Douglas Farr
Doug Farr is the President and founding principal of Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design whose mission is to “design sustainable human environments.” Labeled by the Chicago Tribune as “a leader in the anti sprawl movement” and by the New York Times as “the most prominent of the city’s growing cadre of ecologically sensitive architects,” Farr Associates is widely regarded as one of the most sustainable design practices in the country.
The 20 person firm works in multidisciplinary teams and employs sustainable design to create beautiful, valuable places and buildings for its developer, municipal, and private clients. The firm is fortunate to work in close partnership with the City of Chicago in implementing the Mayor’s vision of making Chicago the greenest city in America.
The firm has garnered national design awards and recognition in smart growth, new urbanism and green building. Farr Associates also holds the unique distinction of being the first and only architecture firm in the world that has designed three LEED-Platinum buildings: the Chicago Center for Green Technology, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Christy Webber, with another Platinum building on its way.
An architecture graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University, Doug is on the board of the Congress for the New Urbanism and also chairs the LEED for Neighborhood Development project a first ever leadership standard for sustainable land developments, now in its pilot phase.
Doug coined the term Sustainable Urbanism, and gave the movement life, by writing the current #2 bestselling Urban Planning book, and one of Planetizen’s top ten books of 2008-- Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature. Drawing on decades of experience in the fields of Smart Growth, New Urbanism and Green Building, Farr lays out the long term solution for our built environment by bringing the philosophical backbones of these three movements together, knitting them into a design philosophy that will allow us to create truly sustainable human environments. Reduced to its most basic tenets, Sustainable Urbanism is defined as walkable and transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performance buildings and high-performance infrastructure. It is Doug’s vision that this type of development becomes the normal pattern of development in the United States by 2030.
Chris FordChris Ford is the chief executive of Tennessee Conservation Voters (the state’s national League of Conservation Voters affiliate), a public policy institute representing statewide organizations dedicated to the protection of the Volunteer State’s natural beauty and resources. Prior to joining TCV, he most recently served on the staff of the Tennessee Democratic Party with the United States Senate campaign of rising political star Congressman Harold Ford Jr., charged with execution of the strategic organizing objectives of the campaign in the primary geographic stronghold of the opposing Republican candidate.
Having served as a minister in the Holston Conference of The United Methodist Church from 1998 until February 2004, Reverend Ford left active parish ministry to pursue growth-oriented projects and opportunities beyond the traditional congregation. Recognized for his work in social justice, poverty and faith based community economic development, Ford is a 2003 graduate of Harvard University Divinity School’s SLI Leadership Institute, a collaboration including faculty from Harvard Schools of Divinity, Business, Law and John F. Kennedy School of Government
Desiring to effect greater change in the local community, in March of 2003 Chris was elected facilitator of the regional Continuum of Care for HUD Federal Grant Funding and oversaw the creation of The Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness (ARCH). The former Administrator of a faith based non-profit agency dedicated to housing and issues of homelessness and economic development in Southern Appalachia, Ford operated a consulting firm specializing in non-profit and private sector business capacity building and organizational development until early 2005. His diverse client portfolio includes medical, industrial, real estate and non-profit organizations with geographic locations throughout the United States.
Ford attended East Tennessee State University where he was active in the ETSU Bluegrass Band, working as an agent publicist while still in college. He has completed work as an Extensioner at Harvard University toward pursuit of a social sciences degree with a government emphasis. He has served on the staff of the International Storytelling Center and the National Storytelling Festival during his ten years in Historic Downtown Jonesborough where he was chair of the Jonesborough Performance and Arts Commission (JPAAC) and active in many community organizations and events. The son of nine generations of East Tennesseans (Cocke County) on his father’s side, Chris spent much of his early years in a community of Appalachian “in-migrants” in rural Southern New Jersey. The married father of one daughter, Ford currently divides his time between Nashville and a farm in Church Hill (Hawkins County) Tennessee.
Robert P. FordBob Ford is a Senior Scientist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service focusing on issues related to climate change. Bob currently serves as the Southeast Region representative on the National Climate Change Strategic Planning Team which is currently developing a national strategic plan and action plan on climate change for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bob will provide leadership, direction, and coordination in the development and execution of regional climate change scientific activities in the southeast region.
Bob is involved in helping identify information needs and coordinate scientific activities, and serves as a point of contact in the communication of needs to the Southeast Region’s major science partners including Universities, other Federal Agencies, States, and other partners. He also leads the Southeast Regional Climate Team.
Bob graduated with a BS and MS in Wildlife Sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He worked for the state of Tennessee for several years and under a variety of contracts conducting field work, primarily with passerines. He led the Tennessee Biodiversity Program for the Tennessee Conservation League for several years in the 1990s; then worked on ecoregional planning and community based conservation for The Nature Conservancy. Bob joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2000, and moved to the Washington, D.C. office as staff coordinator for the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). In 2006, he moved back to the southeast, and headed the FWS Migratory Bird Field Office in Memphis, TN, where he continues active involvement with Joint Ventures, bird survey and population work, and conservation partnerships and work in Mexico.
John McFaddenJohn McFadden serves on the Tennessee Environmental Council as Executive Director. John began his conservation career with TEC in 1989 as the Clean Water Project Coordinator, worked with the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association and the Harpeth River Watershed Association as Director of Science and Restoration programs and is currently back at TEC.
John received his B.S. in Secondary Education and M.S. in Biology from Tennessee Technological University in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and is currently working on his Ph.D. at Middle Tennessee State University. He has over ten years experience teaching college biology and has worked in the conservation industry for the past 18 years. His conservation experience includes an array of environmental work including, watershed planning and modeling, river restoration, permit negotiations, development and project management. In addition, he has been recognized by federal and state court systems as an expert on water quality related matters.
John created what many know as the Duck River Opportunities Project, a proactive, cooperative attempt to begin restoration work in parts of one of the most biologically diverse river systems in the world. John has been project director for DROP, a project of Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association and looks forward to a continued partnership with TSRA. He enjoys backpacking, fishing, canoeing, and mountain biking.
Thomas PacelloThomas serves as the Assistant City Attorney assigned to the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development (“DPD”) and as such concentrates primarily on legal issues in the areas of land use, zoning, public incentives, and sustainability programs. Mr. Pacello served on the executive committee for Sustainable Shelby and is currently working with DPD staff on the drafting of implementation strategies for the 52 Sustainable Shelby recommendations. Mr. Pacello received his bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Georgia in 2000 and received his juris doctorate from the University of Memphis in 2006. He is currently completing his master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of Memphis. Mr. Pacello is a member of the Memphis Bar Association, the American Planning Association, and the Urban Land Institute.
Diana ThreadgillDiana currently serves as the Executive Director of the Mississippi River Corridor – Tennessee, Inc., which is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization based in West Tennessee. Their mission, and hers, is to identify, conserve and interpret the region’s natural, cultural and scenic resources to improve the quality of life and prosperity in West Tennessee. This challenge has become her calling.
Diana is an experienced Producer in marketing campaigns and fundraising. Last spring, the Mississippi River Corridor was awarded the Best Community Relations Campaign in 2007 by the Public Relations Society of American – Memphis Chapter.
She obtained a Bachelor Fine Arts (BFA) from the University of Memphis and began her diverse career as an Art Director for CineVideoTech, Inc., a major motion picture supply house based in Miami. In 1979, she moved north to Nashville to organize and coordinate the first Tennessee Film, Tape and Music Commission for Governor Lamar Alexander. Convinced that Memphis could be a significant film center, she helped create and eventually joined the staff of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission. She retired from the film industry after working as the Art Department Production Coordinator for the Feature Film, “The Firm” in 1991.
With a strong production background, Threadgill turned her career interests to display design and trade show management. Landing the FedEx account, she managed their national trade show program for six years. Serving as Vice President of Skyline Displays Mid-South, she opened the corporation’s first showroom in downtown Memphis. After the events of 9/11, Threadgill decided to concentrate on non-profit community work and became a full-time Development and Marketing Consultant. She has found a real home with the Mississippi River Corridor and its pursuit of a better quality of life for all citizens in West Tennessee.
John TirpakJohn is the Science Coordinator of the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture – a private, state, and federal conservation partnership. He is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the work of that partnership on all aspects of bird conservation planning, implementation, monitoring, research, and evaluation. John’s focus is on progressively refining the biological underpinning of the conservation partnership’s collective efforts within the Lower Mississippi Valley region to ensure they are built on the strongest scientific foundation possible.
John received a BS in Wildlife Resource Management from West Virginia University in 1996. Following graduation, John held a number of temporary field positions in West Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, and Connecticut – mostly working on habitat associations of breeding landbirds.
In 1999, John began pursuing an MS at California University of Pennsylvania. Here he began studies on the influence of habitat on ruffed grouse reproductive ecology as part of the Appalachian Cooperative Grouse Research Project.
In 2001, John entered the PhD program at Fordham University, where he continued his research on ruffed grouse and built spatially explicit population models for ruffed grouse on 7 sites in 5 states throughout the Appalachian region. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri-Columbia, John developed spatial Habitat Suitability Index models for 40 bird species and used Forest Inventory and Analysis and National Landcover data to assess the ability of the 52-million acre West Gulf Coastal Plain to sustain priority landbird populations.
The West Tennessee Regional Opportunity Forum is presented in conjunction with Sustainable Tennessee co-organizers Tennessee Environmental Council and
