Our Staff
The Smart Growth Leadership Institute is:
- Parris Glendening
- Tamar Shapiro
- Benjamin dela Pena
- Shelley Hazle
Parris
Gov. Parris N. Glendening is President of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute. He completed his second and final term as the Governor of Maryland in 2003. As governor, one of his primary agenda items was Smart Growth. He led the creation of a groundbreaking smart growth initiative that focused on using the entire $23 billion state budget as an incentive for smart growth. Before becoming Governor, Parris N. Glendening was a local elected official for more than 20 years. He began public service in 1973 as a city councilman in Hyattsville and was later elected to the Prince George's County Council in 1974. In 1982 he was elected County Executive of Prince George's County, a post he held for three consecutive terms.
Gov. Parris GlendeningPresident
Lesley Heird
Executive Assistant to Gov. Glendening
lheird (at) comcast.net
*Note we've replaced the '@" sign with "(at)" to protect agains spammers.
Tamar
Tamar Shapiro is the executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute and the executive director of the Governors' Institute on Community Design. Tamar is a Harvard-trained attorney with extensive background in affordable housing and community development. Tamar was instrumental in launching the Governors' Institute in 2005.
Before joining the Smart Growth Leadership Institute in 2005, Tamar worked as an attorney at Klein Hornig, LLP, a law firm specialized in affordable housing development, where she represented public housing authorities as well as developers in complex, mixed-finance development deals. Previously, she worked as an attorney at Hogan and Hartson in Washington, D.C., served as law clerk to the Honorable Mary A. McLaughlin, and was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin, where she worked at the Berlin Administration on Urban Planning and Environment as well as the German Institute for Urban Affairs. Tamar has a B.A. from Harvard College, an M.Phil from Cambridge University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Tamar ShapiroExecutive Director
tshapiro (at) sgli.org
Benjie
Benjamin dela Pena serves as the Smart Growth Leadership Institute's Associate Director for Implementation. He was trained in physical planning and aspects of Urban Design. Prior to joining SGLI,, he coordinated several large town and urban planning projects for a Boston-based urban planning and design firm. He also has a background in leadership training, having managed large-scale leadership formation programs for a major conglomerate based in Asia. Benjie has a M.A. in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a B.A. in Communication (Journalism) from the Institute of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines.
Benjamin dela PenaAssociate Director for Implementation
bdelapena (at) sgli.org
Shelley
Shelley Hazle serves as the Smart Growth Leadership Institute's State Coordinator. Prior to joining SGLI in 2006, she worked in public relations and marketing for organizations in a variety of industries including aviation and health care. Previously, Shelly worked in the federal government as a public information officer for the National Transportation Safety Board. She has B.A.s from Vanderbilt University and is currently completing a masters degree at the College of Charleston.
Shelley HazleState Coordinator
shazle (at) sgli.org