Art as a Catalyst for Climate Action

Michael DeAngelo is a multidisciplinary creative with 15+ years in fine art, design, illustration and fabrication who is passionate about visual experiences and relationships. He is currently exploring experience design and framework design across multiple platforms, both digital and analog. He is known for his graffiti and public art and for organizing projects that consider community dialogue and development.  He excels in design-build projects, utilizing robust skills in multiple disciplines from painting to metalwork.

Lisa Lee is the Director of Sustainability Programs at EZ Ride, one of New Jersey’s eight Transportation Management Associations (TMAs). She oversees the statewide EV Accelerator Program and the Bike and Pedestrian Program and encourages stakeholders to use policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change to create safer and healthier communities. She is the regional Safe Routes to School Coordinator for Monmouth, Bergen, and urban Essex, Union, and Passaic Counties, and champions active transportation. Lisa works with schools and communities to implement asphalt art projects, safety education, walk-bike audits, speed studies, and air quality monitoring to build safer streets, reduce air pollution, and prevent pedestrian and cyclist crashes.

Lisa received a B.A. from Wellesley College, a Master of Divinity degree from Alliance Theological Seminary, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA). She expects to receive a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in the near future.

Shayna Rose is the Toward Zero Planner for the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. In her role, Shayna analyzes high-injury roadways and intersections and identifies systemic interventions to improve traffic safety at these locations, using a transportation design approach that centers pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable roadway-users. Shayna is currently leading the development of Baltimore City’s first Vision Zero Action Plan, which will commit the City to eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries by 2041. Shayna also led the modernization of Baltimore City DOT’s placemaking program, making the program more accessible and known to communities and artists. Under her leadership, new annual placemaking projects in Baltimore tripled. Shayna has given presentations to national audiences through the Vision Zero Network, Rails to Trails Conservancy, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). She earned her master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Georgetown University and her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Richard Mark Johnson is an artist and educator, and community leader from Springfield, MA with a passion for youth development and community building. In 2018 he founded Chess Angels Promotions Inc., a  nonprofit that uses art as therapy. Richard calls his work “soul food art,” art with a message that speaks to resilience, identity, and belonging. His projects include Be the Change and the mural The Birds, Bees, and Trees (2023), a 10x15 foot piece honoring science and our ties to nature. His vision is to activate everyone’s ability to learn by connecting content to identity, where art becomes a mirror reflecting the life we live.

Kilia Llano is Dominican multidisciplinary artist whose work combines muralism, community engagement, and environmental storytelling. She has painted in over 30 public art events across the Americas and Europe, and has been awarded residencies and scholarships by institutions like the U.S. Forest Service, Parsons School of Design, and the Global Artivism Conference in South Africa. She recently earned her MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art, where she received the Bonnie De-Witt Fund Award. 

Jane Golden has been the driving force of Mural Arts Philadelphia since its inception, overseeing its growth from a small city agency into the nation’s largest public art program and a global model for transforming public space and community through art. Under her direction, Mural Arts has created over 4,000 works of public art through innovative collaborations with community-based organizations, city agencies, nonprofit organizations, schools, the private sector, and philanthropies.

Sought after nationally and internationally as an expert on urban transformation through art, Golden has received numerous awards for her work, including the Philadelphia Award, the Hepburn Medal from the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center at Bryn Mawr College, the Pearl S. Buck International Woman of Influence, the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship Award, and many more. Golden currently serves as a Cabinet Member for Mayor Parker’s “Clean and Green” Initiative, and also as Critic-in-Residence at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

An urban and land change scientist, Karen Seto is one of the world’s leading experts on contemporary urbanization and global change. She uses satellite remote sensing, field interviews, and modeling methods to understand how urbanization will affect the planet, including land change, food systems, biodiversity, and climate change. She has pioneered methods to reconstruct urban land use with satellite imagery and has developed novel methods to forecast urban expansion. She has conducted urbanization research in China for twenty years and in India for more than ten. Dr. Seto has served on numerous national and international scientific bodies. She was a coordinating lead author for the 2022 IPCC 6th Assessment Report and the 2014 IPCC 5th Assessment Report. For both reports she co-led the chapter on urban mitigation of climate change. She currently co-chairs the U.S. National Academies Climate Security Roundtable, established by the direction of Congress to help better understand and anticipate the ways climate change affects U.S. national security interests. She also co-chairs the U.S. National Academies Subcommittee on U.S.- China Scientific Engagement. From 2000 to 2008, she was faculty at Stanford, where she held joint appointments in the Woods Institute for the Environment and the School of Earth Sciences. She has received many awards for her scientific contributions, including the Outstanding Contributions to Remote Sensing Research Award from the American Association of Geographers.

Dr. Seto is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received a PhD in Geography from Boston University.

Dana Wall is a Senior Project Director at Street Plans, an urban planning and design firm. At Street Plans, Dana has implemented over 25 Tactical Urbanism projects, many of which have included asphalt art, plus artistic public space activations in cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Culver City (CA), and Deerfield Beach (FL). In addition to Tactical Urbanism, Dana has a breadth of nationwide experience in transportation and mobility projects. She authored the City of New Haven’s first Citywide Active Transportation Plan, and will soon manage the execution of a corridor Quick-Build project funded by the federal Safe Streets & Roads for All grant program to evaluate changes proposed in the Plan. She currently serves as the project manager for the Village of Palmetto Bay’s (FL) traffic Safety Action Plan, and will be co-leading the upcoming Tactical Plazas Implementation and Program development project with Boston’s Transportation Department.

David loves urban spaces and nature. He loves creativity and collaboration. He loves theatre and music. In his life and work he has practiced in all of these as, in various moments, a scientist, a climate change researcher, a land steward, an ecological practitioner, composer, a playwright, a musician, an actor, and a theatre director. David’s dad told him once that he needed a back up plan, something to “fall back on”. So he bought a tuba.

As Special Projects Manager at Town Green District, Tara von Schmidt leads public art initiatives that bring vibrancy and connection to Downtown New Haven. With more than ten years of experience in the performing and visual arts, she champions the power of creativity to shape places and build community. She is dedicated to making the arts accessible and impactful, weaving culture into the everyday life of the city.