Maurice Cox

Maurice Cox is an urban designer and architectural educator at the University of Virginia, School of Architecture and a former mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia. He most recently served as Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts where he presided over the largest expansion of direct grants to the design fields, oversaw the Governors' Institute on Community Design, the Your Town Rural Institute, and the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD). To strengthen urban design implementation by MICD alumni mayors, Mr. Cox developed the MICD Technical Assistance Workshops and assisted in the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts MICD’s 25th Anniversary Initiative celebrating the program’s 25-year history of transforming communities through design.

From 2002-2004, Mr. Cox served as a Charlottesville City Councilor for six years before becoming the mayor of that city. His experience in merging architecture, politics, and design education led to his being named one of “20 Masters of Design” in 2004 by Fast Company Business Magazine. Mr. Cox is also a founding partner of RBGC Architecture, Research and Urbanism from 1996-2006. The firm has received national acclaim for its partnerships with communities traditionally underserved by architecture. Their design for a New Rural Village in Bayview, Virginia received numerous national design awards as well as being featured on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and in the documentary film “This Black Soil.”
 

Mr. Cox is a recipient of the 2009 Edmund Bacon Prize, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design 2004-05 Loeb Fellowship, and the 2006 John Hejduk Award for Architecture. Mr. Cox received his architectural education from the Cooper Union School of Architecture.
 

Cynthia MacLeod

Cynthia MacLeod has served as the Superintendent/Park Manager of Independence National Historical Park since February 2008. Previous to that appointment, she served as Superintendent of the Richmond National Battlefield Park and the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site since May 1990. She also has extensive experience with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation and worked for eight years in the National Register of Historic Places programs, especially the tax incentive program for rehabilitation of historic structures.

Ms. MacLeod has been called on to be a member of numerous task forces for specific projects through out the National Park Service, including the Education Council, Museum Management Program Council, the Regional Development Advisory Board, a 1990s Denver Service Center reorganization, the regional Cultural Advisory Group, and international assignments in Poland and France. Ms. MacLeod has been recognized for her achievements on many occasions, including a Superior Service Award in 1995.

Ms. MacLeod has a master’s degree in architectural history from the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree from Duke University, where she double majored in zoology and comparative literature. She attended Harvard University’s Senior Managers in Government Program in 2002. In 2003 she successfully completed the Senior Executive Service candidate development program of the Department of the Interior.
 

John J. Reynolds

John Reynolds currently serves as a board member of the Presidio Trust, the Student Conservation Association, the Chesapeake Conservancy, and the Shenandoah National Park Trust. He is member of the North Cascades Institute Advisory Council and is a Chair of the Flight 93 National Memorial Federal Advisory Commission. He also serves on the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail Advisory Council.

Mr. Reynolds served 39 years in National Park Service including positions as Deputy Director, Regional Director, Denver Service Center Director, Superintendent of North Cascades National Park, Assistant Superintendent of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and park planner/landscape architect. Mr. Reynolds has also previously served as a board member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, the George Wright Society, the Yosemite Fund, Yosemite National Institutes, the Association of Partners for Public Lands, and is a past U.S. delegate to World Heritage Committee.

Mr. Reynolds has received several awards including Meritorious and Distinguished Service Awards from the Department of the Interior, and the American Society of Landscape Architects’ LaGasse Conservation Award and Fellowship. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from State University of New York at Syracuse and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University. He also served in the New Jersey National Guard and United States Army Reserve from 1966-1972.

Aekta Shah

Aekta Shah is currently a Master's Student at Harvard University studying Education Policy and Management.   She was previously a Program Manager at the Institute at the Golden Gate, a partnership of the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.  Committed to providing meaningful leadership opportunities to traditionally underserved youth, Aekta has worked with a range of organizations including Americorps, The Sierra Club, and the Crissy Field Center. Aekta has also been recognized by organizations such as Bioneers, Children and Nature Network, the Aspen Institute, and Green for All and has presented for the UN on issues of sustainable development and education.
 

In 2005, Aekta founded the Big Green Bus project, a cross-country, waste vegetable oil-fueled journey across the U.S. to promote sustainable development. Aekta holds a B.A. in Developmental Psychology and Education from Dartmouth College.

Mike Tollefson

In January 2009, Mike Tollefson assumed the role of president of The Yosemite Fund. In January 2010, the Fund merged with the Yosemite Association forming the Yosemite Conservancy. Mr. Tollefson currently serves as a Board Trustee for the University of California in Merced, and is the Deputy Vice Chair for Partnerships at the Mountain Biome Theme, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas.

During his long career with the National Park Service, Mr. Tollefson served as the superintendent of Yosemite National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. From 1987 to 1994, Mr. Tollefson was Associate Regional Director for Operations in the National Park Service's former Pacific Northwest Region. Stationed in Seattle, he provided support for all aspects of operations to the 20 national park units in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Mr. Tollefson began his National Park Service career as a seasonal ranger at North Cascades National Park in 1972.

A native of Seattle, Mr. Tollefson graduated from the University of Washington in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in marketing and finance. He later returned to graduate school to study park management. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves for eight years, attaining rank of captain. Mr. Tollefson has received the Presidential Rank Award, 2009; the Secretary of Interior’s Executive Leadership Award, 2008; the American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award, 2007; the Department of Interior Honor Award for Meritorious Service, 1999; and the Department of Interior Honor Award for Superior Service, 1994.