The Building Healthy Places Initiative is delighted to announce the participants in the fifth cohort of the ULI/Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program, which is generously supported by ULI Foundation governor Randall Lewis. Participants were chosen from among many outstanding applicants on the basis of a highly selective evaluation process.

The selected graduate students are: Bryan Luu, Denise Truong, Elizabeth Rose, Jude A. Hernandez, and Lyna.

This program supports learning and sharing about health and real estate among graduate students and ULI members. In addition to being matched with a ULI full member mentor based on professional interests, participants are given the opportunity to attend the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting in San Diego and the 2022 ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas, where they will attend product council meetings and experience health-focused programming alongside their mentors.

Information about the five new cohort participants and their ULI mentors follows.

Bryan Luu
Master’s Student, Regional Planning
Cornell University

Bryan Luu is a graduate student in the Masters of Regional Planning program at Cornell University. His graduate work focuses on community and economic development through adaptation to climate change and forming resiliency in underprivileged areas. He received his bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and urban ecology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. Before pursuing his master’s degree, he worked as a structural engineer for two years but decided on a career change to better suit his passion for community engagement and amplifying sustainability efforts.

One of Luu’s career goals is to identify how green policy and design can promote affordable housing toward forming healthy communities. He believes that to accomplish this, community advocacy is essential to the planning process and strives to emphasize community based participation in his career. Luu is eager to face the challenges associated with urban planning and welcomes the opportunity to create beneficial change in the built environment through innovative thinking and sustainable development.

Mentor: Rives Taylor, Principal and Firmwide Co-Director of Design Resilience, Gensler (Sustainable Development Council)

Rives Taylor has more than 35 years of experience in institutional and commercial architecture with 30 years spent focusing on strategic planning, programming, and sustainable design, scaled from facility operations to campus and city planning.  A practicing architect and educator in Texas, Taylor directs Gensler’s Firmwide Design Resilience Task Force and leads the Gensler Research Institute Resilience Center. He casts a wide net in elevating both the why and how of sustainable design, including students, faculty, professionals, public officials, and the public. In over 30 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and a visiting professor at Rice University, he has influenced more than 6,000 students in his technical and high-performance design studios and seminars.

The approaches Taylor developed for Gensler not only affect the firm’s extensive practice but also influence clients’ building decisions worldwide. He developed a firm-wide green practice primer called “The Four Tiers of Sustainability,” led the inclusion of sustainable design in the firm’s in-house education program, and in partnership with Architecture 2030 and the Design Futures Council, developed an “eco-charrette” process and developed a building performance metric that is now used in all Gensler projects. He is part of the editorial team that produces the annual “Climate Action Through Design.”

Taylor has been a general member and occasional board member of the ULI Sustainable Development Council for over eight years.  Locally he was the inaugural  director of the ULI Houston Building Healthy Places Council. He has engaged in two Advisory Services panels for Broward County, Florida, and  a Seattle panel focused on the Duwamish River resilience.   

In 2015, he led Gensler’s delegation to the Paris Climate Conference and led the editorial team for the “Impact by Design” publications annually. He is also part of the leadership team rolling out the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3).    

He developed design and construction standards for clients such as ExxonMobil, Walmart, ThyssenKrupp, and Toyota that are now embedded in those clients’ protocols and followed worldwide.  

Denise Truong
Master’s Student, Urban and Regional Planning
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Denise Truong has a vision for building both sustainable communities that bolster resilience and engaging public spaces. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in environmental management and planning from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, with an emphasis on watershed management and resilience planning.

She then traveled abroad for a year to understand international planning and community development in Australia and Southeast Asia by working with communities to promote education and improve infrastructure such as mangrove restoration in the Knowledge Transfer Program of Malaysia. Afterward, she spent two years with the California Coastal Commission in Long Beach, where she worked with property owners and public agencies to develop local coastal programs and propose mitigation measures for project impacts to coastal resources in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, emphasizing fair housing, smart growth, and greening in the urban landscape. She is also assisting jurisdictions with their Housing Element updates and aspires to create equitable, green, and safe cities.   

Mentor: Leroy Moore, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Tampa Housing Authority (Affordable and Workforce Housing Council, Blue Flight)

Leroy Moore has worked in the real estate development arena since 1984 and currently is Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer with the Housing Authority of Tampa. In this position, Moore oversees all aspects of the authority’s Office of Operations and Real Estate Development, including high-profile projects such as Choice Neighborhoods, HOPE VI redevelopments, long-range capital planning, and leading massive mixed-use redevelopment projects such as Encore Tampa and West River, as well as strategic business planning and corporate vision management

Before joining Tampa Housing Authority in 1998, Moore operated his own consulting firm providing national training and professional organizational management and analysis to public and Native American housing authorities throughout the United States. He has held director-level positions in a number of housing authorities including Memphis, Peoria, Oakland, and Atlanta, and in 1995, was selected to provide professional services to the court-appointed receiver for the District of Columbia Housing Authority in Washington, D.C. under contract with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is regularly called on to give speeches and presentations at local and national conferences and industry meetings. 

Moore and his wife of 16 years, Remi, reside north of Tampa in Lutz, are active members of Exciting Central Tampa Baptist Church, and both remain active in both professional organizations nationwide and community causes throughout the Tampa Bay community.

Elizabeth Rose
Master’s Student, Professional Studies, Sustainable Urban Planning
George Washington University

Elizabeth (Liz) Rose is a graduate student at The George Washington University (GWU) pursuing a master’s degree in sustainable urban planning. While receiving a bachelor of science degree in mathematical economics from Gettysburg College, she gained a curiosity about economic development and environmental justice, leaving with the biggest question on her mind: how can cities and neighborhoods foster economic development while minimizing resident displacement? She believes that sustainability and equity are critical components of urban planning and public health, and is thriving at GWU, where these values are interwoven into each course. 

Rose is an analyst at CPower Energy Management where she engages in the Social Sustainability Club by coordinating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and leading a leadership book club. She also works under GWU professor Rachael Jonassen as a research assistant, building extensive knowledge on carbon offsets. Her current research focuses on emission mitigation strategies and modeling how small to medium sized Asian cities can develop individual climate-informed investment plans. 

Her future goal is to concentrate on affordable housing, equitable economic development, and environmental justice to build more sustainable communities. Rose is an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys backpacking and kayaking. In her spare time, she can be found running, lifting weights at the gym, or attending live music events. 

Mentor: Michael Bloom, Sustainability Practice Manager, R.G. Miller Engineers, Inc. (Community Development Council, Black Flight)

Michael Bloom directs the Sustainability Practice for Houston-based R.G. Miller Engineers, Inc. He plans and designs natural drainage systems that increase operating income, reduce detention requirements, increase developable land, and provide an anchor for natural amenities, such as trail systems, that improve health outcomes and social connectedness. He led the preparation of the Houston Incentives for Green Development for the city under a Houston Endowment grant. The study recommended four incentive programs the city could enact to encourage use of green stormwater management in commercial real estate development projects.

Bloom is an ULI Health Leader, cohort one.  He was a volunteer contributor to the Resilient Houston plan and the Living with Water Houston Plan. He served on an ULI technical assistance panel for Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, a town subjected to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Maria. He was an expert contributor to and reviewer of the 2017 ULI report Harvesting the Value of Water: Stormwater, Green Infrastructure, and Real Estate.   

Bloom is the former president of the Houston chapter of the Environment & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and currently chairs the Public Affairs Committee of the Houston branch of ASCE and is vice president, communications of the Houston branch of ASCE. He assisted with the preparation of Addressing Flood Risk: A Path Forward for Texas after Hurricane Harvey, published by the Texas section of ASCE. 

Bloom is the author of riparianhouston.com, a blog offering articles on drainage, land development, and sustainability. He is a registered professional engineer in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. He is an Envision sustainability professional, a certified floodplain manager, and a board-certified environmental engineer. He holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University (1989) and a master of science degree in environmental engineering from Drexel University (1994). 

Jude A. Hernandez
Master’s Student, Urban Planning and Policy
Northeastern University

Jude A. Hernandez is a graduate student at Northeastern University and will be completing his master’s degree in urban planning and policy this summer. A native of Los Angeles and a first-generation American, Hernandez was raised in a low-income, working-class community that has long suffered from environmental neglect. His graduate work is a reflection of his experiences, which have led to a focus on affordable housing, participatory planning, and community development in building equitable, healthy, sustainable and resilient spaces for all.

Before pursuing a master’s degree, Hernandez managed grassroots political field campaigns at the state and local levels in California to elect women candidates to higher office. He also served as a community representative for an elected official in the California State Assembly, representing his hometown of working class families and individuals. In this capacity, he was responsible for coalition building and bringing diverse community voices to the legislative process. It was through his work that he came to understand the role that land use policies played in perpetuating injustices and inequities in poor working-class communities. Inspired by the grassroots work of community leaders, advocates, and groups before him, Hernandez looks forward to continuing work that will advance equity, housing affordability, and health for underserved and neglected communities through the built environment.

Mentor: Malee Tobias, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Market Insights, Brookfield Properties (Community Development Council, Green Flight)

Malee Tobias leads consumer and market insights for Brookfield Properties’ development group, integrating economic, consumer, and marketplace trends to drive decision-making and development strategies across the company’s development business. She collaborates with development teams to identify market and customer opportunities, market positioning, branding and marketing strategies, acquisitions, development strategy, and product planning and segmentation across 25 markets in North America.

Before joining Brookfield Properties, Tobias was chief marketing officer at Newland, one of the largest, most geographically diverse developers of large-scale, mixed-use communities in the United States. While at Newland, she led corporate branding, digital marketing, and content, as well as established national consumer and market research and marketing performance measurement programs.

Previously, Tobias was vice president at RCLCO, a national advisory firm serving the real estate industry, specializing in development strategy, planning, market and product segmentation, and economic and fiscal impact analyses for mixed-use, residential, and commercial developments across the country. She has also held positions at several public and non-profit institutions, including the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, and the city of Los Angeles.

Tobias is a full member of ULI and past chair of ULI’s Community Development Council (Green Flight). She pursued a double major in economics and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a master’s degree in public policy and urban planning with a concentration in urban development, housing, and real estate from Harvard University. Tobias is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Public Policy and International Affairs and is an advisory board member for the Customer Experience Program at University of California, Irvine.

Lyna
Master’s Student, Design Studies
Harvard University

Lyna is an Algerian Amazigh architect and a master’s candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a big belief in the power of design in fostering social change. Her architectural design expertise operates at the intersection of health, affordability, design, and elevating the sense of belonging to enhance the well-being and livelihood of displaced communities’. She is a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s Tomorrow’s Leader’s full scholarship at American University in Cairo (AUC), the AUC Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award, the Harvard Crossroads Emerging Leaders, and the Hansen Leadership Institute fellowships.

Lyna is currently conducting research investigating a framework to design healthy affordable housing that captures and recreates the essence of “home” for displaced populaces in the Middle Eastern and North Africa region. She aspires to discover innovative and novel ways to incorporate today’s engineered technologies to maximize affordability, elevate the sense of belonging, and incorporate nature into housing design.

Mentor: Riki Nishimura, Principal, Populous (Global Exchange Council)

Riki Nishimura is a Principal at Populous, a global architectural design firm specializing in creating environments and venues that draw communities and people together. He is a registered architect and urban strategist with over two decades of experience in the planning and urban design of future cities. He approaches design from a collaborative and evidence-based perspective, resulting in the design and implementation of world-class places. In the process, he balances visionary and fiscally-responsible development to achieve memorable, sustainable, and enduring places in both the public and private realms. 

Nishimura’s experience includes award-winning projects that create distinctive and extraordinary user experiences and optimize the functionality and viability of venue-anchored mixed-use entertainment districts, mixed-use urban regeneration districts, next-generation waterfronts, corporate and technology workplace campuses, university campuses, and urban cultural parks. 

Committed to furthering sustainable strategies, practices, and contributions to the real estate community, he is active in ULI. In 2016, ULI included Nishimura in its 40 Under 40 list, which recognized the best and brightest young land use professionals around the globe. He participates in ULI Advisory Services panels, serves on the ULI San Francisco Executive Management Board, and provides mentorship in the YLG Mentorship program. He is also the vice chair of the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council and participates as a design review critic at Harvard, Stanford, Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has also held an appointment at Stanford University as an adjunct lecturer in risk and resilience at the School of Engineering. He received a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Toronto and a master of architecture and urban design degree from Harvard University.