Ken Snyder

Placematters

Ken Snyder, Executive Director of PlaceMatters, is a nationally recognized expert on a broad range of technical and non-technical tools for community design and decision-making.  To date, he has organized six national conferences focusing on tools for land use planning, community development and decision making processes. Currently, Ken is Chair of the American Planning Association's Technology Division and sits on the Board of the National Charrette Institute. From 2004-2006, Ken worked for the Orton Family Foundation, heading up their Planning Tools Program.  In 2001, he was selected as a German Marshall Fund Environmental Fellow where he traveled to Europe to study professional peer approaches to land use and transportation planning. Ken has a Master's Degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA from Oberlin College. He currently lives in Denver with his wife and two boys.

John Steffenson

ESRI

John Steffenson has worked for ESRI for past 14 years and has over 25 years of experience with geospatial technology and its use in the federal government.  He is the Director of Federal Civilian and Global Affairs Business Development for ESRI based in Vienna, Virginia and manages a team of professionals located in Virginia and across the country.  His team is responsible for managing a large portfolio of federal business and with International Organizations such as the United Nations.  Prior to joining ESRI, John worked for the USDA Forest Service for almost 15 years in the Pacific Northwest including high profile projects such as the President’s Forest Plan, Spotted owl Recovery Plan, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, among others.  John also worked on an Interior Subcommittee staff in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC for a year in the early 1980’s.  John has degrees in Forestry and Geography and lives in Northern Virginia.

Alex Koudry

GSA

Alexander Koudry is a Deputy Director in the Office of Technology Strategy, Office of Governmentwide Policy, General Services Administration.  Mr. Koudry is currently leading a GSA effort to analyze existing Federal IT policy as it applies to Web 2.0.  Alex has over 18 years of experience in the acquisition, management and utilization of Federal information technology resources – first at the Department of Education and now with GSA.  Mr. Koudry has a Master’s in Information Technology and the CIO University Certificate in Federal CIO Competencies, both from the University of Maryland University College. He has also completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Carie Fox

Fox Mediation

Carie Fox is an experienced and fearless mediator.  She blends carbon-based techniques such as improvisational theatre and humor in creativity with silicon-based techniques such as online multi-criteria decision support and "mapping comment space."  She has facilitated the development of sustained conflict resolution systems including the Portland, Oregon area's Shared Neutrals Program and CETAS, a transportation conflict resolution system.  An inspiring teacher and innovator, Carie's compass is that no matter how dazzling the set of techniques, it is ultimately the conflict, with a healthy smattering of ethics, that determines what the conflict management design should be.