Director
James F. Murley, Esq., became the director of CUES in February 1999. He is a 1974 graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he specialized in environmental and land-use law. He is a former Secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs and a former member of the Miami River Commission and the Legislative Committee on Intergovernmental Relations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Congress for New Urbanism, the Seaside Institute, the Dade County Land Trust and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Biography
jmurley@fau.edu
Associate/Assistant Directors:
Lenore Alpert, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Research, directs the Ocean and Coastal Program for CUES. Her research includes projects on the Economics of Beaches, Marine Strategic Plan for Monroe County, Statewide Boating Inventory, the Marine Association of South Florida's Master Plan Implementation, redistricting for city commissions, as well as coordinating the Florida Ocean Alliance. She directed the Regional Indicators Project for CUES over the past three years, and now coordinates ResearchSouthFlorida. Dr. Alpert has a doctorate in political science/public policy from Northwestern University and twenty years of research and university teaching experience, both in the public and private sector. She currently teaches as an adjunct professor in FAU's Department of Political Science.
lalpert@fau.edu
Marie L. York, AICP, is the Associate Director for Northern Campuses of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at
myork@fau.edu
Research Staff:
MaryBeth Burton, AICP, is a research fellow at CUES. Her research focus is sustainability/climate change. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, is the former Chair of the Broward Section of the American Planning Association and a Leadership Broward graduate. She serves on the board of Trash to Treasure, a nonprofit creative reuse center (www.trash2treasurefl.org), participates in Fort Lauderdale's RecycleWorks volunteer program, and was trained by Al Gore to serve as a Climate Project volunteer.
mburton@fau.edu
Angela M. Grooms, Coordinator- Research Information,
earned a bachelor's degree in public affairs from FAU in 1991,
and has worked at CUES since 1987. Her primary
responsibilities are maintaining CUES's resource
library, including the acquisition of holdings, and assists with
research projects.
agrooms@fau.edu
Mary Beth Hartman began working in the Abacoa Project offices on the FAU MacArthur Campus in Jupiter in May 2001. Since its inception in 2002, Mary Beth has been the project coordinator for the Florida Public Officials Design Institute, housed at the CUES North location. She has been instrumental in the program's logistical development, including coordinating keynote lectures, receptions and site visits, editing and producing Institute briefing books and final reports along with working closely with the participating public officials and their staffs. Mary Beth is assisting in the development of a Design Institute operations manual and working to promote program expansion. Her work with the Center involves research, program development and outreach activities along with initiatives involving community building, diversity, environmental education, smart growth and university and community partnerships. She earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education from Florida Atlantic University.
mhartman@fau.edu
Barry N. Heimlich has been a Research Fellow at the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University since October 2007. Since retiring from a career as a manufacturing and engineering executive in the pharmaceutical industry, he has been actively engaged as an environmental volunteer. He advises local governments, organizations and businesses regarding programs for energy conservation, energy alternatives, greenhouse gas emission reduction and adaptation to the consequences of climate change. As president of the Broward County Audubon Society, he spearheaded its global warming initiative that resulted in 22 city mayors in Broward County signing onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. He chaired the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Global Warming that prepared a resolution for the Broward County Commission to establish a countywide Global Warming Task Force. He is a director and vice president of the Smart Growth Partnership – Southeast Florida. He participates on many governmental advisory groups: Intergovernmental Affairs and Greenhouse Gas Committees of Miami-Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force; Technical Advisory Committee of Broward County Water Advisory Board; Green Team Advisory Committee, Hollywood, FL; VisionBroward Redevelopment and Quality of Life Task Force; and others. He was a recipient of the Community Service Award at the 2007 VisionBroward Holiday and Award Reception. Mr. Heimlich holds bachelors and masters degrees in chemical engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York and the University of Michigan respectively. He held technical, management, and executive positions with ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Key Pharmaceuticals. He founded and was CEO of Himedics, a drug delivery system company, and Video Production Systems, a value-added reseller of professional video production equipment.
barrycues@bellsouth.net
Mary Jean (M.J.) Matthews, J.D., Senior Research Associate, has been with CUES since 1989. A member of the Maryland State Bar Association, she was previously a staff attorney with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C. During her tenure at CUES, M.J. has been involved in a variety of land-use law, conservation, and planning-related projects. She took part in preparing the Palm Beach County Manatee Protection Plan and the
mmatthew@fau.edu
Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, specializes in coastal hazards resiliency, land-use analysis, and property redevelopment. Her current research work focuses on coastal land use planning policy in Florida and is funded by NOAA through the Florida Hurricane Alliance. She has also worked with the Trust for Public Land on a “Greenprinting” strategy plan for West Galveston Island and participating in the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Resilience Working Group organized by NOAA. Most recently Ana has begun to examine issues of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor for FAU’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Prior to relocating to Florida, she had been the Assistant Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Planning at Columbia University and a Special Projects Research Officer for University’s Earth Institute. There she focused on developing interdisciplinary research activities on environmental and natural hazard topics and funding for collaborative endeavors within the University. She began her career as a real estate market analyst for Jones Lang LaSalle and Baring Institutional Realty Advisors, and consults for a variety of clients in this capacity. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Sociology from Oberlin College in 1986 and earned her MS in Urban Planning (1989) and her Ph.D. in Urban Planning (2007) from Columbia University in New York City.
apuszkin@fau.edu
Frank
Schnidman, Senior Fellow, International Programs, is
an attorney with an LL.M. degree in Environmental Law who
has spent more than 25 years dealing with sophisticated land
policy and land use regulatory issues as both a practicing
attorney and as an academic. He has been involved in numerous
redevelopment projects in both the United States and overseas.
He has also taught both planning law and land development
law at a number of universities. Prior to returning to Florida
Atlantic University , Frank practiced law with the law firm
of Greenberg Traurig and served as Director of the University
of Miami School of Law, Graduate Program in Real Property
Development. He is recognized for his knowledge of international
land policy and land development issues, and is a prolific
writer and frequent international speaker. At Florida Atlantic University, Frank teaches Planning Law and manages research and technical assistance projects. He also lectures internationally on land policy issues, and writes about land use, land development and Japanese city planning issues.
schnidma@fau.edu
Jean Scott is a Senior Fellow with FAU’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES). Scott’s specialty areas include building collaborative partnerships to accomplish growth management and community development goals and developing communication outreach tools and reports as part of planning processes. She has worked with governmental and nonprofit organizations in the areas of public education and involvement, community visioning, public policy analysis, and project management. Her work with CUES has included the planning and management of peer review processes, preparation of best planning practices reports, and the provision of technical support in the areas of rural lands and corridor planning. Scott was the founding Executive of the Florida Chapter of the New Urbanism and edited the 2002 and 2005 A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida. Until 2000, Scott served as President of Bluegrass Tomorrow, a regional civic leadership organization that has received national recognition for its successful work in shaping consensus-based growth and resource management decisions for the seven-county central Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. Scott holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Relations from the University of Kentucky.
jwscott234@cs.com
William Stronge, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Economics, has a Ph.D. in Economics from Iowa State University and has spent more than 35 years researching all aspects of the Florida economy. He has been a member of the economics faculty at Florida Atlantic University since 1971 and chaired the department between 1981 and 1990. An expert in Florida economic statistics, he has researched the economic importance of beaches for the state economy under a series of grants received by CUES from the Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems of the Florida Department of Environmental protection since 2003. He has also undertaken projects on school enrollment projections, economic impact of arts and culture, economic development and transportation issues. His book, The Sunshine Economy, An Economic History of Florida Since The Civil War, will be published by the University Press of Florida in Spring 2008.
strongew@fau.edu
Support Staff:
Christopher S. Bennett, MBA, Coordinator of Administrative Services, is a recent addition to the CUES family, replacing Linda Adams on December 1st, 2004. He serves as budget officer, clerical staff supervisor and grants and contracts fiscal coordinator. Chris boasts almost a decade of experience in the financial services' industry. Before coming to the Catanese Center, he worked as budget manager on the outsourcing contract between the College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs and the Workforce Development Board of Broward for the operation of the Pompano North One-Stop Center. Chris earned a Bachelor of Science, honors, degree in Accounting and Management from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, and a Master of Business Administration in Finance degree from FAU. Currently, he is working towards a Master of Science degree in Financial Economics in Barry Kaye College of Business at FAU.
cbenne23@fau.edu
June G. Crippen, Executive Secretary to Director, brings 37 years of secretarial experience from various industries. Most of those years, however, were as a legal secretary in New York and California.
crippenj@fau.edu
Linda A. Foster, Office Assistant, prepares travel arrangements and documentation, handles purchasing matters, and maintains expenditure records. She has been with CUES since 1986.
lfoster@fau.edu