The ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative is delighted to announce the recipients of the WLI Prologis Scholarship Program in connection with ULI’s Fall Meeting in Dallas, October 24-27, 2016.

Senior women at Prologis created the grassroots group Breakthrough that supports the retention of women and identifies and removes barriers to advancement for Prologis across the globe. Breakthrough’s goals resonate with those of WLI in that Breakthrough strives to create a work environment where women feel connected and empowered, while creating a business culture that offers opportunities for success and recognizes the value of a gender-diverse workforce.

The Scholarship program includes a complimentary registration to the Fall Meeting as well as up to $2,000 in travel expenses. At the Meeting, recipients will be hosted by senior WLI members at a Product Council as well as at all WLI branded Meeting events. Following the Fall Meeting, ULI will post major takeaways from each recipient’s experience.

Having many outstanding applications, the WLI Selection Committee announced the ten outstanding recipients of the Fall Meeting scholarship:

Michelle Ackerman, ULI Toronto

Michelle is an infrastructure development consultant who specializes in public private partnerships, and large-scale residential and mixed-use developments with a focus on project delivery, strategy and marketing. Under her current engagement with Dream Kilmer, Michelle has been responsible for project management, marketing and stakeholder relations of the award winning 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletes’ Village, and its legacy master planned Canary District community which has transformed Toronto’s downtown east. Michelle has also worked on other notable projects including her engagement with Host Kilmer, as project marketing and communications lead of the ONroute service centres. Michelle is a lifetime volunteer currently serving as the co-chair of ULI Connect (Young Leaders Group) as well as a board member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation of Canada in support of women’s graduate studies. Michelle holds an HBA from the University of Toronto, and a MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. View Fall Meeting essay.

Allison Ford, ULI North Florida

Allison is the Director of Real Estate Accounting at Regency Centers. Allison directs a staff of 65 in various the areas of accounting including Lease Administration, Property Accounting, Development Accounting & Fixed Assets, and Tenant & Recovery Services. Over Allison’s tenure at Regency Centers, she has held a variety of positions including SEC Reporting and Joint Venture Reporting. Prior to working at Regency Centers, Allison worked at the public accounting firm, KPMG. Allison is active in industry associations and a member of the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) since 2015 after her participation in the inaugural Women’s Leadership Development Institute as well as Urban Plan and the Young Leaders Group. Allison is the Chair of WLI and excited about opportunities within the organization. View Fall Meeting essay.

Katy Hallgren, ULI Southeast Florida/Carribean

Katy is a Vice President and licensed landscape architect with EDSA, Inc., a planning, landscape architecture, and urban design firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her portfolio of work spans a wide range of scales and scope on both domestic and international projects including: Wuhan East Lake Greenway in China, Opera House Downtown Dubai, and the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, Katy joined EDSA in June 2005. View Fall Meeting essay.

Kellena Kane, ULI New York

Kellena is the Real Estate Development Manager for Uniland Development Company, a leading builder, developer, and manager of commercial real estate in Buffalo and Western New York. She pursues new development opportunities and coordinates subsequent development phases, including preliminary due diligence, concept, feasibility, pre-development, design, construction and financing. Kellena is also an adjunct professor for the real estate development master’s program at the University at Buffalo. Kellena is a founding member of ULI’s Young Leaders Group of Western New York, she spearheads the local Women’s Leadership Initiative, and she advocated for the UrbanPlan program to come to Buffalo. Kellena holds a dual B.A. in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Rochester, and a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. View Fall Meeting essay.

Sarah Kompaa, ULI Colorado

Sarah is an urban and architectural designer at Tryba Architects in Denver, CO specializing in complex urban mixed-use projects, long-range planning, and placemaking. Sarah’s holistic approach to design considers both the minute details of the site in question and the larger context of the city. A long-time member of ULI, Sarah co-chairs ULI Colorado’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and was a winner of the 2009 ULI Hines Student Urban Design Competition. She currently serves on the Arapahoe Square Design Advisory Board in Denver and previously served for two years on the Seattle Planning Commission. Sarah holds a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in City Design and Development, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. View Fall Meeting essay.

Sarah Laverty, ULI Colorado

Sarah  is a Development Associate for EnviroFinance Group (EFG), a land development company focusing on the remediation and repositioning of brownfield sites. Ms. Laverty specializes in entitling multi-jurisdictional projects, implementing public financing tools, forming Metro Districts, managing infrastructure construction, and negotiating development agreements and sales contracts. Recent project work includes SLOANS, the redevelopment of the former St. Anthony’s Hospital into a 7-block mixed-use community, and Crossroads Commerce Park, the remediation and redevelopment of the 77-acre former ASARCO site. Prior to joining EFG, Ms. Laverty worked for Bio-Logical Capital where she was responsible for due diligence, underwriting, and investment evaluation for projects ranging in size from 1,000-6,000 acres. View Fall Meeting essay.

Annabelle Matthews, ULI Australia

Annabelle  is a Registered Valuer and a Director of Property Projects Queensland, a multidisciplinary Australian based development, construction, investment management and agency firm that that was founded over 40 years ago.  Beginning her career in the property industry 14 years ago, Annabelle holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Property Economics) with Distinction from the Queensland University of Technology and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. View Fall Meeting essay.

Salima Rawji, ULI Toronto

Salima manages Build Toronto’s retail platform, as well as a portfolio over 1.25 million square feet of urban brownfield, heritage and greenfield development projects. Her portfolio includes retail, residential, seniors and mixed-use asset classes. Salima pushes for strong development projects that are financially viable, as well as socially and environmentally sustainable. Before coming to Build Toronto, she specialized in retail shopping centre development with SmartCentres, managing over 4 million square feet of development. Some of her notable projects include work on Simon’s first-ever Canadian Premium Outlets in Halton Hills and redevelopment projects for ONE REIT and SMART REIT. Salima graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce as Valedictorian, from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. She also holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Salima is active in her community. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for CivicAction and the Homes First Foundation, as well as on the Management Committee of the ULI Toronto. View Fall Meeting essay.

Ashley Sadowski, ULI Kansas City

Ashley has a background in architecture, urban design, and community development.  As a licensed architect, she has managed and designed a diverse portfolio of architectural projects including multi-family residential, sustainable prefab housing, hospitality, commercial, K-12 education, and healthcare.  She has a Bachelor’s of Architecture from the University of Kansas and a Certification in Real Estate Development from New York University.  She has extensive experience working with Kansas City communities to develop long-term design solutions that improve the quality of life in our urban core. Working in partnership with Code for America-KC and Community Capital Fund, she has developed web and mobile-based apps that aid communication between neighborhood leaders.  Ashley currently co-chairs ULI Kansas City’s TAP program, serves on KCUR-NPR Generation Listen Leadership Council, and is a recent member of AIA Kansas City’s Board of Directors.View Fall Meeting essay.

Erin Stevens, ULI South Carolina

Erin is Founder and President of Surculus, a landscape architecture and urban design firm focused on effectively integrating ecological and organic systems into increasingly urbanized and/or human-affected contexts. In her professional career, Erin has worked on a variety of large and small scale planning and design projects including a federally-funded transit study for the Charleston region, the redevelopment of an environmentally sensitive low-impact residential neighborhood within a highly contaminated watershed, and  development guidelines and public space design for multiple mixed-use and infill developments in the Charleston region. She holds a Bachelors in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia. View Fall Meeting essay.