John Cary, Executive Director, joined Public Architecture in October 2003 and leads the development and outreach of the organization as well as serves as the staff liaison to the board of directors. John writes and speaks extensively on issues relating to architectural education, internship, licensure, and public service. In 1999, he co-founded ArchVoices, a nonprofit organization and think tank focused on the future of the architecture profession. For over seven years, John was actively involved at all levels of the AIA, including national service on its 2005 Gold Medal & Firm Award Advisory Jury and numerous other committees. John serves as a board member, advisor, and consultant to over a dozen nonprofit organizations nationwide. In 2006, at 29, he became the youngest person ever recognized as a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, alongside nine building industry and environmental leaders including Al Gore, Bruce Mau, and others. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, John was a 2008 recipient of the Rome Prize fellowship in design. John earned his Bachelor of Arts in architecture, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota and Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley.
Milton Marks, Managing Director, joined Public Architecture in January 2008 and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization. Milton has dedicated his career to working in the nonprofit sector, mainly in senior leadership capacities, in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Following his graduate training in Philadelphia, Milton worked for the Shared Housing Resource Center where he managed shared houses in adaptively reused historic rectories and consulted on the development of new shared houses. Later, during the five years he was with the Preservation Coalition (later, the Preservation Alliance), Milton developed and ran programs in preservation advocacy and education as well as in historic site planning and management. On return to his native San Francisco, Milton joined Friends of the Urban Forest as Executive Director, increasing FUF’s ability to plant and care for the street trees it plants throughout San Francisco. Milton has twice been elected to the Board of Trustees of City College of San Francisco, an institution in the midst of a major building program using $750 million in state and local funding to rehabilitate existing and construct new buildings throughout San Francisco. He has been the leader in promoting the creation of the College’s Sustainability Plan. Milton earned his Bachelor of Arts in history with departmental honors from Bowdoin College and Master of Science in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth (Liz) Ogbu, Design Campaign Manager, joined Public Architecture in August 2006 and is responsible for design campaign selection, execution, and advocacy. Previously, Liz was a designer at Simon Martin-Vegue Winklestein Morris (SMWM), an architecture and urban design firm in San Francisco. She has been the recipient of several traveling fellowships, including the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Through these grants, she has pursued research projects, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, examining the intersections in the socioeconomic and physical spaces of the informal sector. Findings from this work have been presented at several conferences both in the U.S. and abroad, and were the subject of her Master's thesis. Liz has also been involved with many community focused projects and organizations here in the U.S., including the launch of the Community Design: Now or Never website and its associated symposium; the Mayors' Institute on City Design; a design outreach program for local youth in Cambridge and Boston; and an affordable housing developer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently was selected as "Green Giant" by Steelcase, Inc. for her work in promoting environmentally and socially sustainable design. Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
Mia Scharphie joined Public Architecture in 2008. Previously, Mia worked in a similar capacity for Fernau & Hartman Architects in Berkeley, Calif. Mia has followed her interest in the relationship between built and natural environments through research on low-energy cooling technologies at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Sde Boker in Israel, and through her work developing and teaching units on environmental justice and community gardens for the Green Cities urban landscape history course at Brown University. Mia has also been involved in the movement for voter-owned elections through her work for the Campaign for Public Financing of Elections in Rhode Island. Mia earned her undergraduate degree with honors in Urban Studies from Brown University.
STAFF
Public Architecture's staff is regularly supplemented by the contributions of board members, consultants, research assistants, and other advisors.
people
John Cary, Executive Director, joined Public Architecture in October 2003 and leads the development and outreach of the organization as well as serves as the staff liaison to the board of directors. John writes and speaks extensively on issues relating to architectural education, internship, licensure, and public service. In 1999, he co-founded ArchVoices, a nonprofit organization and think tank focused on the future of the architecture profession. For over seven years, John was actively involved at all levels of the AIA, including national service on its 2005 Gold Medal & Firm Award Advisory Jury and numerous other committees. John serves as a board member, advisor, and consultant to over a dozen nonprofit organizations nationwide. In 2006, at 29, he became the youngest person ever recognized as a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, alongside nine building industry and environmental leaders including Al Gore, Bruce Mau, and others. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, John was a 2008 recipient of the Rome Prize fellowship in design. John earned his Bachelor of Arts in architecture, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota and Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley. 
Milton Marks, Managing Director, joined Public Architecture in January 2008 and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization. Milton has dedicated his career to working in the nonprofit sector, mainly in senior leadership capacities, in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Following his graduate training in Philadelphia, Milton worked for the Shared Housing Resource Center where he managed shared houses in adaptively reused historic rectories and consulted on the development of new shared houses. Later, during the five years he was with the Preservation Coalition (later, the Preservation Alliance), Milton developed and ran programs in preservation advocacy and education as well as in historic site planning and management. On return to his native San Francisco, Milton joined Friends of the Urban Forest as Executive Director, increasing FUF’s ability to plant and care for the street trees it plants throughout San Francisco. Milton has twice been elected to the Board of Trustees of City College of San Francisco, an institution in the midst of a major building program using $750 million in state and local funding to rehabilitate existing and construct new buildings throughout San Francisco. He has been the leader in promoting the creation of the College’s Sustainability Plan. Milton earned his Bachelor of Arts in history with departmental honors from Bowdoin College and Master of Science in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth (Liz) Ogbu, Design Campaign Manager, joined Public Architecture in August 2006 and is responsible for design campaign selection, execution, and advocacy. Previously, Liz was a designer at Simon Martin-Vegue Winklestein Morris (SMWM), an architecture and urban design firm in San Francisco. She has been the recipient of several traveling fellowships, including the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Through these grants, she has pursued research projects, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, examining the intersections in the socioeconomic and physical spaces of the informal sector. Findings from this work have been presented at several conferences both in the U.S. and abroad, and were the subject of her Master's thesis. Liz has also been involved with many community focused projects and organizations here in the U.S., including the launch of the Community Design: Now or Never website and its associated symposium; the Mayors' Institute on City Design; a design outreach program for local youth in Cambridge and Boston; and an affordable housing developer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently was selected as "Green Giant" by Steelcase, Inc. for her work in promoting environmentally and socially sustainable design. Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. 
