About Us
Staff
- Conan Smith, Executive Director
- Melanie Piana, Associate Director
- Brittany Galisdorfer, Program Director
- Luke Forrest, Public Policy Director
- Anna Clark, Communications Coordinator
- Toni Moceri, Strategic Development Coordinator
- Sharon Carney, Special Project Director
- Mozghon Rajaee, Program Assistant & Cool Cities Fellow
- Michigan Suburbs Alliance Consultants
Fellows
- Valerie Bieberich, Cool Cities Fellow
- Kelly Breslin, Community-Based Research Fellow
- Bala Sekaran, Community-Based Research Fellow
Interns
- Sarah Collins, Regional Energy Office Intern
- Christina Drane, Photography Intern
- Sarah Hoerl, Redevelopment Intern
Executive Director, Michigan Suburbs Alliance
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Conan, our noble leader, has served as Executive Director at the Michigan Suburbs Alliance since August 2004. His passion for cities - matched only by his insatiable desire to create straw replicas of the seven wonders of the world - stems from a life supporting innovative policies for urban development and regional collaboration strategies. (We're serious about the straw; plans are already in the works for a backyard Stonehenge.)
Prior to joining Suburbs Alliance, Conan worked with the Michigan Environmental Council. As their Land Programs Director, he helped build cohesive support in the environmental community for Smart Growth policies among the state's environmental organizations and their constituents. His past work has been integral in creating conservation subdivision design standards for local governments, instituting an asset management program within the Michigan Department of Transportation, advancing regional governance opportunities and securing more than $55 million in increased funding for mass transit in the state. Conan also serves as a Washtenaw County Commissioner representing the City of Ann Arbor, a position he's held since 2004. In his time at the Suburbs Alliance, he has transformed the organization. Perhaps his most impressive accomplishment is the Lego building he recently architected - all by himself, might I add. However, his white board drawings have given new life to our office space, and undoubtedly take a close second.
Conan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he lives today with his new wife, Rebekah Warren. He is heavily involved in community activities: the Sierra Club, the NAACP, the ACLU and the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan. Conan attended the Residential College at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where he earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Literature. With his combination of professional, personal and educational qualifications, Conan is the ideal leader of the Suburbs Alliance and a role model for its employees. It is his habit of picking up the lunch tab, however, that has secured his popularity with the staff.
Melanie Piana, PMP
Associate Director
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Melanie - known as Mel by friends and coworkers - came to the Suburbs Alliance in March 2004. In addition to overseeing all Suburbs Alliance activities, she leads the Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) program. Mel is a Project Management Professional, certified by the internationally recognized Project Management Institute. She recently put another notch in her belt with her completion of the Master of Urban Planning program at Wayne State University. Mel earned her bachelor's in German and Communications from Albion College. Before crossing over to the nonprofit world, Mel worked at Ross Roy/BBDO Detroit and Organic, Inc., two advertising and marketing agencies that service DaimlerChrysler. She lives in Ferndale where she volunteers for the Downtown Development Authority and is an appointed member of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Mel dabbles every summer in sprint triathlons, even though she dislikes running, and for the last five years, she and her husband have participated in the Zoo-De-Mac, a 52 mile bike ride through northern lower Michigan. Mel intends to build a dream home applying modern design and green build principles, but she's waiting to win the lottery before she begins. In the meantime, she will continue to visit as many foreign places as possible.
Program Director
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Brittany joined the Michigan Suburbs Alliance as a Program Coordinator in May 2005 after working as an intern the previous summer. Known by reputation as the "math wiz," Brittany is the brains behind our financial operations. She graduated from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a minor in Spanish. While in college, Brittany dedicated herself to The Detroit Project, a student organization that works to create change through service learning in Detroit. She also does "Little Women" one better by being the second oldest of five girls.
Here at the Suburbs Alliance, we recognize Brittany as a certified health nut. Her business alone could keep Whole Foods out of the red. She's also a running fanatic and member of the Downtown Runners, a weekly running club in Detroit. Detroit happens to be Brittany's new hometown; after living the nomadic life (15 houses in 11 cities in Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maryland and - finally - Michigan), she and her fiancée are enjoying the downtown life with their kittens, Livernois and Vernor.
Outside of the health arena, Brittany exhibits relentless attention to detail that some would term "perfectionism." We, however, consider her borderline crazy.
Public Policy Director
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Luke has been with the Suburbs Alliance since May 2006, contributing his public policy and urban planning expertise to all three of our program areas. This Ferndale resident graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in urban planning and a graduate certificate in real estate development.
Name something and it is likely that Luke has been there, done that. Serving as a legislative staffer in the U.S. Congress. . . selling music at Encore Recordings in Ann Arbor. . . managing federal relations as assistant director of the National Association of State Universities & Land-Grant Colleges . . . starring as the Tin Man in Benzie Central High School’s production of the Wizard of Oz.. Luke also got to see the inner workings of one of our member cities first-hand when he interned for the city manager’s office in Ypsilanti. All the while, he wrote about everything from real estate trends to music as a freelance journalist, one of his life-long goals. Two others were working in a great record store and having his own radio show. Having accomplished these goals before graduating from college, Luke decided to give government a try and here he is!
Communications Coordinator
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Anna Clark grew up in St. Joseph, MI, a small town she’ll happily point to on her left palm. She graduated from the Residential College at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with degrees in Creative Writing & Literature and Art History, as well as—why not?—a minor in Crime and Justice. Anna facilitated workshops in Michigan prisons and detention centers through the Prison Creative Arts Project and The Portfolio Project while she lived in Ann Arbor. She went on to be a live-in community member at Haley House, a Boston-based social justice nonprofit where she worked with people who were homeless and low-income. Her last months in Boston were spent with the Center for New Words, a feisty nonprofit that creates "spaces and places where women's words matter." In January, 2007, she earned her walking stick (no, really; a hand-carved walking stick) from Warren Wilson College's Master of Fine Arts Program for Writers in Asheville, NC, where she was a fiction student.
Besides being the go-to gal for Suburbs Alliance communications, Anna is a freelance journalist, fiction writer, and blogs at her literary and social justice website, Isak. She’s also a reader, a knitter, a fan of Detroit sports, and a lover of kayaking. She’s habitually barefoot and laughs entirely too loudly at her own jokes. And she’s the queen of writing about herself in the third person.
Strategic Development Coordinator
Here's what you need to know about Toni Moceri: she can fit the whole of the Suburbs Alliance in her minivan (actually it's her momma's). A native of Warren, Toni picked up her master's in Research from the London Consortium with a thesis that just happened to be about … ummm … Warren. It was then that she realized that although she was enjoying her European la la lifestyle, she might as well return home and embrace her nerdiness. While abroad, she also earned a post-grad certificate from the Bauhaus in Transnational Urbanism. Oh yes, and she also has a pair of degrees from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in American Culture and Anthropology, with a minor in Spanish Language & Literature.
Toni has put her studies to practical use as a researcher for Shrinking Cities, based in Berlin, where she was one of the go-to Detroit specialists. True to her metro Detroit heritage, she even worked on the line making caddies and then later joined the Social Security Department at the United Autoworkers International Union to assist with benefits and policy matters. These days, she's deepening the possibilities of the Suburbs Alliance with her super savvy skills.
Special Project Director
After returning to southeast Michigan and to the Suburbs Alliance, Sharon has a new role: she's working to bring the region's city leaders and young professionals together in the collaborative problem-solving model of the Millennial Mayors Congress. Email her to learn about it.
In her free time, Sharon does freelance political communications work, web writing and the occasional feature article. She also enjoys learning about everything from food to aromatherapy to U.S. civil rights movements. She works hard to keep the art of letter writing alive and she plans to be trilingual by age 30.
Mozhgon Rajaee
Program Assistant & Cool Cities Fellow
Mozghon comes to the Michigan Suburbs Alliance with a passion for conserving natural resources--and she says she's especially interested in energy resources. This Canton resident studied biology and global studies at Spring Arbor University and Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn. At SAU, Mozghon worked with the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies and was a leader in campus social justice organizations. She also was both a resident assistant and a teaching assistant.
After graduating in 2007, Mozghon served as a naturalist with Mission Springs Outdoor Education, where she had the opportunity to share her understanding of ecosystems and outdoor science with younger students. She spent this last summer as a conservation corps crew leader with The Student Conservation Association. Among many other things, she participated in a southeast Michigan tree survey and led environmental restoration projects. Mozghon earned environmental education certifications through Project Learning Tree, Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.
As the Program Assistant, Mozghon is helping to develop the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office. Her understanding of local communities and of our natural systems will be key to moving us forward.
Fellows
Valerie Bieberich
Cool Cities Fellow
Valerie Bieberich grew up in Battle Creek, MI, and is a political science major at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor--but the classroom isn't the only stage for her interest in governance and policy. After serving as the co-director of the Center on Economic Policy at the local chapter of the Roosevelt Institution (a student-run think tank), Valerie will step up as co-president starting in Fall 2009. As well, Valerie has served as a legal assistant and secretary at Steffel & Steffel, Attorneys at Law, and as a community-based research fellow with the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation. In the latter, Valerie administered a survey to identify community needs and the GRDC's impact in the northwest Detroit neighborhood as part of her research.
In her summer fellowship with the Suburbs Alliance, Valerie will help manage the Cool Cities program, while supporting the Millennial Mayor's Congress and the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office.
Kelly Breslin
Community-Based Research Fellow
Kelly Breslin is a second-year honors student and Student Ambassador at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI. With strong interests in political science, anthropology and language, Kelly plans to continue her studies at the University of Michigan with a Linguistics major.
Kelly's role this summer as a Community-Based Research fellow with the Michigan Suburbs Alliance comes in partnership with the University of Michigan's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP).
Bala Sekaran
Community-Based Research Fellow
Bela Sekaran is a sophomore at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor, where he's studying Political Science and Economics. He spends a great deal of time in the world of debate and forensics, both as a competitor and as the assistant debate coach at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. Bela, who hopes to pursue a career in law and politics, is getting a leg up now by serving as a Democratic delgate representing Novi's 21st precinct.
Bela is 2007 graduate of Novi High School in Novi, MI. In his free hours, Bela likes to swim and play tennis. His role as a Community-Based Research fellow with the Michigan Suburbs Alliance comes in partnership with the University of Michigan's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and AmeriCorps.
Interns
Sarah Collins
Regional Energy Office Intern
Bio coming soon!
Christina Drane
Photography Intern
Christina Drane is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, but she's lived in Brownstown, MI, for the past two years. She's an enrollment counselor for the University of Phoenix in Southfield, where she works closely with military students. No doubt she can relate: Christina served in the United States Marine Corps for seven years, complete with two tours of duty in Iraq. She finished her career in the Marines as a Sergeant (E-5), and says she's "happy to have been part of the most elite and decorated branch of service."
Christina calls herself a resource broker ("because I am the 'go-to' person for everything," she says), and loves reading and writing. She's married, has an eight-year-old stepson, and is a proud mother of a American Staffordshire Terrier (pitbull). She graduated from John Carroll University with a degree in physical education, concentrating in exercise science. She recently finished her MBA, with a concentration in human resources, from the University of Phoenix. She's now working on a second graduate degree--this one focused on adult education and training.
Christina's goal is to teach photography in a college while working as a professional photographer. She says that in her Suburbs Alliance internship, she wants to "gain practical, real-world experience that will help me to transition into a successful career in either the public or private sector, learn about the role that photography plays in strengthening regionalism and local governments, and learn about the use of photography in a nonprofit's marketing, publication design and brand development."
It's evident how lucky we are to have her on our team!
Sarah Hoerl
Redevelopment Intern
Sarah Hoerl came to her Redevelopment Internship with a passion for working in an urban political setting so that she can be an active participant in the evolution of city culture.
Sarah is one semester away from graduating with honors from the University of Michigan--Dearborn with majors in History and Urban & Regional Studies, as well as a minor in Sociology. She's a regular on the Dean's List and is an enthusiastic member of the university's Honors Program. She also won an Honors Scholar Award in the Urban & Regional Studies department. Sarah spent more than three years working with UM--Dearborn's Honors/Writing Office, serving as an essay reader for applicants to the university's honors program. We don't doubt that she hast more than a few funny anecdotes to share.
As well, Sarah brings international savvy to the Suburbs Alliance; she worked last summer in the Canadian Parliament Internship Program. These days, she lives in Allen Park, and, through her Redevelopment Internship (and sharp sense of humor), is helping to create a new kind of Michigan city.
