise Foothills. Using the skills honed in the private sector, Tim pieced together an impressive network of trails on private and public lands that is often cited as one of the West’s best trail systems next to an urban city. After a dozen years, Tim became Ada County’s first trail and open space coordinator. He took the reins of the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley in 2006.


• Dennis J. Cannon | City of Caldwell (Caldwell, Idaho)
  Dennis has served as the Redevelopment Coordinator for the City of Caldwell since 2003, where he led the initiatives to prepare the Downtown Revitalization Plans and the Airport Development Plan. He managed the Indian Creek Daylighting Project, developed Indian Creek Restoration Site designs, a City-wide Bicycle-Walking Trail System, managed two Brownfields Assessment Grants, and initiated the LEED-certified City Center Catalyst Redevelopment Project. He spent 10 years with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Washington as the Chief of Planning, Chief of the Hanford Program that designs waste treatment facilities for the cleanup of hazardous sites, and managed $40 million annual program in hydro-dam retrofit and salmon passage. He has worked as an environmental technologist for the Environmental Protection Agency, and a senior mechanical engineer for the US Army headquarters in Southern Germany.


• Bill Clark | Clark Development (Boise, ID)
  Bill is principal of Clark Development, a Boise based development firm. He recently completed The Jefferson, a 43-unit residential condominium project in downtown and is also building Crescent Rim, a 79-unit condominium project overlooking Ann Morrison Park and downtown Boise. As a consultant and developer, Bill has worked over the years on a number of projects in the Boise area, including Hidden Springs and Eagle River, and a wide range of projects in Seattle and around the northwest. He also developed the Veltex Building in downtown Boise. Bill is on the executive committee of ULI Idaho, a member of its national Sustainable Development Council, and serves on the Board of Idaho Smart Growth. He has contributed to several ULI publications, including Emerging Trends in Real Estate and Urban Land magazine.


• Kerry Doane | Utah Transit Authority (Salt Lake City, UT)
  Kerry Doane is a strategic transportation planner for the Utah Transit Authority. She works in the Planning and Programming Department, having come to this position through a slow and steady transformation process from engineer to planner. After graduating with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Stanford University, Kerry did structural design work for firms in North Carolina and Utah. Kerry has held positions at UTA that include associate civil engineer doing project design and construction support, environmental analysis team member reviewing documents and following mitigations, and alternatives analysis project manager directing a consultant team. Currently, Kerry spends a lot of time using data and coordination efforts to help decision makers move transit solutions through the project development process.


• Chris Duerksen | Clarion Associates (Denver, CO)
  Chris Duerksen is Managing Director of Clarion Associates, LLC, a land use consulting firm with offices in Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina; and affiliated offices in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. He has represented local governments, nonprofits, and the private sector in a variety of land-use and zoning matters and specializes in development code revisions, growth management planning, urban design and form-based standards, natural resource and scenic area protection regulations, and airport-area development strategies. He has written numerous development codes for communities across the United States. A co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, Mr. Duerksen has written and spoken extensively on land use issues nationally. He has authored many books and articles on land use and conservation issues, including Takings Law in Plain English, Nature-Friendly Communities, True West, and Aesthetics, Community Character, and the Law and is currently working on a model Sustainable Community Development Code.


• Kelli Fairless | Valley Regional Transit (Boise, ID)
  Kelli Fairless is the executive director of Valley Regional Transit, the regional public transportation authority for Ada and Canyon counties in Idaho. She began her transit career with Boise Urban Stages in 1994 and became the director of Valley Regional Transit in 2000. Kelli is on the boards of the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, the Community Transportation Association of Idaho, and the Treasure Valley Chapter of WTS International, an association dedicated to the advancement of women in the transportation industry. In addition, Kelli is the chair of the Interagency Working Group and a state delegate to the Community Transportation Association of America. Kelli is a native of Boise. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in public administration from Boise State University.


• Rich Franko | Mithun Architecture (Seattle, WA)
  Rich Franko AIA, LEED AP is an architect and principal at Mithun, a Seattle-based integrated design firm incorporating architecture, landscape architecture, interiors, planning and ecology. Rich develops sustainability strategies for many Mithun projects, and drives firm-wide initiatives for sustainable operations and processes. His projects include eco-lodges in Belize, eco-resort planning in Brazil and the Caribbean and sustainable farm worker housing. Rich’s leadership on the Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Urban Design Plan for a 35-block neighborhood in Portland, Oregon and on the IslandWood environmental learning center on Bainbridge Island, Washington resulted in AIA COTE Top Ten Green Project awards for both projects. He writes and regularly lectures in the US and abroad on sustainability, urban design and the use of green buildings as teaching tools. The recently published ULI book, Developing Sustainable Planned Communities, includes a chapter by Rich. He is on the board for the Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, as well as for One Planet Living, North America.


• John C. Freemuth | Political Science and Public Administration, Boise State University
  John Freemuth, PhD. is the Senior Fellow, Cecil D. Andrus Center for Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, Boise State University. Dr. Freemuth’s research and teaching emphasis is in natural resource and public land policy and administration. He is the author of an award-winning book as well as numerous articles on aspects of environmental policy, including a co-edited new book, Environmental Politics and Policy in the West. At present he is working on the introductory chapter to the sage grouse science assessment, a reflection on the role of science in public land decision-making. He is also the author of nine Andrus Center white papers on public land policy, and is currently working with colleagues at the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and the INL to develop the Center for Advanced Energy Studies and its Energy Policy Institute. He was named the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching/CAES of Professor of the Year for Idaho for 2001.


• David Kahn | David Kahn Studio (Eldorado Springs, CO)
  David Kahn received an M.Arch. and M.L.A. from the University of California Berkeley in 1992. He taught at the Univ. of Colorado College of Architecture and Planning from 1992-2000, and is a licensed Landscape Architect in Colorado. David Kahn Studio intertwines planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design with ecology, storm water, agriculture, and humanity. At the core is a commitment to empower people to experience and be stewards of their environment. David Kahn Studio recently won a 2009 National ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning, for the Geos Net Zero Energy Neighborhood in Arvada, Colorado.


• Nick Kaufman | WGM Group (Missoula, MT)
  Nick Kaufman is the Vice President and Chairman of the Board of Directors for WGM Group, a planning, engineering and surveying firm based in Missoula, Montana. As the Principal Land Use Planner for the firm Nick oversees a wide variety of land use projects. His education includes an undergraduate degree in economics and a master’s degree in planning. He is a certified instructor for the National Association of Homebuilders and with the Montana Department of Realty Regulation. Nick is also an adjunct instructor with the University of Montana where he has taught land use design at the graduate level. Nick is a charter member of the American Planning Association and a past president of the Montana Association of Planners. He brings a regional perspective to the topic of transportation planning having worked extensively on Environmental Impact Statements for US Highway 93 in northwest Montana.


• Ryan McEvoy | Gaia Development (Los Angeles, CA)
  Ryan McEvoy has been a LEED-accredited professional since 2002 and is a certified permaculture designer who has been working on LEED projects in the Los Angeles area since 2001. McEvoy was development project manager and sustainability coordinator for the Tricom Building, the first LEED speculative commercial building in the nation. Through this project, he was the first one to introduce and promote LEED to city officials in Pasadena, who today require all public and private buildings 25,000 square feet or more to be LEED-certified. He has been an active member of the USGBC-Los Angeles Chapter since 2001, and is the founding principal of Gaia Development, a consulting firm with over 60 LEED projects, totaling over 18 million square feet.


• Dr. Arthur "Chris" Nelson | Metropolitan Research Center, University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)
  For the past thirty years, Dr. Nelson FAICP has conducted pioneering research in growth management, public facility finance, economic development, and metropolitan development patterns. Numerous organizations have sponsored his research such as the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Science, HUD, US DOT, EPA, and the Brookings Institution. His research and practice has led to the publication of nearly 20 books and more than 250 scholarly and professional publications. Prior to academia, Dr. Nelson managed his own West Coast consultancy in planning and management. Dr. Nelson has earned three teacher of the year honors at two universities, won national awards and international distinction, and his students have won numerous national awards including the national student project of the year award given by the American Institute of Certified Planners. He is currently the Presidential Professor and Director.


• Tricia Nilsson | City of Boise (Boise, ID)
  Patricia AICP has been a public sector planner in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Idaho for more than 20 years. She has extensive experience in long-range planning and has written comprehensive plans, developed and managed a multi-million dollar open space program, and managed transportation planning projects. As the Manager of Comprehensive Planning for Boise City, she is currently updating the Boise Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance. She is a member of the 2005 Leadership Boise class, the past president of the Idaho chapter of the American Planning Association and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Tricia received a B.A. in Political Science from Virginia Tech.


• Chris Overdorf | Jones & Jones Architects & Planners (Seattle, WA)
  Chris is a Principal with Jones & Jones who has close to 20 years of experience in a broad range of land use projects. His work includes visual impact assessment, scenic conservation planning, transportation planning, zoological design, environmental art, park planning, and recreation design. His specialties include advanced planning and design technologies and methodologies that leverage the use of GIS & GPS in planning and design. He also pioneered the development of an award-winning GIS-based land-use conservation model called the Intrinsic Landscape Aesthetic Resource Information System (ILARIS) that analyzes the supply, magnitude, and rarity of intrinsic landscape features and then measures their contribution to the scenic landscape. He was educated in Computer Science & Remote Sensing at the United States Military Academy at West Point and Landscape Architecture at Washington State University. He is a licensed Landscape Architect and Planner.


• Mark Rivers | Brix and Company (Boise, ID)
  Mark Rivers, President of Brix and Company, is a Boise-based real estate developer, whose companies specialize in unique mixed-use urban developments in the Western United States and in corporate real estate services nationwide. Rivers was the developer of the award-winning $60 million BoDo project in downtown Boise, which transformed a declining historic warehouse district and brownfield site into a vibrant urban neighborhood. For his efforts, Mark was named the 2006 “Visionary of the Year” by the Idaho Statesman newspaper. In 2008, Rivers developed and opened the “WaterCooler” in downtown Boise, the city’s first-ever small business incubator. In its first year of operations, it has helped to accelerate six different growth companies and, has seen those companies exponentially grow their investments, number of employees and revenues. In real estate, Rivers is a development partner at Westgate City Center in Glendale, Arizona, a 230-acre master-planned urban environment. Brix has provided corporate real estate services to blue-chip development and investment interests around the country, including Vornado Realty Trust, Credit Suisse Bank, Clear Channel Outdoor and the San Diego Padres.


• Betsy Roberts | CH2M Hill (Boise, ID)
  Betsy Roberts, P.E., LEED AP, has been working for more than 18 years throughout the state of Idaho as a consulting engineer for CH2M HILL’s Boise office. As a LEED AP, she incorporates sustainable engineering solutions into site design wherever possible. Currently, she is the City Engineer for various small, Idaho communities and has held this role for 10 years, where she has an opportunity to combine technical engineering solutions with planning and development. As testament to her personal and local commitment, she was involved in the 2001 passing of the Boise Foothills Open Space Levy. She has served on the Foothills Advisory Committee for the past 4 years, assisting in land selection for incorporation into the City’s open space plan.


• Anne Marie Skinner | City of Caldwell Planning and Zoning (Caldwell, Idaho)
  Anne Marie Skinner is the Senior Planner as well as the Community Development Coordinator for the City of Caldwell. She has been employed with the City of Caldwell for approximately 2 years. Prior to her employment with the City of Caldwell, she worked in the private sector as a land use consultant both for engineering firms as well as having her own consulting business. Her career in the land use field began in August 1997 while running a survey company. She has a bachelor’s of science degree in Human Development.


• Diane Sugimura | Seattle Dept. of Planning & Development (Seattle, WA)
  Diane Sugimura is the Director of the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, with more than 30 years with the City of Seattle. Since 2002, she has led the department that is responsible for the full-range of development activities from long-range and comprehensive planning, to policy and code development, City Green Building Team, plan review, inspections, and enforcement. Diane is a member of Urban Land Institute (ULI) Seattle’s Executive Committee; the University of Washington’s Professional Council for the Department of Urban Design and Planning; an Honorary member of the American Institute of Architects Seattle in 2005; was a member of the Green Building Advisory Group for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America; and 2007 Public Employee of the Year awarded by local chapters of Master Builders Association and the American Planning Association.


• Warren Vaughan | Gallatin County Planning Department (Bozeman, MT)
  Warren Vaughan has been a planner for Gallatin County for the past five years. Warren began his Gallatin County career as a current planner; for the past several years, he has primarily worked with citizen groups to draft first-ever plans and codes for three of the county’s most diverse unincorporated communities. Warren received a Master’s Degree in Planning from the University of Wyoming in 2004. Prior to entering the planning field, he spent way too much time driving dusty back roads around the country working as a field archaeologist.


• Rachel Winer | Idaho Smart Growth (Boise, ID)
  Rachel Winer, Executive Director of Idaho Smart Growth, served as the Outreach Coordinator for the Idaho Conservation League from 2000-2007 and was deeply involved in the successful 2001 Boise Foothills Levy. Rachel was the campaign manager for Neighbors Protecting Idaho, the group that defeated Proposition 2 and it’s efforts to eliminate land use planning in Idaho. Rachel is a graduate of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Boise program and is a member of the Boise Young Professionals. Rachel is a member of the City Club of Boise board of directors and the executive committee of the Urban Land Institute Idaho District Council. The Idaho Business Review honored Rachel as an “Idaho Women of the Year” and “Accomplished Under 40” Award recipient and United Vision for Idaho awarded her 2006 “Environmentalist of the Year.”


• Dave Yadon | City of Coeur d'Alene (Coeur d'Alene, ID)
  Dave Yadon has been the Planning Director for the City of Coeur d’Alene since 1974. After studying Architecture at Washington State University and Urban Planning at Eastern Washington University he began his career with a regional planning agency providing planning services for local governments in the five northern counties of Idaho. When you can get him away from skiing, sailing, sea kayaking or biking, Mr. Yadon and his loyal staff have developed plans and ordinances for the one of the fastest growing communities in Idaho with the mission of doing the “right things right”. He currently is a member of Eastern Washington University’s Urban and Regional Planning Program’s Professional Advisory Board. He is a past president of the Idaho Planning Association.


• Jennifer Zung | Harmony Design & Engineering (Driggs, ID)
  Jennifer Zung is the founding Principal of Harmony Design & Engineering, a planning and engineering company that specializes in low-impact, environmentally sensitive solutions for residential, commercial and municipal projects. Ms. Zung has over 16 years of experience and was awarded the Idaho Business Woman of the Year Award in 2008. She is a Certified Floodplain Manager, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a member of the City of Driggs Design Review Committee. She holds a Master of Science degree in Hydrologic Science and Engineering from Colorado State University, a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and is a member of the Yellowstone Business Partnership which promotes sustainable businesses in the greater Yellowstone region.

Please email with questions or to be considered as a speaker for future New West conferences.