A panel on how Columbus and other cities are working to improve livability and encourage active transportation.
More details soon about this multi-discplinary panel of experts regarding cities and health.
Lunch and beverages will be provided. Arrive at 11:45am to grab your food and find a seat. Panel begins at 12:00pm sharp, ending promptly at 1:00pm.
PANELISTS
Gulsah Akar, PhD // Associate Professor, City & Regional Planning, The Ohio State University
Gulsah Akar, Ph.D., is an associate professor of city and regional planning and PhD Program Chair in the city and regional planning section of the at the Knowlton School. She is also Editor of Journal of Planning Literature. Dr. Akar’s research interests focus on travel demand analysis and choice modeling. Her research on transportation has received grant support from US Department of Transportation-Region V, Regional University Transportation Center, and the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Kerstin Carr // Director of Planning & Environment, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC)
Carr has been with MORPC for over nine years. Her department provides and promotes collaboration, technical assistance, and regional planning initiatives related to active transportation, local food, the natural and built environment, transportation safety, and water resources to benefit MORPC members and communities in Central Ohio. Specific projects include insight2050, Sustaining Scioto, and the Active Transportation Plan. Carr supervised the development of the regional Complete Streets policy and also managed MORPC's HUD grant to plan an urban food hub with multiple partners in a distressed neighborhood. Carr has over 12 years of experience in transportation and urban planning.
Catherine Girves // Executive Director, YayBikes!
Catherine is a year-round bicycle commuter and Executive Director of Yay Bikes!, an organization helping people travel more places more often by bike. Yay Bikes! touches thousands of people annually, helping folks safely travel public roads lawfully and joyfully, and working with professionals who have the ability to influence their experience. Ms. Girves oversees the staff and volunteers who operate Yay Bikes! numerous award-winning programs and advocacy work, including Year of Yay!, How We Roll, and Yay Valet!, and annual events Ride of Silence and Bike the Cbus. She has personally trained hundreds of people to safely travel public roads by bicycle with confidence and competence.
Scott Ulrich, AICP, CNU-A, LCI // Healthy Places & Bicycle Coordinator, City of Columbus
Scott is an urban planner who currently serves as the Healthy Places Program Director at Columbus Public Health, as well as City of Columbus Bicycle Coordinator. In this role, he works closely with other City of Columbus agencies to ensure that health considerations are addressed through a “Health in All Policies” approach. In addition, he oversees walking and biking initiatives, encouragement programs to get more residents using active transportation, and provides technical assistance to developers on healthy and active site design.
MODERATOR
Harvey Miller, PhD // Director, Center for Urban and Regional Analysis
Dr. Miller's research and teaching focus is on the intersection between geographic information science and transportation science. He seeks to understand how people use mobility and communications technologies to allocate scarce time among activities in geographic space. He is also interested in the social dimensions of transportation and the collective implications of human mobility and accessibility for sustainable transportation, livable communities and public health. His main approach to these questions is the development and application of GIS and spatial analytical techniques to extract information from fine-grained data on mobile objects and related spatio-temporal phenomena.
