David Zipper
David Zipper is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, where he examines the interplay between urban policy and new mobility technologies. David’s perspective on urban development is rooted in his experience working within city hall as well as being a venture capitalist, policy researcher, and startup advocate. He has consulted with numerous startups and public officials about regulatory strategy.
A Contributing Writer at Bloomberg CityLab, David’s writing about urban innovation has also been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Slate. His 2018 article in Fast Company was the first to apply the “walled garden” framework to urban mobility. David focuses on topics including the future of autonomous vehicles, America’s struggle to reduce roadway deaths, and the emerging uses of transportation data.
From 2013 to 2017 David was the Managing Director for Smart Cities and Mobility at 1776, a global entrepreneurial hub with over 1,300 member startups. He previously served as the Director of Business Development and Strategy under two mayors in Washington DC and as Executive Director of NYC Business Solutions in New York City under Mayor Bloomberg.
David holds an MBA with Highest Honors from Harvard Business School, an M.Phil in Land Economy (Urban Planning) from Cambridge University, and a BA with High Honors from Swarthmore College. He has been selected as a Truman Scholar, a Gates Scholar, and a Baker Scholar.
David can be found on Twitter at @davidzipper and reached through his website, www.davidzipper.com.
Faye Paige Edwards
Faye Paige Edwards has been an organizer for GirlTrek since 2012. She recently joined the GirlTrek National Team to lead the Allies and Black Civic Organizations Special Impact Team. GirlTrek has surpassed the 1 million mark and is now the largest health movement for Black women in the world. In her new role, she will support the implementation of GirlTrek’s expanded vision to mobilize a mass movement to increase the life expectancy of 700 million Black women worldwide by 10 years in 10 years.
Ms. Edwards was an inaugural member of America Walks Walking College Fellows and has served as a Walking College Mentor. She has also facilitated collaborations with Trailnet – St Louis Missouri’s bike/walk advocacy organization.
Her education includes a BA, MA, and MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She is a certified Community Health Worker, NCBH Adult Mental Health First Aid Instructor, FAA Remote Pilot, and USA Drone Soccer Instructor.
Joel Feldman
Following the death of his daughter Casey by a distracted driver in 2009, Mr. Feldman created EndDD.org, “End Distracted Driving,” and has developed science-based distracted driving presentations, as well as other resources, used by businesses, schools and community groups in educational initiatives. Mr. Feldman coordinates a network of speakers who have presented to more than 500,000 students across the U.S. and in Canada, all without cost to schools.
Mr. Feldman has personally given nearly 1,000 distracted driving presentations to more than 200,000 teens and adults since 2012, and has been the keynote speaker at a number of legal, medical, traffic safety and business conferences. Current projects include developing distracted driving programs for elementary and middle school students, working on programs to help keep first responders safe from distracted driving and evaluation of distracted driving initiatives to maximize their effectiveness.
He is a member of the NTSB’s National Distracted Driving Coalition and chairs the youth education subcommittee and is coordinating a study with Harvard that will be one of the most comprehensive teen distracted driving project ever undertaken.
Mr. Feldman is a shareholder in the Philadelphia law firm of Anapol Weiss and after Casey’s death obtained his masters in counseling from Villanova University.
Mr. Feldman can be reached at info@EndDD.org
Melody Warnick
Melody Warnick is the author of This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, an exploration of the ground-breaking concept of place attachment and a practical guide to loving the place where you live.
As part of her placemaking studies, Melody examines the contributions of walkability in establishing truly connected communities. Melody has analyzed walkability efforts made in Raleigh, NC, Blacksburg, VA and explored the effect of Walk Scores and Open Streets concepts on a community’s viability.
Her second book, If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Power of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World, describes how location-independent people choose where to live and how communities can attract and retain them. Melody’s books have been featured in the New York Times, Time magazine, Fast Company, Psychology Today, and others. She’s also written for such publications as the Washington Post, the New York Times, Slate, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian, Good Housekeeping, and Woman’s Day.
A regular speaker about how residents can thrive in their communities, Melody lives with her family in Blacksburg, Virginia. You can find out more and subscribe to her newsletter about place at her website, melodywarnick.com.