Competition Jury

Maurice D. Cox is Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He currently leads the ReBuild Initiative, which aims to bring innovative design, theories, and tools into applied practice by civic leaders to rebuild, repair, and transform the urban fabric of cities in the U.S. and abroad.

Maurice is an urban designer acclaimed for his ability to merge architecture, design, and politics in pursuit of design excellence and the equitable development of cities. In his public sector leadership roles, Maurice is known for his design-centered approach to urban planning, incorporating active citizen participation into the public process while simultaneously achieving the highest quality of design excellence.

Prior to joining the GSD faculty, Maurice was Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit between 2015-2019 and Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago between 2019-2023, where he focused on the adaptive challenges facing contemporary urban revitalization.

Carol Coletta has spent a lifetime focused on cities and their success. She is a Bloomberg Fellow with the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University exploring how public space can foster social connections at scale, particularly across demographic differences.

In 2025, she received Urban Land Institute’s highest honor, the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. ASLA awarded her the prestigious LaGasse Medal in 2024.

As President/CEO of Memphis River Parks Partnership, a public-private partnership responsible for five miles of public property on the Mississippi River, she led a new riverfront concept plan and design and construction of the award-winning Tom Lee Park.

Carol served as Senior Fellow at Kresge Foundation and VP of Community and National Initiatives for the Knight Foundation, led the start-up of ArtPlace, was president/CEO of CEOs for Cities, and led the Mayors' Institute on City Design.

She co-hosts “Closer,” a podcast about strategies that make cities social.

Robin Ganser is Managing Partner at Coen+Partners and a practicing urbanist with more than 20 years of experience leading open space, public realm, and placemaking projects across North America and the Middle East. His work treats landscape as the driver of place identity, linking open space to mobility networks, ecological performance, and economic development.

His particular depth is in linear-park and corridor transformations that reconnect cities, define path as place, and activate public life, including multi-billion-dollar green-infrastructure initiatives and the public realm of large-scale civic and international events. He has led work at neighborhood, city, and regional scales, spanning downtown revitalization, artist-led and community-driven design, master planning, and giga-project delivery.

At Coen+Partners he has built a practice known for landscape-led urbanism and multidisciplinary team leadership, directing projects from concept through design, engineering, and construction.

Kimberly Branam is the Port of Portland’s Chief Trade and Economic Development Officer, overseeing marine and commercial development, navigation, Portland Harbor, and economic development. Since joining the Port in 2024, she has led initiatives to strengthen Oregon’s trade infrastructure, advance industrial development, and support regional competitiveness.

Previously, Kimberly served as Executive Director of Prosper Portland, Portland’s economic and urban development agency, from 2016 to 2024, following five years as Deputy Director. She led major real estate and district development initiatives, business growth strategies, and investments designed to expand economic opportunity across Portland. Earlier, as Director of Economic Development for Mayor Sam Adams, she oversaw the creation and implementation of Portland’s first economic development strategy in 15 years.

A third-generation Portlander, Kimberly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso and holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Gabe is Cayuse, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Trained as a fish biologist, Gabe’s career has focused on the environmental protection and restoration of the flora, fauna, waterways, and landscapes of the Columbia River Basin.

As the Executive Director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Gabe leads a team that protects, preserves, and stewards the Columbia Gorge for future generations.

In past work, Gabe led the Friends of Tryon Creek as the Executive Director through a period of transformational growth. This included a capital project that constructed a new education pavilion within the only urban Oregon State Park, Tryon Creek State Natural Area. The pavilion is known as hayash teneus tilixam, translated in Chinuk Wawa as “beloved children” representing the generations of children who will be inspired and educated in the new facility.

As a 500th generation Oregonian, Gabe has long ties to Portland, Oregon. Gabe served the city as a Planning and Sustainability Commissioner, as well as a volunteer board member for many local nonprofit organizations.

Amanda Lowthian, Senior Director of Destination, Industry & Public Affairs, oversees Travel Portland’s destination stewardship team and programs including grants and industry sponsorships, collaborative partner initiatives, visitor experience programs, and the Regional Cooperative Tourism Program (RCTP) in partnership with Travel Oregon and regional tourism counterparts.  She also supports Travel Portland’s executive engagement with local, regional, state and federal policymakers to advance the priorities of destination partners and represent the needs of industry to public sector decision-makers.  

Prior to joining Travel Portland in 2017, Amanda served both the State of Oregon and the City of Portland in economic development roles and produced educational documentary programming for Oregon Public Broadcasting, Discovery Communications and A&E Television Networks. A proud fifth-generation Oregonian, Amanda lives in northwest Portland with her husband, where she enjoys time with family and friends and exploring all corners of the state.

Zari Santner was Director of Portland Parks & Recreation from 2003 until her retirement from the City of Portland in 2011. Her nearly 30 years of service with the City was exemplified by her commitment to equity of service delivery to all Portlanders, expansion and protection of parks and natural areas, and excellence in design for new parks and facilities. She began her career with Portland Parks as a landscape architect/park designer, later serving as the senior manager in charge of Planning and Capital Development Division, ending her career as the Director of the bureau.

Highlights of her career run the gamut, from specific projects such as the establishment of the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade on the east bank of the Willamette, Jamison Square and Tanner Spring Park in the Pearl District, Director Park in downtown, and Powell Butte Nature Park in outer southeast Portland.

Prior to her employment with the City of Portland, Zari worked in several architecture and landscape architecture firms in the Boston area and, briefly, in Tehran, Iran.

Zari received her bachelor's degree in Horticulture from the University of Tehran and a masters degree in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Willie Levenson is president of Ringleader Navigation and founder of Human Access Project. For 16 years, he led HAP’s work reconnecting Portlanders with the Willamette River by pairing imagination with project delivery.

In 2010, swimming from riverfront parks and docks was not allowed under city code. Willie created The Big Float, which brought over 25,000 people to the Waterfront Bowl over 10 years, and the River Hugger Swim Team, which began as a recreational protest swim.

His advocacy helped establish Poet’s Beach, Portland’s first Willamette River swimming beach in nearly a century; Audrey McCall Beach; swimming access at Duckworth Dock; the Cathedral Park dock; and six designated swimming areas in 2022. Levenson mobilized volunteers to remove over 300 tons of concrete from riverbanks.

His background includes 15 years in low-income housing tax credit financing and co-founding Popina Swimwear. Through Ringleader Navigation, he helps projects navigate money, politics, public process and community trust.