Vanessa Collins Pyatt, OwnerA proud and lifelongresidentof Baltimore City, VanessaPyatt’s expertise in public relations has been proven time andagain. She isa formerhead of communications for the city departments of Transportation, Public Works, and Education.As chief spokesperson, Vanessawas primarily responsible forarticulatingdepartmental progress on emerging issues to news media. Known forinsisting on a highdegree of professionalism,she facilitated media training on a department wide basis for subject experts to ensure accuracy in messaging and confidence in delivery.After 29 years of service to the City of Baltimore, Vanessa foundedPyatt Group,LLC., a state and city certified minority and woman owned business enterprise (MWBE). Pyatt Groupprovides public relations and engagement expertiseto clients in affordable housing, transportation,and utilities. Pyatt Group was the public relations consultantin Baltimore to Ohio-based Woda Group, Inc. Pyatt Group represented Woda to numerous community and faith-based organizations,and keystakeholders affectedby development of affordable housing along Baltimore’s North Avenue corridor. Pyatt Group coordinated five groundbreaking/ribbon cutting events over four years, includingthe Mary Harvin Center, a $15 million, 61-unit collaboration with Southern Baptist Church and the Broadway-East Community Association. The project garnered international news coverage, opening on the one-year anniversary of its destruction by fire while under construction during Baltimore’s civil unrest in April 2015. As principal communications consultantto Louis Berger/WSP, Pyatt Group launchedthe Department of Public Works’ (DPW) Small Business Development Programin 2016. DPW’s goalisto leverage $1 Billion in consent decree sewer infrastructure improvement projects to increase the poolof qualified, certified MWBEsto compete for citycontracts.In collaboration with Louis Berger/WSP, Diversity Intelligence Services, andtheMayor’s Office of Small, Minority and Women Business, Pyatt Group developed the curriculum,creative, marketingstrategy,and outreach components for the 11-week training program. At the conclusion of theprogram’s fourth year,some300 entrepreneurs had completedthe program withmore than $3 millionawardedin contracts and related services. Pyatt Group has distinguished itself in the communications spaceover the last decade as2020 recipient of the Mayor’s Champion of Small Business Award, 2019 recipient of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award by Bmorenews.com, and2018 finalist in the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Bridging the Gap Awards Competition.Vanessa is agraduate of Morgan State Universityand the Goucher Center for Continuing Studies. She resides in the Mt. Washingtoncommunity of Baltimore.

Jim Brown serves as Director of TrailNation™ Projects at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy – managing the development of trail networks across the country. Prior to that he served as project manager for the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network. He knows the value of trails—connecting people to their landscapes and their neighborhoods, fostering community development, and bringing tangible benefits to local communities—in places urban and rural and everywhere in between across the country. At RTC, Jim puts his passions to professional use providing technical assistance to communities pursuing new trails, building diverse coalitions to advance progressive transportation policies, locating resources and capacity, and working with partners to build and maintain trail networks across the country. Jim has experience in urban environmental education, community development, green infrastructure, urban planning, building coalitions with elected officials and grass roots activists, and international nonprofit issues. Previous professional credits include working for the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and serving as a natural resource management Peace Corps volunteer in rural Tanzania. He has advocated for communities connected by trails everywhere from community meetings, and city halls, to state capitals and the U.S. Congress. He holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in landscape architecture, and his academic research and ongoing projects have been presented at international greenway planning, landscape architecture, transportation, and urban design conferences"

Claire Agre PLA ASLA Claire Agre, Principal and Cofounder, brings humor, passion, and conceptual clarity to projects of all types. Claire moved home to Baltimore after 20-years abroad and afield, north, east and south. Bringing with her a background in oil painting and ecology, she has led design and implementation for a diverse portfolio of projects, including Governors Island Park, Miami Beach Soundscape, the 1000-acre Master Plan for Longwood Gardens and its award-winning Main Fountain Garden, and Duke University Sculpture Park. Her interests range from large-scale landscape resilience to the scale of the garden, as reflected in her leadership role on two emblematic projects: The Giving Delta, the winning entry in an interdisciplinary, international design competition synthesizing futures for the disappearing Lower Mississippi Delta; and Houston Botanic Garden, for which she led the commission, concept, design, and detailing of Houston's first botanic garden founded on ideals of diversity and learning. Claire holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Bachelors degrees in Environmental Science & Policy, Spanish and Latin American Studies from Duke University. Prior to studying landscape architecture, she was part of the inaugural city-wide tree survey team at Washington D.C.'s Casey Trees Endowment. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Pennsylvania. A clear and compelling speaker, Claire has lectured and taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Toronto, University of Texas at Austin, University of British Columbia, Morgan State University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Closer to home, Claire is a mother of two, serves as a Board Member for the Friends of Maryland Olmsted Parks & Landscapes and is a passionate advocate for the highest levels of quality and equity in Baltimore's public realm.

Andrew Warren, Andy, currently serves as the PwC’s Director of Real Estate Research. As the Director of Real Estate Research, and is responsible for monitoring all aspects of commercial and residential real estate, including space market fundamentals, capital market trends, regulatory changes and operational developments. For the past eight years, Andy has led PwC’s participation in the development and production of the Emerging Trends in Real Estate publication. Andy is a frequent speaker on issues affecting the real estate market and has also authored numerous articles for internal clients and national real estate publications. Andy also forecasts market performance for PwC’s “Real Estate Investor Survey”. Andy has over 30 years of experience in all aspect of commercial and residential real estate research. Andy has performed and managed real estate fundamental analysis and forecasting, portfolio construction, and buy/sell decisions for both debt and equity clients. Prior to assuming his current role, Andy served as the Managing Director of Real Estate Research for Principal Global Investors, a top 10 institutional real estate manager in the U.S. At Principal, Andy held a progressive level of analyst and management positions over his 25 year career and served as a voting and advisory member on a multiple real estate debt and equity investment funds. Andy has earned the CFA designation and is a Counselor of Real Estate. He is also an active member of the Urban Land Institute Research Forum as well as a participating member of ICSC, NCREIF, NAIOP, the Appraisal Institute and the CCIM institute. PwC’s real estate practice has a broad perspective and keen insight into your audit, tax and advisory needs, we’ll show you how much further your business can go. We support corporate owners/users, developers, hospitality organizations, investors and REITs across all industries. With local and global insights, combined with industry relationships, we provide clients with access to the information that matters most.

Brennan Murray is Director of Branding & Graphics. Throughout his career, Brennan has produced exceptional graphic design solutions for a variety of projects, from residential brand collateral to large-scale, international planning projects. His leadership, work ethic, and creative approach to branding and identity translate into a comprehensive vision that benefits our clients and brings a fresh perspective to our multi-disciplinary design studio. With a wide range of experience in retail, entertainment, mixed-use, and residential projects, his approach to design thinking is both collaborative and in-depth, and it reflects an extensive knowledge of marketable placemaking solutions within mixed-use environments. Brennan’s focus combines a sharp design eye with a focus on teamwork and collaboration, helping to advance BCT Design Group as a leading design firm. Brennan is a member of the Int’l Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). Brennan earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2010 after completing an Interdisciplinary Design Program at the Nuova Accademia Di Belle Arti in Milan, Italy, in 2008.