The Open Planning Project finds smart ways to transform the world. Our extraordinary team makes it possible.
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Mark Gorton
President and Founder
Mark Gorton has spent the past decade building The Lime Group, a series of innovative financial and technology companies. Tower Research Capital, the Lime Group flagship, is a hedge fund specializing in quantitative trading and investment strategies. Mark’s financial and technical talents, and his success in growing and managing software teams, have beaten markets time and again.
Mark founded The Open Planning Project in 1999 after realizing the incredible potential of the open source movement to create tools that catalyze civic engagement. Mark is TOPP’s primary funder, and in his role as President he draws on a strong background in urban transportation advocacy and open media.
Mark holds degrees from Yale, Stanford, and Harvard Business School.
Jacqueline Arasi
Director
Over the past four years, Jacqueline has brought about TOPP's expansion from two employees to a talented team of nearly fifty, with over a dozen projects. While creating one of the world's finest open source software development teams, she has also served on the Board of Directors of the Plone Foundation. Jacqueline is a member of the Free/Libre/Open Source Software Foundations leadership network and a Stanford graduate.
Nicholas Grossman
Senior Product Manager
Nick joined TOPP in 2006 to produce Streetsblog. Since then, he's led product development for several of TOPP's web-based initiatives, including OpenPlans, Streetfilms, and, most recently, the Livable Streets Network. He draws on experience as Design Director for a tech startup and as an independent web designer and developer.
In a prior life, Nick worked at the Project for Public Spaces, consulting on public space design and managing web development projects. His portfolio at PPS included Times Square and Washington Square Park in NYC, and a major online resource center for the Federal Highway Administration. Nick holds a BA in Urban Studies from Stanford University.
Chris Holmes
Managing Director
After graduating from Stanford, Chris began at TOPP as a GeoServer volunteer. He soon became the project’s lead developer, building the community around the software. In 2005, Chris used a Fulbright scholarship in Zambia to assess the potential for Open Source Software to help develop Spatial Data Infrastructures.
He returned in 2006 to lead GeoServer and the expanding OpenGeo initiative. Chris is a board member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and a member of the Project Management Committee of GeoTools. He has traveled the world to spread a vision of a fully interoperable geospatial web, and he is a frequent keynote speaker at geospatial events.
Aaron Naparstek
Livable Streets Executive Producer
Naparstek has worked as a freelance journalist, community activist and interactive media producer, designing and developing web products for large corporations, small start-ups, and venture capitalists. In 2005, he joined TOPP to found Streetsblog.org. Since that time, Streetsblog has played a pivotal role in New York’s transportation policy. Aaron is currently directing the expansion of Livable Streets into a national campaign.
Aaron is a Marshall Memorial Fellow and the author of Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage. A founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group, Aaron also works with the Park Slope Civic Council and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. He holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Streetsblog Deputy Editor
Brad Aaron
A native of North Carolina, Brad has worked as a reporter, editor and publisher since 1994, and has written extensively on government, business, education, the environment, urban planning and transportation, among other topics. Brad began freelancing for Streetsblog in early 2007 and was named Deputy Editor in February 2008. He lives in Inwood, at the northernmost tip of Manhattan, where he can always get a seat on the A train.
Andrea Aime
Software Engineer
Andrea is a lead developer for Geoserver. He enjoys working on GIS
projects because they encompass the whole IT field and, due to the
large volume of data, continually provide new challenges. Andrea is
partial to developing in open source because of the great communities
built around projects, and the fun challenges that come from working
with people who live around the world. When he isn’t banging his head
against Geoserver and Geotools, he teaches at a local university,
spends time with his family, plays tennis and reads books.
Sebastian Benthall
Software Developer
After graduating from Brown University with a degree in Cognitive Science, Sebastian joined TOPP. In his spare time, he plots potlucks and revolution.
Software Developer
Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock
Nick
graduated from Columbia with a degree in Computer Engineering. Prior to
coming to New York, he went to Franklin & Marshall College, where
he mostly attended club meetings.
Nick has thought about it considerably, and he would rather give up hot water than internet access. He occasionally blogs at Unschooled.org.
Lily Bernheimer
Livable Streets Project Coordinator
Lily
holds a BA in Ethnic Studies from Brown University. Before TOPP, Lily
worked at the Gotham Center for New York City History. Her first
occupation in New York was as a children's face-painter, where she
witnessed the city's potential for thriving streets while traveling to
work in public spaces throughout the five boroughs.
Ian Bicking
Ian Bicking has been a free software enthusiast ever since he read the GNU Manifesto, but it took a few more years to acquire the skills to usefully contribute to the cause. He has been a contributor to a variety of projects in the Python world for the last six years, is the author of several popular Python libraries including Paste and SQLObject and has a well-read blog. Before coming to TOPP he was a consultant and web developer
Joshua Bronson
Software Engineer
Joshua Bronson, b. 1984, never graduated from the Chong Institute of
Psychobotany. A militant hacker/student radical, he was arrested during
his first semester for staging a vicious coup, for
which he spent several months in federal prison (a harrowing experience
that rendered him incapable of coding for many years). Once recovered,
he went on to obtain his Bachelor of Science from Brown University in
Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Frisbee Studies. When not
programming, he enjoys drawing, playing saxophone, and lying
elaborately about biographical information.
Graphic Designer
Carly Clark
Carly makes beautiful things. Like streets full of happy people. She leads visual design efforts at TOPP, with a focus on bringing the campaign content to life. Carly combines technical expertise in making livable streets with a creative flair for making information fun and useful. Before TOPP, she was the Art Director for the Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit public space design firm.
Carly holds degrees from Wellesley and Pratt Institute, and she has called three out five boroughs "home" at some point during her time in NYC.
Software Developer
Tim Coulter
Tim Coulter is a software developer by trade, though his ultimate passion is software testing by investigation and exploration.
Tim
has an extreme interest in open source software and how it will affect
the future of computing. He enjoys giving his code away for free. In
college, he worked closely with the big wigs in the software testing
world, namely Dr. Cem Kaner, James Bach, Scott Barber, and others, and
he still hangs with them to this day.
Tim's favorite color is blue. And his number? Five.
Philissa Cramer
Philissa Cramer is a journalist covering the New York City public schools. Before coming to TOPP, she worked at Insideschools.org, where she visited and reviewed more than 100 public schools. She studied education history and policy and edited the student newspaper at Brown University. Philissa is also a founding member of the Brooklyn Food Group supper club.
Clarence Eckerson, Jr.
Director of Videography
Clarence has been involved with the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy scene since 1994. He served as chair of the Brooklyn Transportation Alternatives chapter from 1999-2002 and is the ringleader of bikeTV,
a cable-access show/website since 2002. He joined TOPP after making a
short film about "Car-free Central Park" in 2004 and currently oversees
production of NYCSR's StreetFilms: mini-documentaries and promos which
highlight the struggles communities in NYC face with traffic and
dangerous pedestrian conditions in their neighborhoods.
His speciality vignettes of innovative transportation practices in other cities, hopefully enlightening NYC's leaders to adopt similar measures here. He shoots nearly all of his video by foot, bike or using mass transit. He has never owned a driver's license.
Streetsblog Editor and Reporter
Ben Fried
Ben has been writing and reporting for Streetsblog since January 2008.
Previously, he spent 7 years at the Project for Public Spaces. He is
currently completing a masters in journalism at Columbia. Go Mets!
Vanessa Hamer
Vanessa gets excited about technology that levels playing fields, and she wishes she could compost on her fire escape. She graduated from Duke.
Jeff Hammel
Software Engineer
A former plasma engineering student from WPI and UC Berkeley, Jeff has
migrated from CPU-intensive computer simulation to the web programming
world.
He appreciates that TOPP allows him to use his talents in a
morally responsible way. He dreams to write an uncommonly good
time-travel tale at some point. Jeff joined TOPP in August 2006.
Andreas Hocevar
Andreas
has been programming since his first Sharp pocket calculator. He holds
a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and he began his
career in Austria as a planner. When he discovered that existing
planning methods involve huge barriers to positive change, he decided
to create software for better planning. Andreas joined TOPP in 2008.
Andreas' favorite means of transportation is his bicycle.
In his spare time he enjoys mountaineering and backcountry
snowboarding, as well as sailing and yacht racing.
Rebecca Jacobs
Rebecca has taught middle school in Milan, handled Special Projects
at Planned Parenthood’s national headquarters, and broadened support
for the Central Asia section of the World Heritage Center, UNESCO. So
far, Paris has her favorite public transportation system. A Columbia
grad, Rebecca likes maps, all the meanings of ‘the natural
environment,’ and spontaneous dance parties.
Ethan Jucovy
Software Engineer
Ethan graduated from Swarthmore College in 2006 with a BA in Computer
Science and a Minor in Cognitive Science. At Swarthmore he pursued
research in evolutionary robotics, artificial life, and playing a huge
amount of Halo. At the same time, he developed a passion for the open
source movement and a commitment to work for positive change.
Ethan
joined TOPP in September 2006 as a software engineer for the OpenPlans
project; in his spare time, he reads Latin poetry and looks for the
perfect roast beef sandwich.
Software Engineer
Arne Kepp
According to
government sources, Arne can best be described as a "legal non-resident
alien". Before joining TOPP he went to Vassar, Dartmouth and Columbia,
focusing on mathematics, engineering and caffeine. In school he worked
as a systems administrator and became hooked on free software, an
addiction he tries to impart on others through his websites.
Arne is thrilled to work for TOPP for countless reasons and spends his spare time exploring the city.
Software Developer
Anil Makhijani
Anil was born and raised in the greatest state in the Union: New Jersey. After graduating with an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he relocated to Boston to work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
After just two years in Boston, he missed watching his dear New York Mets so he moved 200 miles south and took a job at TOPP. In his free time, Anil enjoys DJ'ing, playing tennis, and shooting hoops.
Robert Marianski
After graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in CS, Robert Marianski began his career in the financial sector. Although he was initially excited to work on development projects that had significant impact, he found himself unhappy. He noticed that many of his coworkers did not share his idealistic beliefs of creating better software, but were more interested in providing quick and dirty solutions. When Robert found TOPP, he was delighted to see an environment where others shared his same development ideas, and actually encouraged new creative solutions to problems.
Douglas Mayle
Douglas grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey, where he picked up programming and his love of computers from his father. He later moved to Boston, where after 8 years, a game of poker led him to try his chances on the French Riviera. While in France, he learned French, became more involved in the world of Linux and Open Source Software, and began a family. In 2007 he found TOPP, and moved to New York with his family to join the team.
Rob Miller
Lead Software Developer, OpenCore Project
After earning a Bachelor's in Mathematics from UC Riverside, Rob moved to San Francisco where he
immersed himself in the city's vibrant technology and arts communities. Determined to use his powers for good, he became focused on developing web
collaboration software for values-based organizations. He worked on a number of
interesting projects (including a Chinese-language site for the Tibetan
Government in Exile), before assuming the role of Technology
Department Lead for The Burning Man Project in 2001, which he held
until joining The Open Planning Project in 2005.
Rob is a core developer for Plone, a popular and powerful open source content management system.
Whit Morriss
Lead Software Engineer
After graduating from Washington and Lee University
in 1999 with a dual major in geology and archaeology, Whit pursued a
career of moving bytes around across the internets. Moving to San Francisco in 2000,
Whit worked for the Webbies, The Burning Man Project, and the Long Now
Foundation where he was the chief technologist for the Rosetta Project .
Whit is a contributor to several Python based open source projects. In
his free time, he enjoys composing electronic music and playing bluegrass.
Damien Newton
Streetsblog LA Editor
Damien is the force behind Streetsblog Los Angeles. Before moving west, he was the NJ Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Chris Patterson
Chris graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Kenyon College in 1994. Since nobody is hiring philosophers these days, he worked in the corporate world for many years. Chris has been hand-writing markup since the mid-90s, and enjoys standards-oriented web design well beyond the point of embarrassment. He is a passionate believer in the ability of the web to precipitate change, and is excited to be joining TOPP, to help ensure that those changes remain solidly in the plus column.
Chris lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his favorite wife, Molly.
Rolando Peñate
While an undergraduate at Brown University, Rolando developed an interest in educational uses for new technologies while working for the university's Instructional Technology Group. After graduating in 2006 with a dual major in sociology and urban studies, he moved to New York City and joined The Open Planning Project as the Digital Community Director. He quickly became our first full-time web designer and now leads our growing Design Team.
Elizabeth Press
Videographer
Elizabeth
joined StreetFilms after four years as a producer for the independent
TV/Radio program, Democracy Now! She received her MFA in Electronic
Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on community
media. While working on her thesis, Elizabeth spent a year teaching
youth video in the Dominican Republic on a Fulbright.
Her videos have screened in festivals all over the world, including a grassroots organized tour with her most recent documentary, Still We Ride. You will usually find Elizabeth commuting on her second-hand spectrum bicycle.
OpenGeo Outreach Engineer
Mike Pumphrey
Mike is currently trying to rationalize his education (a BS in Physics
from Rutgers University), his primary love (music), and the field he
has always worked in (IT). Mike believes that the key to world peace
involves understanding technology. Owing to his experience in equal
parts human and computer interaction, he feels ideally suited to be
TOPP's first Outreach Engineer. Mike's long-term goals are to not be
tied to an office, to travel the world, and to play music for a living.
Gabriel Roldán
Gabriel has been a GIS and open source developer for over a decade. He began in the GIS and Remote Sensing Department in the Instituto Politecnico Superior in Rosario, Argentina, and since then he has worked at various companies in Argentina and Spain. Over the past six years he has been improving corporate GIS and SDI software components for local government agencies, often introducing GeoTools and GeoServer as core components of their GIS software infrastructure.
Working in professional Open Source is an incredible opportunity for continuous learning and improvement, both technically and as a human being. TOPP's vision and mission provide Gabriel a platform for full ethical commitment to his technical work.
Tim Schaub
Tim Schaub thinks every problem has a spatial solution. He is a project steering committee member and core contributor to OpenLayers - the coolest toolset around for maps in a browser. Tim punches in for work from Bozeman, Montana.
Before
finding TOPP, he earned his keep as an independent software developer,
worked for a remote sensing shop, and spent a number of years bringing
quality mapping solutions to conservation organizations in the Northern
Rockies and Pacific Northwest. On his wall hangs a BS in Mathematics
and Natural Science from University of Puget Sound and an MS in Geology
from University of Washington.
Robin Smith
Robin was born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a tiny village, where she experienced the power a small group of dedicated citizens can have. Bearing witness to some of the most negligent regional land use and transportation decisions this side of the Mississippi, Robin was inspired to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, where she discovered video as a tool for motivating social and environmental change.
Having only lived in states beginning with the letter V,
Robin decided to move to New York in 2008. You'll find her making
music, chasing maple seed pod helicopters, cooking, and riding her
bicycle.
Sonali Sridhar
Lead Software Engineer, Melkjug
Luke Tucker
Luke is a salty Rhode Island expat, a long time advocate of open
source, and a believer in the ability of technology to facilitate
positive change. Before making the leap to New York, he graduated from
Brown University and worked for Tazz Networks, Context Media and
contracted with a variety of businesses around Providence. When he's
not tinkering with gadgets and code, he can be found running sailboats
aground or wrestling quahogs into submission.
David Turner
Software Engineer
David Turner can cook anything. In his previous life, he enforced the
GPL at the Free Software Foundation. Now he can be found programming at
the back of the TOPP office where the ninjas can't get him.
Kelly Vaughan
GothamSchools Editor & Reporter
Kelly Vaughan taught middle school science in the NYC public schools for 8 years before coming to TOPP as an education writer. She was a founding teacher at Mott Hall III Academy in the South Bronx, and later taught for a year in Istanbul, Turkey on a Fulbright Grant. She majored in Human Biology at Stanford University after considering every possible interdisciplinary major at the university. Besides writing, you'll find her at yoga classes, baking fancy cakes, and intrepidly exploring New York City.
Livable Streets Education Director
Kim Wiley-Schwartz
Kim
is an educator, teaching artist and afterschool advocate who has worked
with at-risk youth for the past 20 years. Her work on Livable Streets
education brings progressive urban design and livability ideas to NYC
students.
Kim first combined the Arts and education with advocacy
while living in Indonesia after the 1999 overthrow of Suharto.
Connecting youth through music and drama emboldened ex-patriot students
to work for better education for Indonesian children.
A music-theatre specialist and professional development
expert, Kim has worked with The Metropolitan Opera Guild, TADA! Youth
Theater, Project Ikat, Partnership for After School Education (PASE)
and the 92nd Street Y. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Andy and her two bike-savvy children, Isaac and Nora.
Paul Winkler
Paul Winkler joined TOPP in October 2007. A largely self-taught programmer, he has been a member of various open-source software communities since 1999.
Paul is a graduate of Bard College, with a degree in Rather Unpopular Music. When not mucking around with Python and Linux, he plays bass in two bands. Paul and his wife Abby enjoy quiet evenings at home in Brooklyn, and very loud music elsewhere.
