Meet the 2017 Jury

Jury Chair

Theresa O. Frankiewicz
Vice President of Community Development
Crown Community Development
Naperville, Illinois

Teri (fran-KE-vich) has worked in the real estate development field for over 30 years with primary professional experience in developing large-scaled master plan communities. She specializes in land acquisition and entitlement, as well as overall project development, asset management and equity investment. She possesses additional skills in homebuilding, club and golf course management, strategic planning and civic engagement.

Teri has worked the last 23 years as a Vice President for Crown Community Development and has traveled extensively, analyzing and facilitating property acquisitions and development in the Chicago, Florida, Arizona, Texas, Washington and Tennessee markets. Some of the recent communities which she has been engaged with include the 2,000-acre Seven Oaks community in the Tampa Bay Area, 2,000-acre Black Diamond community in Seattle, the 80-acre Singleton Property in Nashville and several properties in the Austin and San Antonio MSAs. Teri recently concluded the master planning and entitlement efforts for a 6,800-acre long-term agricultural Crown family partnership in the Tucson Arizona area and manages a 3,000-acre agricultural asset in Santa Barbara, California. She continues to look for investment and development opportunities for the Crown Family throughout the U.S.

She is a Past-District Council Chair for the Urban Land Institute in Chicago and a Past Chair of the national Community Development Council Silver. Teri also serves as an Urban Land Institute Trustee and sits on The Advisory Board for the Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership. Teri was recently appointed a Trustee for the Chicago Public Broadcasting Station in Chicago, WTTW/WFMT.

On a more personal note, Teri has a strong allegiance to the University of Virginia as she has received both her B.A. in Economics and Communications and her M.B.A. (Darden) from the University. She has been married 21 years to her husband, Chuck, and delights in raising her two children Michael, 20, and Emma, 17. She desperately attempts to stay in the outdoors through hiking and gardening, has developed a keen interest in yoga and travels whenever humanly possible. Most recently, she realized a life-long dream of acquiring a small hobby farm in Wisconsin.

Jurors

Jo Ann Chitty
Senior Vice President
Selig Enterprises, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

Since 2005, Jo Ann has been Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Development, and Project Finance for Selig Enterprises. During this time, Jo Ann has acquired more than $90 million of land and improved properties; sourced more than $300 million in project financing; and is in the process of leading Selig’s partnership interests in developing $270 million in new projects, including a joint venture between Selig and Carter to transform Sandy Springs through the retail and multi-family development portion of the new Sandy Springs City Center project.

Jo Ann is very involved in the company’s strategic operations and planning. Each year she plans and leads the company’s off-site strategic planning meetings, which include a full portfolio review and identification of financial resources to implement the company’s new investment efforts.

Prior to coming to Selig, Jo Ann served as the founding Executive Director and President of the University of Georgia Real Estate Foundation, a 501(c)(3) none-profit created to acquire, development and finance real estate projects to enhance the university. In only five years, her team acquired 16 properties totaling 90 acres, completed $200 million in tax-exempt financing, and developed more than 1 million square feet of new properties on campus.

From 1985 to 1999 Jo Ann was Senior Vice President and COO of TriNet Corporate Realty Trust and iStar Financial [NYSE:SFI] the successor company of the 1999 merger of TriNet and Starwood Financial Inc. During Jo Ann’s tenure she was responsible for all asset management and operations responsibilities including leasing, dispositions, risk management, and acquisition underwriting of the company’s 30 million sf equity portfolio valued at approximately $2.5 billion.

Jo Ann is an active volunteer in the community. She currently serves as Chair of the Kennesaw State University Foundation. Previously, she served as Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee, Chair of the Real Estate Committee, and Vice Chair. Jo Ann is past Vice Chair of the Capital Improvements Committee for the Piedmont Park Conservancy and was a member of Piedmont Park Conservancy’s Executive Committee.

Jo Ann serves on the Managing Board of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) of Atlanta. From 2011 to 2014 she served as Chair of ULI’s Urban Land program. Jo Ann also is serving as a council member on the Capital Markets Committee for ULI in 2016.

Aruna Doddapaneni
Director of Development
BRIDGE Housing
San Diego, California

Ms. Doddapaneni joined BRIDGE Housing in June 2010 in the Southern California office. Since joining BRIDGE, she has developed 113 units of housing in Lake Elsinore, California secured by 9% low income housing tax credits. Ms. Doddapaneni has also led the path in securing a new financing structure combining 9% and 4% low income tax credits in a single high-rise building with Celadon at 9th & Broadway, a 250 unit 17 story high-rise located in downtown San Diego which completed construction in April 2015 and won an Urban Land Institute Global Award of Excellence in 2016. Prior to joining BRIDGE, she worked within Mercy Housing, Inc.’s National Development Services division. During her 6 years at Mercy Housing, Ms. Doddapaneni acquired, restructure, developed and/or rehabilitated over 1,000 units of senior and family housing nationally. In addition to her role as a senior project developer at Mercy Housing, Ms. Doddapaneni also served as a housing and development consultant to other non profits and women religious organizations. Ms. Doddapaneni has an additional 3 years of restructuring over $200M affordable housing debt through various programs such as HUD’s Mark to Market program.

Ms. Doddapaneni holds a Executive Certificate, Real Estate Construction Management, University of Denver; Masters of Business Administration, Real Estate Finance, University of Denver; and a Bachelors of Business Administration, Finance, University of New Mexico.

Ray Hartshorne, AIA, CCCA
Partner
Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture
Chicago, Illinois

Raymond Hartshorne is the co-founder of Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA), an award-winning architecture, planning and interior design firm that practices nationally from its Fulton Market studio in Chicago. HPA specializes in large-scale, privately funded real-estate work. In 2016, the firm designed projects throughout the U.S. totaling nearly $1 billion.

Ray’s experience spans over 30 years across a range of building types that include Commercial, Residential, Interiors, and Planning. His portfolio of notable, award-winning projects includes 1KFulton, the corporate headquarters of Google Chicago; the LEED Platinum-rated Green Exchange, the country’s largest development for green-focused enterprises; and Randolph Tower City Apartments, a 43-story landmark and one of Chicago’s tallest terra cotta-clad towers.

Ray’s success lies in collaborating with his team to develop unique design identity and brand reinforcement, seen in projects such as Soho House Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, and Thompson Chicago. His strategies have helped HPA clients create some of the most successful buildings in real estate today.

Ray has been a designer for historically significant projects across the Midwest. He is responsible for the adaptive reuse and renovation of hundreds of existing vintage and historic properties and for placing numerous buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Ray’s focus is finding new and creative ways to revitalize properties for his clients and the surrounding community.

Ray holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Architecture from Iowa State University.

Nila R. Leiserowitz, FASID, IIDA
Regional Managing Principal
Gensler
Chicago, Illinois

An internationally recognized design leader and Co-Managing Principal of Gensler’s North Central Region, Nila leads and challenges more than 400 professionals while overseeing business development for four offices. She also serves on the firm’s Board of Directors and Management Committee, and has expanded the size and diversity of Gensler’s corporate client base, including the addition of the Firmwide Health & Wellness Practice Area. To stay at the forefront of emerging trends, Nila actively participates in initiatives tied to strategic programming, planning and design, such as Gensler’s groundbreaking Workplace Survey.

Involved in numerous civic, community and industry organizations, she serves on the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s (CAF) Board of Trustees, sits on the Board of Directors of Chicago’s International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Marwen Foundation and the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School, and is a member of The Chicago Network and the Economic Club of Chicago. She has been recognized with many accolades throughout her career, including the International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) 2013 Leadership Award of Excellence and the American Society of Interior Designer’s (ASID) 2007 Designer of Distinction Award. Nila earned her B.S. in Interior Design from the University of Minnesota.

Betsy del Monte, FAIA, LEED BC+C
Principal
Transform Global
Dallas, Texas

Betsy del Monte, FAIA, is the Founding Principal of Transform Global, formed to engage communities through collaboration, advocacy and education, while protecting the environment and natural resources. As a registered architect, Betsy’s experience and expertise includes high performance building design, sustainable and resilient community design and fully integrated project delivery. She was formerly a Principal Architect and Director of Sustainability for The Beck Group.

She helped create and teaches a Masters in Sustainability and Development at the Lyle School of Engineering of SMU. She has been a visiting lecturer at University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Arlington, Rice University, University of Virginia, and University of North Texas. Betsy is past President of AIA Dallas, and North Texas Green Building Council. She sits on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, bcWorkshop and The Trinity Commons Foundation. She is involved at national, state and local levels with the ULI, AIA and other groups focused on sustainable environments. Betsy has been named a Fellow by the AIA and as a Senior Fellow in the Design Futures Council.

Betsy received her Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University. Her experience includes work at architecture firms in Atlanta and Houston, as well as nine years with Philip Johnson and John Burgee in New York.

Rameez Munawar
Financial Analyst – Eastern Region
Columbia Property Trust
Washington, D.C.
Rameez Munawar is currently a financial analyst at Columbia Property Trust in Washington D.C. He is responsible for asset management, financial modeling, acquisitions and dispositions of Class-A office buildings in Washington DC and Boston. Over the past two years, his team has completed over 1.4m square feet of leasing, acquired roughly $589M in assets totaling over 893,000 square feet, and divested from roughly $547M in assets totaling over 1,244,000 square feet.

Rameez graduated from the University of Maryland with his Masters in Real Estate Development in 2014 and ha received a Bachelors of Science in Architecture in 2012. During his time in the MRED program, Rameez won the 2014 ULI-Hines Competition in Nashville and returned the following year as an advisor for the 2015 winning team in New Orleans.

Jon Pickard, FAIA, RIBA
Principal
Pickard Chilton
New Haven, Connecticut

Jon Pickard has been recognized internationally for his achievements in architecture. He has designed or collaborated in the design of some of the world’s most recognized buildings, including such prominent projects as the ExxonMobil Global Campus in Houston, Texas; Northwestern Mutual’s headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; 1180 Peachtree in Atlanta, Georgia; River Point and 300 North LaSalle in downtown Chicago, Illinois; the CalPERS Headquarters Complex, in Sacramento, California for the nation’s largest pension fund; Wells Fargo Headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa; ConocoPhillips Headquarters West Campus expansion in Houston, Texas; and the US Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters near Washington, DC.

Prior to the founding of Pickard Chilton, he collaborated with Cesar Pelli in the design of numerous landmark and award-winning projects, including two of the largest commercial developments ever built: the World Financial Center in New York, and Kuala
Lumpur City Centre in Kuala Lumpur, a development that includes the Dewan Filharmonik, Malaysia’s National Symphony Hall, and two of the world’s tallest buildings, the Petronas Towers.

Iowa State awarded him both its Design Achievement Award (1989), for distinguished contributions to the arts, and the Christian Petersen /design Award (2007). With William Chilton, he is co-recipient of the 2011 Iowa State University Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor given to alumni by the University. The Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston recognized Jon Pickard as its 2006 Honoree.

He regularly serves as a visiting critic at Yale University and has led an advanced design studio at Iowa State University. He has lectured extensively at academic institutions including Rice University, Louisiana State University, Iowa State University, and Harvard University. He currently serves on the Yale School of Architecture Dean’s Council.

Michael Pitchford
President and CEO
CPCD
Silver Spring, Maryland

J. Michael Pitchford presently serves as the President and CEO of Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC). In this role, he is responsible for the company’s strategic direction and the leadership of the real estate development, asset management, and resident services functions that create and support CPDC’s 30 affordable housing communities. CPDC, a 501(c)3 founded in 1989, has completed nearly 5,000 units of housing and has over 300 units under construction at present.

Previously Pitchford led the Community Development Equity Group at Bank of America Corporation in Charlotte, NC. The Group developed or rehabilitated 23,000 units of affordable housing and increased equity commitments 3,000% to $3 billion, during his ten years leading the organization.

Pitchford also has participated in or led associations, workshops, conferences, and forums on housing policy, community development, and the sharing of best practices. He has served in leadership roles with the National Housing Conference, the National Equity Fund, the Urban Land Institute, and the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors.

Pitchford is a member of ULI and serves on the Board of the Housing Partnership Network, the Housing Partnership Equity Trust, the National Housing Conference, the Maryland Affordable Housing Coalition, the Boys & Girls Club of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, the Annapolis Maritime Museum, and the Anne Arundel County Affordable Housing Coalition.

He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Old Dominion University. He presently serves as an Adjunct Professor and teaches community development and affordable housing in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington and Leadership Anne Arundel.

Kathryn L. Reynolds
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Vivelan Group
New Orleans, Louisiana

Kathryn “Katy” Reynolds has over 25 years of experience in investment banking, corporate strategy, and operational executive management. Before founding The Vivelan Group, she was a financial and strategic adviser to boutique investment banks and private equity firms as well as their clients and portfolio companies through her own firm Reynolds Wallbrink LLC since 2003. Prior to that, Reynolds spent over 13 years of her career working for Merrill Lynch in its international operations, initially in investment banking for eight years, and then global corporate strategy for five years. Before leaving Merrill Lynch in 2002, she was Managing Director of International Private Wealth Services where she created, launched and led a worldwide network of private bankers focused on Merrill Lynch’s wealthiest clients outside the U.S., covering over $35 billion in assets under management. Previously, she was Director of Corporate Strategy for Merrill Lynch International where she helped execute and consolidate over 10 acquisitions, totaling over $11 billion and 8,000 new employees in over 70 countries. Her first eight years at Merrill Lynch were in international investment banking covering Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Throughout her career, Reynolds was identified as a leader and participated in many leadership forums within the company as well as Merrill Lynch’s first women’s leadership forum in 1999. She received her BA in Political Economies of Industrial Societies, at the University of California, Berkeley.

Thomas Samuels, FAIA, APA
Principal
Thomas Samuels Enterprises
Chicago, Illinois

Thomas Samuels is the founder and Principal of Thomas Samuels Enterprises (TSE). Mr. Samuels founded TSE to provide comprehensive Development Management, Program Management, Owner’s Representation and Strategic Advisory Services to the design and construction industry and to pursue opportunistic real estate development. TSE is positioned ot assist private and public sector organizations, institutions and public/private partnerships to achieve their development objectives. Mr. Samuels, a real estate developer with more than thirty-five years in the industry as well as a registered architect and planner, brings a unique mix of skills and broad hands-on experience to every assignment undertaken by the company. Mr. Samuels currently serves as the Paul D. Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY teaching core courses in the Masters Degree in Real Estate Program. Mr. Samuels has also served as an Adjunct Faculty Member of the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago, IL.

Prior to founding TSE, Mr. Samuels was Executive Vice President of Higgins Development Partners (HDP) and a member of its affiliated investment entities. Mr. Samuels joined HDP in 1990 and led the company’s Public Sector and Institutional Development Division. Mr. Samuels was responsible for all public, institutional, public/private partnership, hospitality, and life sciences projects undertaken by the company. Prior to joining HDP, Mr. Samuels was Vice President and a Managing Principal at Lohan Associates, no Lohan Anderson, a national architecture firm that grew to 125 employees with over $12 million in annual sales during Mr. Samuels’ tenure.

Megan Torza, OAA / MRAIC / LEED AP BD+C
Partner
DTAH
Toronto, Ontario

Megan joined DTAH in 2006 and became a partner in 2012. Megan is an architect with a strong interest in adaptive reuse and the integration of contemporary architectural expression with historic urban environments. She has extensive experience in the development of design guidelines and feasibility studies, and a keen interest in the design of innovative housing models as well as learning environments for children. While studying at the University of Toronto, Megan was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal and was recognized on the RAIC Honour Roll. Megan has taught the history of contemporary architecture at the University of Toronto, and has participated in urban design studio reviews at the University of Waterloo.

Megan is the curator for the RavinePortal exhibition at 50 Park Road and in association with WorldWide Storefront. Megan is also co-creator, along with Robert Cram, of the Orange Crush installation at Come Up To My Room 2015.

Megan holds a University of Toronto: Master of Architecture, 2005; University of Toronto: Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and a Courtauld Institute of Art: Year 2, BA History of Art, 2000.

ULI Chicago Advisory Committee

Mike Damore, AIA
Executive Managing Director
Epstein
Chicago, Illinois

Michael Damore, joined Epstein in 1991 and is currently one of Epstein’s Executive Managing Directors. During his tenure with the firm he has expanded the firm’s services, project types and geographic reach, gaining recognition for award-winning design capabilities. Under Mr. Damore’s leadership, Epstein’s design qualifications are now equally balanced between commercial and manufacturing sectors, and include large, urban projects such as Chicago’s Midway Airport Passenger Terminal and McCormick Place Convention Center.

Prior to joining Epstein, Mr. Damore was a Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designing high-rise, mixed use and other building types that span from Texas to Chicago and London to Japan.

Cynthia McSherry
Executive Director
ULI Chicago

Cynthia McSherry is the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute Chicago, one of the first district councils of ULI-the Urban Land Institute. ULI Chicago, with over 1300 members, continues to be the leading voice for improving state and local land use policy and development practices in the greater Chicago land area. Ms. McSherry has been an integral link in the chain of progress for ULI Chicago for over 18 years. The District Council offers an in-demand Technical Assistance Services Program and an outstanding roster of monthly and special meetings throughout the year. Ms. McSherry has been successful in developing strong local ties with public officials in the City and suburbs as well as anchor healthcare institutions and public/private agencies such as the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Regional Transportation Authority, the Chicago Community Trust and The MacArthur Foundation. Ms. McSherry currently serves as the ULI Technical Assistance Product Advisor consulting with smaller district councils who want to launch a technical assistance panel program.

Ms. McSherry is also President and Founder of McCarthy, McSherry and Associates, Ltd. (MMA), started in 1990, offering a flexible, creative, individual approach to meeting, event and management services including organizational management from board development and strategic planning to fundraising campaigns and volunteer recruitment. With over 20 years of non-profit experience, MMA has built a reputation of excellence, confidence, balance and focus.

Prior to building her own company, Ms. McSherry acted as the Executive Director of The Three Arts Club of Chicago, a landmark residential facility for women in the arts, responsible for the overall building management and maintenance of this historic property on Chicago’s Gold Coast. In addition, Ms. McSherry launched a capital campaign for the renovation of the building in cooperation with the original architects of the 1914 landmark building.

As an Assistant Dean of Students for the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business, her tenure was spent soliciting funds from both private and public institutions and individuals for minority student scholarships. Ms. McSherry was also actively involved in admissions procedures for the University’s nationally recognized MBA program.