Melissa Everett, Ph.D. is Executive Director of Sustainable Hudson Valley, a regional organization helping 9 counties speed up the shift to a low-carbon economy with high quality of life for all. A communications consultant, group facilitator and change strategist, she helped to introduce the “local first” movement to the Hudson Valley and co-produced the conference, “Magnetizing Downtowns and Historic Village Centers” at which the NICIS model was first presented there. Trained as one of the first 1,000 speakers by The Climate Project, she orchestrated the first regional climate action summit, served on the steering committee for the scenario planning process, Rising Waters, and designed the Ten Percent Challenge campaign to help communities reduce their carbon footprints while building leadership. Melissa is a thought leader in the movement to incorporate human potential psychology and the social science of large-group change into grassroots climate action strategies.

Phil Myrick is Vice President and director of Project for Public Spaces’ work in parks and plazas, campuses and downtowns. He is a certified planner whose expertise encompasses public space planning, Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), downtown revitalization, and facilitation. His creative output ranges from a strategy for enhancing Times Square as an improved, pedestrian-friendly destination, to redevelopment guidelines for a historic neighborhood in Raleigh, NC, to international projects and training programs: in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia, Scotland, Georgia, and Armenia. Phil led the development of a new website on Context Sensitive Solutions/Design and has published research on the involvement of nonprofits in managing public spaces in the book Public Parks, Private Partners (Project for Public Spaces, 2000). Since its inception in 1995, Phil has also managed the Urban Parks Institute, along with its well-known Great Parks / Great Cities conferences and its web site Urban Parks ONLINE. Phil has delivered keynotes, professional training and workshops across the U.S and Europe. Read Phil’s comments on Placemaking and Sustainability here.

The Power Of Place: A New dimension for sustainable development