NCDC Staff

Julia Landstreet

Executive Director

julia@civicdesigncenter.org

Julia Landstreet is the Executive Director of the Nashville Civic Design Center. Julia’s role at the Center includes oversight of the administrative and development functions for the organization as well as cultivating relationships within the design, development, education and civic communities. She edits publications and participates in the identification and development of future programs and projects. In addition to her current position Landstreet serves as President of the Board of Directors for Friends of Warner Parks and on the Board of The DISTRICT, She also consults with The Wyomissing Foundation Long Range Planning Committee, Reading, PA. Landstreet has served as Commissioner and Vice Mayor for the City of Belle Meade, completed Leadership Middle Tennessee 2011, operated a construction consulting firm, and has acted in a leadership capacity locally with the Garden Club of Nashville, Hume-Fogg Academic High School, Christ Church Cathedral, and Julia Green Elementary School.

Gary Gaston

Design Director

gary@civicdesigncenter.org

Gary Gaston is the Design Director of the Nashville Civic Design Center and a Lecturer with the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design. Gary graduated from UT College of Architecture + Design in 1999; he also studied urban design at Politechnik Krakowskiej in Krakow, Poland. Gary is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Community Development & Action from Vanderbilt University. Gary has lead planning efforts for the East Bank, Edgehill, Chestnut Hill, Lafayette and Wedgewood Houston Neighborhoods. He was a principal contributor to the Center’s book The Plan of Nashville: Avenues to a Great City, published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2005. Gary founded the “Live It Up! Downtown Home Tour” and co-chaired the event for four years. He served as the Education & Outreach co-chair on Mayor Dean’s Green Ribbon Committee, the Nashville Open Space Plan Committee, and currently serves on the Broadway West End Corridor Study committee. Gary was named a “Next American Vanguard” by Next American City Magazine in May 2010 – one of only 33 young urban leaders selected from across the country. Gary was a member of the 2010-2011 Leadership Nashville class. Gary is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Council and has served on the Board of Directors of Nashville CARES, Artrageous, GLBT Chamber of Commerce and Historic Nashville Inc.

Stephanie McCullough

Communications and Community Outreach Coordinator

stephanie@civicdesigncenter.org

Stephanie McCullough is the Communications and Community Outreach Coordinator, and a Lecturer for the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design. She received her Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Tennessee in 2003, and joined the Design Center in 2005 as Design Assistant. Her work has a focus on affordable and sustainable housing practices. She leads the NCDC’s work with the neighborhoods of Nashville, providing education on civic and urban design, and facilitating meetings to establish consensus among community groups who are seeking guidance to improve their neighborhoods. Stephanie leads the team in marketing and promotional efforts; developing press releases, email newsletters, and website content, membership recruitment materials, Living The Plan of Nashville luncheon collaterals, as well as, assisting in the editing and development of publications. Stephanie has served as co-chair for the Live it Up! Downtown Home Tour, on the Mayor’s Fairgrounds Task Force, the Housing and Neighborhood Development committees for the Long Term Flood Recovery Plan, and currently serves on the Metro Nashville Arts Commission’s Public Art Committee, and the Nashville Poverty Reduction Council. Prior to the Nashville Civic Design Center Stephanie served as Marketing Coordinator for landscape architecture and planning firm Hargreaves Associates, in the San Francisco Office.

Ron Yearwood

Urban Designer

ron@civicdesigncenter.org

Ron joined the NCDC February 2010 as a design fellow and soon after took on the lead coordinator for Envisioning Nashville 2035, made possible by a grant provided by TDOT and the MPO. This project consists of a series of reports dealing with transportation, public spaces, development and bridge design considerations. They will be compiled into a publication in the fall of 2011. Ron also actively participated in the ACE mentoring program with Glencliff and John Overton High school students, as a representative from the NCDC. Ron holds a Bachelors of Architecture from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. As a graduate, he worked as an associate AIA with Gresham Smith & Partners in Nashville, TN. In 2008 he returned to graduate school where he earned his Masters in Urban Design from the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. Emphasis was placed on the role of urban design as a key discipline in the formation of sustainably built environments. Following the MAS program, Ron had the opportunity to work with Franz Oswald and Peter Schenker on the Urban Laboratory exhibition in Addis Ababa, sponsored by the ETH, displaying their nesTown project as a model for new Ethiopian cities. His work from the MAS UD course was published in Cities of Change Addis Ababa, and Quo Vadis? Addis/ Ethiopia.

Patricia Conway

Project Manager

patricia@civicdesigncenter.org

Patricia is the Project Manager for NCDC’s Shaping Healthy Cities: Nashville project, and is a social scientist in the area of Community and Environmental Psychology. She earned a MSc from Vanderbilt in 2008, and a BSc (honors) in Psychology from Stirling University, Scotland (UK) in 1997. Prior to emigrating to the U.S. in 2004 Patricia worked as a clinical researcher for the National Health Service Scotland, and was a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, and Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Patricia is a past member of the Royal Air Force Training Corps; the Scottish Children’s Panel (Scotland’s Judicial System for Children) and is a graduate of the Nashville Peace and Justice Center’s Leadership Program. She is a founding member and past Advisory Council member of Nashville’s Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee (now Community Food Advocates), she co-founded the Riverside Village Community Garden, and co-built Nashville’s first African keyhole garden in East Nashville.

Design Fellows

Melissa Alexander

Design Fellow

melissa@civicdesigncenter.org

Melissa joins the NCDC via Brooklyn and Detroit, where she worked at several boutique architecture firms. While studying at the University of Tennessee, Melissa was a Bicentennial Scholar, an honor bestowed by the university based on academic merit. She was also the president of Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society, and received the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal for Leadership, Service, and Merit. While practicing, Melissa, along with a partner, participated in an international design competition sponsored by the World Architecture News Association and the The Royal Academy. Their entry, entitled ‘Urban Projections: A Conversational Streetscape’ won the first place award, and was published and exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. Currently, Melissa divides her time between HollerDesign, a local furniture design and manufacturing firm she started with her husband, and the Nashville Civic Design Center. Additionally, Melissa serves as a lecturer at the University of Tennessee, College of Architecture + Design.

Kira Appelhans

Design Fellow

kira@civicdesigncenter.org

Kira Appelhans received her undergraduate degree in Landscape Horticulture and Design from Colorado State University in 2002, and her Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. Her final master’s project, designed with a classmate, won an ASLA award and was published in A+T magazine, Spain. After graduating, Kira worked for the New York based landscape architecture firm Balmori Associates leading competitions and projects with a focus on sustainable design. She has taught in the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas, Austin and in the School of Design Studies at Parsons. Kira was a team member on the Rising Currents design workshop and resulting exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She was a fellow at the MacDowell art colony and is a managing editor of the landscape art and urbanism website Topophilia.

Betsy Mason

Design Fellow

betsy@civicdesigncenter.org

Betsy earned her Bachelor of Architecture and Minor in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee in 2010. In 2009, she received the Foreign Studies Enrichment Scholarship to attend the Finland Summer Architecture Institute in Helsinki, Finland. Hosted by Aalto University of Science and Technology, her studio's final work documented a three-piece Aalto ensemble in Inkeroinen, Finland and was accepted into the permanent collection of the Alvar Aalto Museum. While at UT, she participated in the inaugural design + build studio/seminar. It was an interdisciplinary effort and produced a comprehensive design for an Interpretive Visitor's Center for Panther Creek State Park. Designed to achieve a LEED Gold rating, the studio's work received the Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Award in 2009. The project is currently on hold and seeking funding. In addition to her design work, Betsy volunteers with Hands On Nashville and Soundforest.org.