Professor Vivek Shandas specializes developing strategies for addressing the implications of climate change on cities. His teaching and research examine the intersection of exposure to climate-induced events, governance processes, and planning mechanisms. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Shandas studies the emergent characteristics that generate vulnerability among communities and infrastructure. Theoretically, he views cities as grand experiments that are socially constructed, and can vary in their capacities to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions. Empirically, Dr. Shandas examines the human and planetary forces that facilitate (or inhibit) collective response. As such the broad aims of his teaching and research are to identify threats to planetary habitation, and shape landscapes to improve urban environmental quality. He teaches courses in environmental planning, participatory geographic information systems (GIS), and climate adaptation. As the Founder and Director of the Sustaining Urban Places Research (SUPR), he brings a policy-relevant approach to research, including the evaluation of environmental stressors on human health, developing of indicators and tools to improve decision making, and the construction of frameworks to guide the growth of urban regions. Over the past several years, research from the SUPR Lab has appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Minnesota Public Broadcasting, NY Times, Qatar Times, and several other national and international media. On the Executive Committee and Portland co-lead for the National Science Foundation-sponsored, Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes (UREx), he conducts research to understand how cities can transition into more sustainable futures. As a researcher on the UREx project he addresses urban heat as it impacts society, technological, and ecosystems, by examining how different cities and communities cope with extreme heat stress. As the Principle Investigator for the Canopy Continuum project, Dr. Shandas works with the U.S. Forest Service, and State and County health departments to research how trees improve birth outcomes by mediating urban heat and air quality. Dr. Shandas has written articles on water quality and use, climate justice, air quality, and interdisciplinary education for diverse publications including Urban Geography, Journal of the American Planning Association, Landscape and Urban Planning, BioScience, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Urban Climate, Journal of Environmental Management, and several other international journals. Early in his career, Dr. Shandas was an outdoor school teacher in Vernonia, Oregon under the camp name “Chickadee.” He learned the value of bringing students into the field to explore the connections between human health and ecosystem integrity. He developed a watershed curriculum for San Jose, California, which brought city kids to explore the natural environment by testing local water quality and contributing to a national watershed campaign. The San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum adopted this curriculum, translated it into Spanish, and still uses it today. As a health and environmental policy analyst for the New York Governor’s Office, Dr. Shandas grew fascinated with the brokering of information to make policy decisions. He pursued his doctorate to improve the quality of information that ultimately informs environmental and community health policy. During his doctorate studies, Dr. Shandas received the prestigious Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) fellowship with the National Science Foundation to help develop the field of urban ecology. As an IGERT fellow at the University of Washington, Dr. Shandas had the opportunity to travel to conferences and meet his intellectual mentors including E.O. Wilson, Nancy Grimm, Mark McDonald, Robert Costanza, and Elinor Ostrom. After joining PSU faculty in 2005, Dr. Shandas worked tirelessly with several faculty to apply and successfully win an IGERT program on Ecosystem Services for Urbanizing Regions (ESUR), which, upon its conclusion in 2017 trained over 35 PhD students. Dr. Shandas approaches teaching through problem-based inquiry. He asks students to identify a pressing community problem and the skills and knowledge needed to evaluate that problem. Students work collaboratively to test their ideas and develop workable solutions. By connecting students to problems of real consequence, he makes learning relevant and engaging.

Jay Wilson is the Clackamas County Resilience Coordinator with the Department of Disaster Management and spearheads the County's efforts to reduce risks and assess hazards including flood, earthquake, wildfire, volcano, and climate change impacts. Mr. Wilson is the past-Chair (2014-17) of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (OSSPAC) and previously worked for Oregon Emergency Management as the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Volcano Programs Coordinator and for five years as a Mitigation Reservist with FEMA Regions IX and X. Jay is a former Resilience Fellow with the National Institute of Standards and Technology during the development of the 2015 Community Resilience Planning Guide. He is a member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and has completed post-earthquake reconnaissance trips to Japan (2011) and Central-Italy (2017). Jay holds an M.A. in geography and a B.A. in film and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Craig is an experienced registered architect mastering efficiency and technical expertise, managerial experience and with design and production support to lead the delivery and implementation of projects from beginning to end. With over 25+ years in the A/E industry, Craigs’ residential, retail and office architecture experience, combined with a background in construction, bring an added benefit to projects in which he’s involved. Craig simply delivers projects on time and on budget. At GBD, Craig has been involved in a variety of commercial, residential and architectural projects involving all phases of design, project management and construction administration. He excels in customer service, fostering long-term relationships with two of GBD’s most corporate clients - Columbia Sportswear Company and Les Schwab Tire Centers. His most recent achievement was completing the first Platinum USRC level building for the Oregon State Treasury Department. Currently, Craig is assisting with various complex renovations and special projects for retail, hospitality and office clients.