Jack Shaevitz serves as the Deputy Director of Policy in the Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families. In his current role, he oversees the office’s strategic initiatives and policy efforts and works to improve child-well being in the City of New Orleans. Before this, he served as a Special Assistant in the Mayor’s Office providing administrative support to a wide array of programs. Prior to this, he worked on Mayor Cantrell’s campaign and transition team as a fellow. Jack is originally from New York City and graduated from Tulane University with a BA in Political Economy and received his Master’s in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University.

John Spain is the Executive Vice President of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit community foundation with assets of over $650 million dollars.  The Foundation provides charitable gifts to organizations and is involved in civic projects in the areas of health care, urban renewal projects, education, and the arts. In his role as Executive Vice President he oversees the foundation’s community projects. John also serves as the Vice Chairman of the Southern Rail Commission where he has worked to restore passenger rail service along the gulf coast, including between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Bio Coming Soon

Andy Sternad is an architect, urban designer, and business leader of Waggonner & Ball, recently reconfigured as a design innovation studio within Moffatt & Nichol, a premier coastal engineering and infrastructure advisory firm. He focuses on the integration of design and engineering expertise to address the climate challenges of our time.

Rami Diaz is an urban design leader of Waggonner & Ball’s resilience practice, and has worked to advance Living With Water® on precedent-setting projects from New Orleans to Norfolk. Rami helped coordinate all of the firm’s Dutch Dialogues® efforts and specializes in leading collaborative design workshops to develop visionary community plans.

Seth Knudsen is the Director of Real Estate Development & Planning for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. Seth leads the design and implementation of NORA’s Residential Development, Commercial Revitalization, and Land Stewardship programs. Seth previously served NORA as a Real Estate Development Project Manager and managed NORA’s partnerships, property dispositions and investments in hundreds of affordable housing units and catalytic community economic development projects across the city. Prior to his tenure at NORA, Seth held various roles in local government which included managing planning and development initiatives at the Housing Authority (HANO), City Planning Commission, Office of Recovery Management and in the CAO’s office, as well as the non-profit City-Works. Seth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Tulane University, a Master’s degree in City Planning and Graduate Certificate in Urban Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Graduate Certificate in Urban Redevelopment from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also certified as an Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP), Green Infrastructure Practitioner (GIP), and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate.

Veronica Reed is Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative’s Executive Director. Born and raised in rural Louisiana, she began her career as a research assistant in the Public Finance and Housing Center at The Urban Institute while earning a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In the ensuing years, she spent time as executive director of the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development (now Prosperity Indiana), affordable housing relationship manager at Freddie Mac, program director of the Neighborhood Indicators Project at DC Agenda, contract policy analyst and project manager at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters, and deputy director for housing policy in the City of New Orleans’ Office of Community Development, among other things. Ms. Reed believes that the work has been perfect training for her role at Jane Place. She shared, “The work that we do taps into the range of my past work and personal experiences while challenging my skills and strengths. But most importantly, it allows me to live my values.”

Steven Kennedy is the Chief Executive Officer of REO, LLC a real estate development, urban planning and policy consulting company in New Orleans, Louisiana. Steven is a graduate of the University of New Orleans with a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Housing and Economic Development and Post-graduate studies at Tulane University School of Architecture Masters in Sustainable Real Estate Development program. He began his career as an urban planner and economic development specialist working to improve distressed communities. Steven’s passion for economic development was sparked at an early age when he experienced extreme poverty growing up in public housing in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina’s devastation provided an opportunity and inspired him to become active in the community development sector which led to the founding of REO.

Steven has developed affordable housing for low to moderate income families in New Orleans. His focus has been on integrating sustainability in his projects. Steven also provides development consulting and urban planning services to third parties. Mayor Latoya Cantrell appointed Steven to the New Orleans Business Alliance in 2018. Steven was also appointed by the New Orleans City Council to serve on the Economic Development Advisory Committee and the Industrial Development Board which mission is to spur economic development for the city of New Orleans approving over $1 Billion Dollars in various real estate development projects.

Jackie is the Chief Executive Officer of Green Coast Enterprises. She stepped into this role in 2020, taking over from Founder, William Bradshaw. Jackie joined the company in 2013 to launch GCE Services, a consulting firm that provides services to property owners, municipalities, and utilities seeking to be more energy efficient. In 2017 she moved into the role of Chief Operating Officer for Green Coast Enterprises taking responsibility for the operating entities including the successful launch of the Pythian Market in 2018. Before joining Green Coast, Jackie worked for Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. as a senior consultant developing innovative financing strategies for energy efficiency and creating community-utility partnerships for the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance and the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance under the Department of Energy BetterBuildings Program. Jackie holds a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. She is a board member of Rebuilding Together New Orleans and teaches as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Tulane Masters of Sustainable Architecture program.