Ellen Baer has spent the last four decades imagining, financing and executing public-private-real estate partnerships in New York City and around the country. Most recently, she served for twelve years as the founding CEO of the Hudson Square Business Improvement District. She currently advises developers and not-for-profit organizations on strategic partnerships for improving the public realm in order to improve quality of life and create value.

Karesia Batan is the Founding Executive Director of the Queensboro Dance Festival, an organization that provides free dance programming across Queens outdoor public spaces, presenting the diversity of dance companies from the borough. Serving both the Queens dance community and community audiences, Karesia's work has received recognitions from Queens Pride, assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, comptroller Thomas DeNapoli, public advocate Leticia James, and in the NYC Cultural Plan. Originally a dancer, Karesia most recently maintains her artistic practice in Filipino folk dances, and as a modern dancer for choreographer Craig Hoke Zarah.

Ted Berger is a leader in the New York arts community. He was the Executive Director of the New York Foundation for the Arts for over thirty years and is currently the Treasurer of the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Sam Biederman brings more than 20 years of public affairs experience. For clients including Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Cornell Tech, Pratt Institute, Bard College and the Kinsey Institute, Sam guides institutional strategy, thought leadership, crisis and change management, research communications, internal and student communications and enrollment marketing. Previously, Sam served as Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner for NYC Parks, leading public affairs as the agency navigated the COVID-19 crisis; and Director of Communications for The New School, where he spearheaded community outreach for the university’s first major capital project in more than 50 years. He is a graduate of Vassar College.

Matthew Casper is a Managing Director at Park Hill Real Estate, a real estate advisory division of PJT Partners. Prior to joining Park Hill, Mr. Casper was an analyst in Credit Suisse's Real Estate Private Funds Group and was previously an investment banking analyst at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. He received a BBA from the University of Georgia, where he graduated summa cum laude with honors, and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

R. Darby Curtis is a founder and managing partner for Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP, an  award-winning firm specializing in sustainable architectural services for residential, educational, institutional, commercial and urban design projects. Prior to founding Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP, Ms. Curtis worked for Croxton Collaborative, Cain Farrell & Bell, and Wybauw-van Halteren. She holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University.

Jerrod Delaine, is the Chief Executive Officer of The Delaine Companies. As a seasoned real estate developer with over a decade of experience, Jerrod has amassed a skill set that includes design, construction, finance, affordable housing, and asset management. Jerrod spent the first five years of his career at Forum Architecture and Interior Design, the majority of his efforts focused on project managing affordable housing projects in the southeast region of the United States. As an academic, Jerrod serves as an adjunct professor educating graduate and undergraduate students on development, public-private partnerships, urban economics, and portfolio management.

Alejandro Ernst is a Brooklyn-based professional passionate about combining real estate expertise with community-focused initiatives. Alejandro has more than seven years of institutional real estate management and investing experience. Currently, he is a Managing Director at Pantzer Properties and leads initiatives ranging from sourcing and securing investments to managing investor relations for institutional funds. Alejandro manages multifamily investments across the East Coast that enhance suburban living in major metro areas. His real estate experience previously includes time at Tishman Speyer and Thor Equities. Alejandro is a Georgetown graduate with a degree in Finance and a minor in Art History.

Eric Gural is a third-generation leader of Newmark Holdings, which operates more than 8 million square feet of commercial property in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Virginia. Today he serves as Executive Managing Director, however, he began his career at the age of 15 working as a porter and freight operator in the portfolio buildings.  Mr. Gural was instrumental in the founding of the first fashion incubator in New York City with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and New York Economic Development Corp. (NYEDC) in 2010, and participated in the Design Trust's Making Midtown stakeholder workshops in 2011-12. 

Shih Hua Liong believes that Places, Programs & Services are the ingredients that drive Workplace Experience, and enables organizations to thrive through Placemaking, Service Design and Community Building. Shih Hua applies a multi-disciplinary systems thinking approach to her work that combines design, strategy & operations with service experience at the forefront, and people at the core. Shih Hua has worked across continents with Fortune 500 Companies globally, from London, New York to Tokyo and Singapore - her experience working in tech, and at the forefront of innovation with top performing companies globally, combined with a strong consulting background - gives her a unique ability to apply creative solutions to business processes. Prior to Google, Shih Hua held positions as Director of Strategy with global architecture, design, and planning firms, where she led strategy, campus master-planning, building repositioning across the globe.

Kate Mann is a Partner at ZGF Architects, a national leader in design and sustainability with offices from Portland, Oregon to New York City. As the leader of ZGF’s New York office and with three decades of experience designing award-winning institutional, educational, and civic projects internationally, her design approach focuses on finding creative solutions through collaboration. She is currently working on academic campuses across the country on projects such as the Richard King Mellon Hall of Science at Carnegie Mellon University, which brings together art and science to spur innovation. She is a regular speaker at conferences and has presented on topics such the architecture of US embassies and the future of mass timber. Kate received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The Georgia Institute of Technology and her Master of Architecture from Princeton University.

Grant Marani, AIA, FRAIA, Partner, joined Robert A.M. Stern Architects in 1984 and has been a Partner with the firm since 2000. His responsibilities have included the design and management of a broad range of projects: federal courthouses, institutional buildings, mixed-use and residential developments, resort hotels, golf clubhouses, a concert hall, a university recreational facility, and private residences in New York and across the globe. He is co-author of the monograph Designs for Living: Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (2014). Currently, he is the Project Partner for the Georgia State Judicial Complex in Atlanta and for the master plan and design of a number of residential communities in China. Mr. Marani is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (B.Arch., 1979) and Cornell University (M.Arch., 1984).

Chair, Design Trust Council

Zack McKown is a founding partner of Tsao & McKown Architects. The firm has designed projects around the world ranging in scale from urban master plans to product designs, and building types including museums, educational facilities, corporate headquarters, hotels, residential towers, and private homes. Among his noteworthy projects is Suntec City in Singapore that created Southeast Asia’s first privately-developed public space of major significance. Recently he completed the design of a community for retired monks in Bhutan. In 2006 Mr. McKown was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and along with his partner, Calvin Tsao, he received a Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in 2009.

Jean-Gabriel Neukomm has designed successful and innovative projects for a range of luxury residential, institutional, hospitality, urban planning, and retail projects for more than 20 years. Neukomm has been able to translate his keen eye for detail, cultivated in his work on luxury residential projects, to large-scale urban projects for leading national developers. His rich and sensitive designs include New York’s exclusive Core Club and numerous townhouses throughout New York. Retailers such as Calvin Klein Collection, Tiffany, Pringle of Scotland, and Marian Goodman Gallery have commissioned cutting-edge designs in locations ranging from New York to Shanghai to Prague. Neukomm holds a BA in Philosophy from Haverford College, and a MArch from Princeton University.

Dominic is a Senior Advisor to The Conduit, a collaborative community of people committed to scaling and accelerating solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. His current role builds upon nearly a decade of experience in the social impact space where he’s collaborated on cross-sector solutions to housing, food insecurity, climate adaptation, and financial inclusion. Dominic helped raise awareness to many of these types of solutions during his time on the New York Fed’s community development and impact investing team. 

Greg Reaves is an architect and founder of Reaves Architecture, based in Brooklyn. Greg has led notable projects that span both the public and private realms, at all scales, in New York City and around the world. Prior to establishing Reaves Architecture in 2023 Greg served as partner at Thomas Phifer and Partners, Safdie Architects, and most recently at LSM Studio, where he led the New York City office. The foundation of Greg’s career was formed in the office of SOM in Chicago and at Richard Meier and Partners in New York. Greg is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Architecture and currently serves as the chair of the college’s Advisory Board.

Andy Wiley-Schwartz is a consultant for Bloomberg Associates, an international firm established by Michael R. Bloomberg to help city governments improve the quality of life of their citizens. Prior to joining Bloomberg Associates, Mr. Wiley-Schwartz worked at the NYC Department of Transportation as the first Assistant Commissioner for Public Space. He received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Hampshire College. 

Barbara Wilks, FAIA, FASLA, founded W Architecture and Landscape Architecture in 1999 to create a design-oriented, multidisciplinary practice focused on urban issues. As a leader in design and interdisciplinary thinking, with over 40 years of experience in urban design, public, and institutional projects, she practices as both an architect and landscape architect. “Seen as a whole, we can no longer distinguish ‘Nature’ as a place apart or separate from human endeavor and habitation. We are immersed in and shaped by it. Embracing this is essential to how we live and design.”