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Brian Majka is a professional restoration ecologist with extensive experience in business management and development, project oversight, design and implementation of wetland construction, soft shoreline engineering, prairie planting, natural areas management and best management practice (BMP) design projects with more than 17 years of experience throughout the United States. He has given presentations and workshops throughout the country on a variety of topics related to ecological restoration, including natural shoreline design and wetland restoration.Brian has a B.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from Purdue University and is responsible for project management of ecological restoration design and implementation projects for GEI.

Ethan Theuerkauf is a coastal geomorphologist who’s research focuses on how and why coastal landscapes, such as beaches, barrier islands, and wetlands, change across timescales ranging from storms to millennia. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Theuerkauf held previous appointments at the Prairie Research Institute of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received a B.S. in Geology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Matt Warner is a Coastal Hazards Specialist in the Water Resources Division of Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). He has worked to promote greater planning and stewardship of the Great Lakes coastline at the state level for two decades. For more information on the state's work and additional coastal resources visit michigan.gov.

Richard K. Norton is a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He also holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Program in the Environment at U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Norton teaches and conducts research in the areas of planning law, sustainable development, land use and environmental planning, and coastal area management. His most recent research has focused on the challenges of managing shorelands along the Laurentian Great Lakes. He contributes actively to public service through community-engaged research and teaching, and by serving on the planning law committee of the Michigan Association of Planning (MAP). In that role, he has taken the lead in preparing draft legislation for the Michigan Legislature to reform the state's planning and zoning enabling laws. He also has written friend-of-the-court appellate briefs to the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court on behalf of the American Planning Association and MAP regarding planning and zoning disputes in the state. Prior to completing his graduate studies, Norton worked in professional practice as a consulting environmental policy analyst and planner in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.He earned his Ph.D. in city and regional planning and his JD at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, along with master’s degrees in public policy studies and environmental management from Duke University.

Upon graduation from Purdue University in 1977, Dr. Guy Meadows joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, College of Engineering, where he served as Professor of Physical Oceanography for 35 years. During his tenure, he served the College and University as Director of the Ocean Engineering Laboratory, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (NOAA, Joint Institute), Director of the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories and founding Academic Director of the M-STEM Academy. He joined Michigan Tech in June of 2012, to help establish the new Great Lakes Research Center. His primary goal, to blend scientific understanding and technological advancements into environmentally sound engineering solutions for the marine environment, through teaching, research and service.His teaching reaches beyond the University setting to less formal environments, and includes five nationally televised documentaries for the History and Discovery Channels. His primary research interests are in geophysical fluid dynamics with emphasis on environmental forecasting and full-scale, Great Lakes and coastal ocean experimental hydrodynamics. In this arena, he has influenced policy and explored societal impacts of environmental forecasting for coastal management, recreational health and safety, and regional climate change.

MSU Extension Land Use Educator Mary Reilly is back in the LIAA studio to discuss the various ways that farm owners can diversify their farms for greater economic output and how municipalities can regulate these operations so that they fit into the community's local context.

Dr. Lee Trepanier is a Professor of Political Science at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama where he teaches political philosophy, constitutional law, and American Politics. His research is in Eric Voegelin; Politics and Literature; Religion and Politics; Democracy and Education; and Teaching and Learning Political Science. He is also the editor of the Lexington Books series Politics, Literature, and Film and the academic website, VoegelinView.

Robert Gibbs, FASLA, AICP serves as Gibbs Planning Group's president and managing director. He is a registered landscape architect, professional planner and charter member of the American and European Congress for the New Urbanism. Robert teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Design's Executive Education program and has authored numerous books including Principles for Urban Retail. In 2012, Gibbs was honored by the Clinton Presidential Library for his life's contributions to urban planning and by the City of Auckland, New Zealand for his planning innovations. Robert was recently named as one of the 100 Most Influential Urbanists of the past century by Planetizen and has consulted across the Americas, Europe and Pacific Rim for over 2500 cities, institutions, real estate developments and universities. Robert was inducted into the American Society of Landscape Architects College of Fellows in 2019.Gibbs has a BA from Oakland University, where was named the Distinguished Alumni of 2016 and was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Arts in 2019. He has also earned a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan. Gibbs is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Urban Land Institute. Prior to founding GPG in 1988, Robert was an urban designer at the Smith-JJR Group and an urban planner at the Taubman Shopping Center Company. Gibbs also hosts Michigan Planning Today, a popular cable program on urban and real estate issues.

Matt Williams is an Urban Planner and Designer in the City of Detroit Planning & Development Department. He recently led a child-centric planning initiative in the Cody Rouge and Warrendale neighborhood focused on 1) Streets & Getting Around, 2) Houses & Apartments, 3) Businesses & Shopping and 4) Parks & Community Places. Distinct from most planning projects, this local effort placed decision-making power in the hands of the neighborhood's young people, allowing them to shape the future of their community. For more information about the plan visit https://codyrougeandwarrendaleplan.org/

Pastor Roy Baldwin is one of the founding members of the non-profit organization One Week, One Street. OWOS is an annual urban revitalization effort to encourage hope, pride and love for neighbors in the City of Saginaw by utilizing volunteers and donations from the Great Lakes Bay Region churches, businesses and other non-profit organizations. Their efforts are centered around bringing community member together to beautify a street each year on the city's east side. OWOS also provides recreational, educational and mentoring outreach to Saginaw's youth. In a community greatly impacted by post-industrialization, job loss and high crime rates, OWOS is working to revitalize a historic and once-thriving place.

Linda Nubani is an assistant professor of interior design in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. She holds a PhD in Architecture (with a focus on Criminology) from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (2006), and Master’s degrees in Architecture from the University of Michigan (2003) and the University of Cincinnati (2001). Prior to joining MSU, Nubani moved to Dubai, UAE, in 2004 to accept a teaching position with the American University in Dubai. In 2004, she co-founded APID, the Association of Professional Interior Designers. The APID is the first professional association of interior design in the Middle East. In 2006, Nubani co-founded the Green Buildings Conference that has become very active in many countries around the Gulf region. In 2008, she co-founded the Italian Architecture Magazine Compasses in Dubai. Also in 2008, Nubani founded an interior design firm and became a certified professional interior designer, and in 2014, she became a certified Civil Defense and Life Safety consultant (following NFPA). She has designed more than 200 projects in the Middle East, France, Spain and the U.S. (Design + Build, Design + Supervision). The highlights of her work include: Designing the largest smoking lounge in the World at Dubai International Airports; completing more than 40 office projects for the private and government sector; renovating homes for celebrities and royal families; and winning the annual light competition for the National Day of the UAE. Nubani is an expert in the use of space syntax, virtual reality and visibility graph analysis in neighborhood applications (e.g., motor vehicle theft, burglaries) and building applications (e.g., active shooter prevention in buildings, museum visitors behavior). She has a strong passion in the topic of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Nubani has been an international speaker on this topic and has been working with various communities in the State of Michigan in conducting CPTED-based workshops to address combatting crime through design strategies. Additionally, she chaired the 50th EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) conference in New York in May 2019 and has become chair of the board of directors to EDRA in August 2019. Nubani is actively working on two grants in the State of Michigan: “Crime Preventions through Environmental Design of Public Schools” and “Co-Creating Crime Prevention Policies with Communities.”

Julie Clark is the Executive Director of TART (Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation) Trails. Julie is responsible for day-to-day administration, trail planning and development, maintenance, and fundraising efforts. She most recently led Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation’s Greenway Planning & Development Division in Charlotte, North Carolina where she was responsible for the design and development of over 35 miles of urban trail. TART Trails is a regional leader in trails projects and has many successful implementation examples of non-motorized connections throughout various Michigan communities.

Holly Madill is the director of the National Charrette Institute at Michigan State University. Previously at MSU, she assisted both the Planning & Zoning Center at MSU and the Land Policy Institute in research and outreach projects related to land use, placemaking and strategic growth.Holly specializes in community engagement, placemaking, transportation and walkability, as well as development of trainings, surveys (including analysis) and proposals. To learn more about Holly's work and the National Charrette Institute visit https://www.canr.msu.edu/nci/.

Dr. Mark Wilson is a researcher and professor at Michigan State University's School of Planning, Design & Construction. He is an expert in autonomous vehicles, among his other research interests, which include mega event planning, cyber geography, information society and nonprofit organizations. In this episode, we discuss the potential outcomes that AV's will have on society and the built environment.

Coleman Yoakum is the Executive Director of Micah 6 Community, a non-profit located in Pontiac, Michigan. Coleman and his team have spent the last decade working with their neighbors to rekindle a sense of community in one of Michigan's hardest hit cities. The story of Micah 6 Community is one example of the difficulties that once-thriving places in the Midwest have had to overcome and the amount of willpower it will take to revitalize both the economy and the social fabric in their neighborhoods. More importantly, this story shows that revitalization is possible.To learn more about Micah 6 Community visit: https://www.micah6community.com/

Dr. Noah Durst is a researcher and professor in the School of Planning, Design & Construction at Michigan State University. His work focuses primarily on informal housing, or how low-income people who are priced out of the formal housing market find shelter. Dr. Durst seeks to quantify the scope of this issue to help us better understand what challenges people are facing across the U.S. For more information on Dr. Durst's research visit https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/noah-durst

Dr. Rex LaMore is the Director of the Center for Community and Economic Development and a professor in the School of Planning, Design & Construction at Michigan State University. In this episode of Welcome To, Dr. LaMore discusses the field of Domicology and how he and his team are working to reimagine how we understand the life cycle of structures. For more information on Domicology visit https://domicology.msu.edu/

We join Mary Reilly and Brad Neumann at the Michigan Association of Planning Conference to discuss two topics that MSU Extension has been educating local communities on recently. Mary talks about how local communities need to plan and zone for recreational marijuana and the potential issues that the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act has presented. Brad Neumann, a land use educator with MSUE in Marquette, discusses the health impacts that climate change is currently causing in Michigan, as well as the expected threats as the climate continues to warm. Brad gives some best practices for how communities across the state can plan for the future.