Carol Coletta, CEO of
CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show,
Smart City.
As a passionate advocate for cities, Ms. Coletta has devoted her life
to answering the question: What makes cities succeed? Through her
weekly conversations with urban leaders and thinkers on Smart City, her
research, and her leadership at CEOs for Cities, she continues her
ongoing quest for the answers.
Lenore
Blum is a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at
Carnegie Mellon where she is co-director of the NSF-ALADDIN Center and
faculty advisor to the student organization, Women@SCS. Her most recent
creation and passion is
Project Olympus,
a high tech innovation center with the goal of building a
climate/culture/community to enable talent and ideas to grow in the
Pittsburgh region. See: www.olympus.cs.cmu.edu/
Dr. Eric Beckman, on leave from his academic post at the University of Pittsburgh, is founder of
Cohera Medical Inc.
Cohera is working to commercialize a biocompatible, resorbable adhesive
that can be used internally during surgery. In 2003, Dr. Beckman
created the
Mascaro Sustainability Initiative at Pitt which serves as a focal point for research into sustainable design occurring throughout the school of engineering.
Mike Edwards, As the President and CEO of the
Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership,
Edwards manages a 90-block BID, and has been active in the Downtown
development efforts, overseeing the development of enhanced cleaning
services, a new Safety Ambassador program, and the launch of Wi Fi
Downtown Pittsburgh. Currently, he is implementing a new 5-year
Strategic Action Plan and completing the second 5-year renewal of the
Downtown Pittsburgh Business Improvement District.
Grant Oliphant is vice president of programs and planning at
The Heinz Endowments.
He manages the Endowments' 12-member program staff and a $60 million
annual grant-making portfolio encompassing five areas: Arts &
Culture; Children, Youth & Families; Education; Environment; and
Innovation Economy. He also works with and guides special task forces
promoting civic design, school reform, and stronger links between
environmental stewardship and economic development.