Donald B. Neuwirth
Executive Director
don@urbanecology.org

Don Neuwirth has been a professional planner for over thirty-five years. After service as a Peace Corps Volunteer, he attended UC Berkeley and earned a Masters in City and Regional Planning. Don was on the founding staff of the California Coastal Commission where he worked as a Senior Permit Appeals Analyst, and then as a Coastal Access Program Manager for both the Commission and the State Coastal Conservancy. Don then became the Executive Director of the Marin Conservation Corps. For the past thirteen years Don has been an independent planning consultant based in San Francisco. His favorite job was working his way through Brooklyn College as a lifeguard in Coney Island.

Winston J. Dong, Jr., AASLA
Community Planner / Designer
winston@urbanecology.org

Winston is trained as a landscape architect and has been leading Urban Ecology streetscape design and community planning projects in San Francisco, public park and school campus design projects in Oakland and Richmond, and built environment - public health foundation projects, as well as being a member of UE's East Bay Greenway design team. He is driven by the belief that better-designed public spaces build stronger communities and a more just society, and he is committed to creating sustainable and sustaining places. Winston served as the Executive Director of the Riverside Park Fund and of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and led and advised other civic and progressive organizations in New York and San Francisco. He is an alumnus of Bard College, the Writing Program at Columbia University, the University of Virginia Historic Landscape Institute, and the University of California at Berkeley Landscape Architecture Certificate Program, where he also teaches.

Katherine Melcher
Community Planning Director
katherine@urbanecology.org

Katherine joined Urban Ecology as its new urban designer and landscape architect. She works with community and youth groups to improve schoolyards, parks, streetscapes, and other outdoor spaces. Before joining Urban Ecology, Katherine helped a tsunami-affected village in Thailand design and build a community park and play area. Prior to that, she worked for a landscape architecture and land-planning firm in San Diego where she was involved with public projects that ranged from neighborhood community plans to playground and transit station design. Katherine is a licensed landscape architect and earned her Masters of Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University; she has a B.A. in sociology from Vassar College.

Kali Futnani
Urban Planner / Designer
kali@urbanecology.org

Kali has been at Urban Ecology since January 2007, working on the East Bay Greenway design team, developing the survey and analysis models and training volunteers for the Central Market Community Benefit District project, designing community outreach, mapping materials and facilitating interactive exercises, and organizing a series of work parties at Garfield Elementary School in Oakland to implement the schoolyard design. One of her main interests is the community-informed design of streetscapes and open spaces. She also worked on a UC Center for Community Innovation commercial corridor revitalization program in southeast San Francisco, and on a health impact assessment for East Oakland. Kali has a M.A. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, a B.A. in Sociology from Mills College, and a B.F.A. in Dance from Kalakshetra College, Chennai, India.

Andrew Hyder
Planning Aide and Green Business Assistant
andrew@urbanecology.org

Andrew joined Urban Ecology in September 2007, focusing on a number of projects including the East Bay Greenway, the Central Market CBD, the Castro CBD, and website and communication initiatives. He is interested in sustainable urban design and its relationship to public safety, the environment, and quality of life issues. From a young age, he has been inspired by how individuals adapt, activate, and enliven their built environment. Andrew is an alumnus of the Urban Studies program at San Francisco State University.

Ivis Garcia Zambrana
Planning Aide and Green Business Assistant
ivis@urbanecology.org

Ivis provides technical assistance to businesses enrolled in the San Francisco Department of the Environment’s Green Business Program and has been involved in research and community engagement for the East Bay Greenway, Castro CBD, and Manzanita and Roosevelt Schoolyard projects. Ivis is a native of Puerto Rico who received her MS in Community and Regional Planning, and Latin American Studies at the University of New Mexico. After completing research for her thesis in Vieques, Puerto Rico, she moved to San Francisco, attracted by its city planning efforts and progressive politics. She is interested in socially-, environmentally-, and economically-sustainable development.