Mickey McManus is president and CEO of MAYA Design, a design consultancy and innovation lab dedicated to taming the complexity of technology products. He leads an interdisciplinary team that creates innovative ways to integrate information and technology into a satisfying consumer experience. He speaks often about the need to include the human element in design, especially in the looming multi-billion dollar pervasive computing industry, which will encompass a multitude of networked products and smart services throughout our environment. Mickey was formerly co-founder and senior vice president of creative vision and strategy at élan communications, an integrated communications consultancy.
cityLIVE! panelist
audrey russo
Since 2007, Audrey Russo has been serving the technology business sector for Southwestern PA as President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Tech Council (PTC), the oldest (1983) and largest technology trade association in all of North America. In order to ensure the original vision of a vital innovation and technology ecosystem, Audrey has used her role to facilitate strong interaction across all business sectors of the regional economy who will only succeed and grow through technology innovation and commercialization. With a background in information technology, operations and finance, Audrey previously worked for large multi-national Fortune 500 companies (Alcoa, Reynolds Metals), as well as at MAYA Design, and in an adjunct faculty and project role at Virginia Commonwealth University. Audrey believes that vital cities are the moral imperative in achieving competitive, diverse and vibrant economies, and the complexity of Pittsburgh’s physical, literal and metaphorical terrain, has been added to her list of loves over the past ten years.
zachary morris
Zachary Morris (cityLAB intern, 2009 & 2010) felt very fortunate to have been part of the cityLAB team where he was able to freely explore his odd infatuation with all things Pittsburgh. A Florida native, Zach graduated summa cum laude from the honors college of the University of Pittsburgh, with degrees in both Urban Studies and Politics and Philosophy. He studied urban policy in Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand, and researched rural-to-urban migration in Mongolia as a David Lawrence Scholar. A Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in 2009 – 2010, Zach is currently attending the University of Oxford in England, as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, working on an MSc in Comparative Social Policy. He hopes to come back to Pittsburgh.
rob pfaffmann
Rob Pfaffmann, AIA, AICP is an architect and planner with over 30 years of diverse experience leading the design of key architecture, preservation and planning projects in the Pittsburgh region. Through his writings, drawings and research, and community involvement, he is known for his advocacy of design, historic preservation and urban planning policy.
Rob began his career in higher education at Syracuse University and then moved to the Pittsburgh office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in 1983. There he has led key projects, ranging from Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute to the Heinz History Center. Since founding Pfaffmann + Associates in 1996, Rob’s design leadership has continued with a wide range of award-winning work that includes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, the Homewood and Hill District branches of the Carnegie Library and Alcoa’s US Business Services Center.
Rob’s urban planning work is grounded in his passion for Pittsburgh’s historic neighborhoods and riverfronts. He has developed community plans for many Pittsburgh Neighborhoods including the Central Northside and Lawrenceville. His proposals for the Reuse of the Mellon Arena received an AIA design award last fall.
hilary robinson
Hilary Robinson is the dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. Trained as a painter in the 1970s, she spent many years working as an artist and as an arts administrator, critic and lecturer. She taught history and theory of art at the University of Ulster and in 1998 became research co-ordinator, helping, by 2001, to place the School in the top tier of Art and Design institutions in the UK. In 2002 she was appointed Head of the School of Art and Design. Her own research is in the field of contemporary art theory and has published numerous journal, magazine and catalogue essays, including the anthology Visibly Female in 1987, Feminism-Art-Theory 1968-2000 in 2001 and in 2006 Reading Art, Reading Irigaray: the Politics of Art by Women.
She is a board member of The Andy Warhol Museum, The Mattress Factory, Quantum Theatre, Silver Eye, and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, as well as a member of the Programming Advisory Committee of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
jonathan greene
Jonathan Greene is an architect and designer who has taken a different philosophical approach to design. Traveling extensively he documents buildings and places, settling for short periods in places that “beg of more attention” where he temporarily puts down roots, and funnels his experience of that place into a dwelling for himself.