Gregory Soltis - Senior Designer/ Planner with RDL Architects

 Greg's story
Gregory earned a master’s degree in Urban Planning, Design, & Development from Cleveland State University in 2013. Throughout his education at Cleveland State University, he held a graduate assistantship for Dr. Mark Salling as a researcher, cartographer, and graphic designer at the Northern Ohio Data & Information Service (NODIS). In addition he worked on various other projects at CSU including “Linking Land Use and Ohio’s Waters: Best Local Land Use Practices”, a document produced for the State of Ohio by CSU’s Community Planning Program. He was honored as the 2013 American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student, and also presented with the Wallace G. Teare Prize. Before attending CSU, Gregory worked as an architectural designer in Las Vegas and Washington, DC for TAL Studio, a leader in the world of hospitality design. After his return home to Cleveland he quickly became active in volunteer and advocacy work, furthering historic preservation, thoughtful planning and urban design.

Alumni Bios

Karen Averell - Associate Development Project Manager, PIRHL)
“My coursework further developed my critical thinking skills and increased my knowledge of the neighborhoods of the City of Cleveland. As a development associate with The Coral Company, I manage multiple commercial and residential and development projects, and I research potential development projects.”

Hands-on learning is the predominant feature of the curriculum at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs. Professors involve students in finding solutions to real problems faced by local agencies and governments.

Andrea Bruno - Real Estate Officer at the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation

“Andrea Bruno serves as the Real Estate Officer at the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation (CCLRC). Andrea analyzes potential real estate transactions and determines whether the proposed transactions are a good investment for the land bank consistent with its mission. Andrea reviews and assembles real estate transaction documents pertinent to a real estate transaction. Prior to her time at CCLRC, Andrea was the Director of Residential Real Estate at St Clair Superior Development Corporation. Andrea helped with the implementation of reutilization projects pertaining to vacant land and vacant housing reuse. Andrea sits on the Board of The Fair Housing Center for Rights and Research, the Western Reserve Community Development Corporation, and the Arts Commission for the City of Mentor. In 2012, Andrea completed her Master’s in Urban Planning, Design and Development at Cleveland State University. In the same year, she also completed her Master’s in Business Administration at Lake Erie College. Andrea received her Bachelors of Arts from Mount Union College in Business Administration in 2009.”

Chris Bongorno
“I was able to make connections and grow my network of peers and professional contacts through the courses I took and the other various college events I attended. The ongoing research and interaction I had through the MUPDD program helped me to expand my areas of expertise and stay up-to-date on current issues and trends in the world of planning and development. 

I started working at University Circle Inc. (UCI), as an intern, during my second year in the MUPDD program and was eventually promoted to Director of Planning.  Nearly 10 years later, I still work with UCI on a regular basis, but now as a transportation planning consultant.  My work there, and in other parts of Ohio, is focused on multi-modal transportation, with an emphasis on pedestrian, bicycle and transit-oriented development.  I have been able to sustain many of the relationships I developed while at Levin and they have benefited my work and professional development ever since."

Deborah Heinen - Fellow at HafenCity University, Hamburg, Germany 
Deborah Heinen is currently working as a doctoral fellow at HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany where she is examining how climate action plans are implemented regionally in the US and in Germany. Through her work experience, she brings a unique organizational development and policy perspective to urban issues.  Her semester abroad at Cleveland State University in Fall 2010 turned into a five year stay in Northeast Ohio with wonderful study and work experiences. While getting her Masters in Urban Planning, Design, and Development at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs, she had the opportunity to work with Dr. Zingale and Dr. Liggett as a graduate assistant on several publications about shrinking cities. After graduating from CSU in 2013, she worked for Cuyahoga County Planning Commission on a complete streets toolkit for the 59 communities in the county. She has also worked as a regional planner for the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), where she helped facilitate moving the 12-county “Vibrant NEO 2040 – Framework Report” from plan to action. In her spare time she volunteered for Heights Bicycle Coalition promoting cycling in the Heights. Her current research interest in climate change mitigation, regional planning, and sustainable transportation funding policy has brought her to Hamburg, Germany. Her time in Cleveland will always be an important part of her life.

Joyce Pan Huang - Director of Planning and Placemaking at MidTown Cleveland, Inc.
Joyce Pan Huang is the Director of Planning and Placemaking at MidTown Cleveland, Inc., an economic and community development organization that serves the area between downtown Cleveland and University Circle. In her role with MidTown, she is responsible for overseeing the urban planning, community development and placemaking efforts in the neighborhood.

Joyce holds a Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development from Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs and a B.S. in Sociology with a minor in Program in the Environment from the University of Michigan.  In 2017, Joyce received the AICP Outstanding Planning Student award.

Joyce is a transplant with roots in the Rochester, NY area. Since coming to Cleveland, she participated in The Cleveland Foundation’s Internship Program with a placement at the Cuyahoga Land Bank and contributed to CSU’s Center for Community Planning as a Graduate Assistant. She is the board secretary of an affordable housing initiative on the near west side called Nehemiah Collaborative, contributes to Cleveland’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community’s civic engagement efforts and sits on the City of Cleveland’s East Region Design Review Advisory Committee.

Kelly La Rosa - Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity
“I went into the MUPD program with 10 years of local government experience, specifically in planning and zoning. Much of what I was exposed to as a student directly correlated with what I was doing on the job, which reinforces the fact that students learn the tools and framework necessary to be adequately prepared for the workforce.”

I wear multiple hats in my position as Supervisor for Residential and Housing Service at the Nord Center. The Nord Center is a comprehensive behavioral health care center with a 60-year history of providing services to persons with mental illness. One role is to coordinate housing for persons who have both a severe mental illness and are homeless through the Shelter Plus Care and Supportive Housing Programs of the McKinney Vento Act. I also direct the Housing Service Program of Lorain County (HSP), a program that the Nord Center has fiscal oversight of and is open to all residents in Lorain County. The HSP provides placement assistance for the homeless, emergency rental assistance for individuals and families experiencing a temporary inability to pay rent, and foreclosure loss mitigation. I oversee the homeless shelter liaison and peer mentor, who conduct mental health assessments at the day shelter, overnight shelter, and the 24-hour shelter in Lorain County. I am the Vice Chair of the Homeless Task Force of Lorain County, co-chair of the Continuum of Care Committee, board member of Lorain County Habitat for Humanity and Lorain County Furniture Bank, and a member of the Lorain County Foreclosure Task Force. I am also a licensed Realtor with Russell Real Estate Services in Amherst.”

Rachel Oscar -  Director of Programming and Community Engagement for Campus District, Inc., (CDI)
Campus District, Inc. is a non-profit, community development corporation (CDC), representing the eastern edge of Downtown Cleveland from E. 18th to E. 30th, north to the lake and south to Orange Ave (this includes CSU!). We are physically located in the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs building and partner with the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs and Cleveland State on a number of initiatives.

As the Director of Programming and Community Engagement, I work to build programming that improves the way our stakeholders experience the District and create connections between members of our community who probably wouldn't otherwise meet. A good example of this is the Bridge that Bridges--a community building and mural project that brings a cohort of fifteen stakeholders together to learn about race and equity in our neighborhood and then design a mural inspired by their shared experiences and conversations. The Bridge that Bridges is located at E. 22nd Street and Cedar Avenue. Read more about Rachel. »

Arthur Schmidt IV - Senior Planner with OHM Advisors
Arthur Schmidt is a 2013 graduate of the Master’s in Urban Planning, Design & Development degree specializing in Urban Design. He also earned is Master’s Degree in Urban Design from Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative in 2013. Arthur is currently a Senior Planner with OHM Advisors, an architecture, planning and engineering firm in their Cleveland office where he looks to bring a collaborative and placed based approach to each one of his project in community and transportation planning, urban design, public policy, zoning, economic development and public engagement. Prior to OHM, Arthur worked for the City of Cleveland Planning Commission as an Urban Designer and Planner, coordinating all streetscape related projects, managed for the city the NOACA Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative (TLCI), and was the administrator for both the Mayor’s Infrastructure and Streetscape Committee, and the Downtown Flats Design Review Committee. Additionally, he is a part time instructor at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State where he teaches an undergraduate Urban Studies course and serves on the Executive Committee of the Cleveland section of the American Planning Association as their Vice Director of Programming.

Jeffrey Sugalski - Director, Real Estate Development at Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc.
“The College of Urban Affairs helped lay the foundation for me to become an effective young professional in the field of community development. Through my courses and employment at the College, I learned how to approach problems both creatively and analytically. My college experience also afforded me the opportunity to build a network of skilled professionals to support me in my current and future career endeavors.

Hands-on learning is the predominant feature of the curriculum at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs. Professors involve students in finding solutions to real problems faced by local agencies and governments."