Our Team

  • Darius Sollohub

    Darius Sollohub, AIA, Professor and Interm Chair at the Hillier College of Architecture & Design at NJIT

    Darius Sollohub AIA is an Associate Professor at the Hillier College of Architecture and Design at NJIT and has been affiliated with the university since 1995. From 2010–2015 he served as Director of its New Jersey School of Architecture, administering graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture and planning. Prior, Darius was Director and a founding member of the School’s Infrastructure Planning Program. He teaches and consults on architecture and planning topics at multiple scales, including civic architecture, infrastructure, resiliency, housing, transit-oriented development, parking, and earth art. His interest in design pedagogy is expressed in his book, Millennials in Architecture: Generations, Disruption and the Legacy of a Profession, published by the University of Texas Press in 2019. Darius has worked closely with many institutions and agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and many New Jersey State agencies. Darius has been involved in the recovery planning for New Orleans and helped lead NJIT post-Sandy efforts. He has advised the Newark NJ administrations of Cory Booker and Ras Baraka on airport, housing, parking, and bus rapid transit policies. In 2010, he was awarded the NCARB Grand Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy. Darius is a registered architect in New York and New Jersey.

  • Colette Santasieri

    PhD Executive Director, Center for Community Systems, NJIT, ACN Principal Investigator

    Dr. Santasieri is an environmental planner, civil engineer, and social scientist with over 35 years of experience in the public and private sectors. She has successfully secured and managed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for projects, programs, and research studies in the fields of environmental, infrastructure, and land use planning. She has extensive experience and expertise in the planning and design of sustainable and resilient properties, communities, and civil infrastructure systems; strategic planning; brownfields redevelopment; capital programming; community visioning for redevelopment; transit oriented development; port-city relationships; identifying and analyzing a project’s impacts on socio-economic, natural, and man-made settings; and educating elected officials, government staff, nonprofits, and communities on various urban, infrastructure, environmental, and regulatory topics.

  • Marilyn Jordan Taylor

    FAIA Professor of Architecture & Urban Design, Dean Emeritus University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design

    Marilyn Taylor is Professor of Architecture & Urban Design, having recently completed eight successful years (2008 – 2016) as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Prior to her recruitment to Penn, she had served more than thirty years as partner, architect, urban designer, and partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, where she led the firm’s practices in airports, transportation, and urban design and was elected its first woman Chairman. She is internationally known for her role in the design of large-scale and award- winning urban projects and civic initiatives including Terminal 4 at JFK, Terminal 3 reconfiguration for Continental Airlines at EWR, Terminal 3 at Singapore Changi Airport, Sky City at Hong Kong International Airport, the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station, and the Denver Union Station District. She is very active in civic leadership, having served as a member and Rockefeller Fellow of The Partnership for New York City, President of the American Institute of Architects (New York), Chairman of the New York Building Congress, founding member of the New York New Visions, Board member of the Regional Plan Association, and Global Chairman of the Urban Land Institute. She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her design and leadership, including selection as One of the 25 Most Powerful Women in New York. Taylor attended Harvard University, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley where she received her Master of Architecture. She holds an honorary doctorate degree from Georgetown University.

  • Barbara Faga

    PhD, FASLA Professor of Professional Practice Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

    Barbara Faga is a designer of award winning projects including: Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta; Parc Diagonal Mar, Barcelona; Carter Presidential Center, Atlanta; Wharf District Park of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston; Porta Nuova, Milan; and the Atlanta BeltLine. Barbara joined EDAW (now AECOM) in 1980, chaired the board of directors from 1996 to 2005, and later served as AECOM executive vice president, Planning, Design + Development, North America. Barbara was named one of ten AECOM Fellows in 2011. She has conducted hundreds of public meetings, served as a board member, and chaired several environmental, professional, and retail associations. She authored Designing Public Consensus: The Civic Theater of Community Participation for Architects, Landscape Architects, Planners and Urban Designers (Wiley 2006), co-edited Planning Atlanta in 2014, and has contributed chapters to several planning books. Design Intelligence named her one of the top 15 women who are changing the world of architecture. Barbara received a distinguished alumni award in landscape architecture from Michigan State University, and her PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Faga teaches at Rutgers University.

  • Isaiah (Zay) Little

  • Angela Garretson

    Angela Garretson has over 19 years of political, civic, and higher education experience. A former program director for Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey’s Newark campus, she currently works as Chief External Affairs Officer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where she reports directly to the university president. Angela has supported her Township of Hillside, NJ community as a school board member, councilwoman at large, and Mayor. A lifelong Hillside resident, Angela now proudly serves Union County as a County Commissioner and community leader.

  • Pallavi Shinde

    Director of the Division of Planning & Zoning, City of Newark.

    Licensed professional planner and certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners with multi-disciplinary education and over 20 years of experience in planning, architecture, transportation, urban design, economic development, landscape architecture, real estate development and sustainability.

  • Mark Bess

    Principal Blackberry Studios / University Lecturer- Undergrad Program Coordinator NJIT Hillier College of Architecture & Design

    For over 30 years Mark has worked continuously as an architect, specification consultant and academic. His passion rests in serving as a mentor to his students, working with clients to help them realize their goals and understanding the ways design impacts community, especially those that are typically marginalized.

PAST MEMBERS

  • Richard Barone

    Richard has over 15 years of experience in aviation and other forms of transportation planning. He is L&B’s New York City office leader, its service line lead for Ground Transportation, and the chair of the L&B Lab, the company’s internal research and development unit. Since joining L&B he has managed projects at JFK, ORD, DFW, SFO, SYR airports. Richard’s career experience has been multi-modal, spanning urban transit systems, highways (including goods movement), seaports, and airports. He has managed numerous multi-modal research studies along with participating acting as a professional facilitator at public working sessions on transportation projects and other planning topics. Prior to joining L&B, Richard was the Vice President for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association (RPA) for over a decade, where he led research projects and played a key role in developing RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan for New York City Metropolitan Area.

  • Mark Ahasic

    President at Ahasic Aviation Advisors

    Industry-experienced aviation planner and consultant to airlines, airports, terminal operators, infrastructure funds, and government agencies in the U.S. and around the world. With 15+ years of experience, aviation specialties include: Aviation planning, Operational planning and performance improvement, airport Operational Readiness, Activation & Transition (ORAT), management consulting & strategic planning, public Private Partnerships (PPP) for airports and terminals, project management, public speaking, training, and media inquiries.

  • Christopher Watson

    Director of Planning and Development Services at Murphy Schiller & Wilkes LLP