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-interest design. 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 Nobel Laureate & Former Vice President Al Gore, Nobel Laureate & Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and others. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, John was a 2008 recipient of the Rome Prize fellowship in design. Earlier this year, John was recognized alongside President John Peterson with the 2009 Designer of the Year Award from Contract Magazine. This summer, John will hold the Public Affairs Practitioner Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como in Italy. John earned his Bachelor of Arts in architecture, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota and Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley.
Brad Leibin, Project Associate, joined Public Architecture in February 2009. Since completing his MArch Brad was an architectural designer at the New York City offices of Tina Manis Associates and Field Operations, where he worked on the project teams of the Highline Park in Manhattan and the Surfside Residence, a 14-acre garden on the coast of Nantucket Island. An essay written by Brad, on new models of design practice for addressing inequalities in the global built environment, was recently selected for inclusion in the 2009 ‘Unspoken Borders’ Conference at University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, with Penn teammates, he was awarded first prize in the Edmund Bacon National Student Design Competition for a scheme to revitalize a fragmented, underutilized public space in downtown Philadelphia. Brad earned his Bachelors of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded the Lewis E. Dales Travelling Fellowship as well as the Arthurs Spayd Brook Memorial Prize, Silver Medal, for distinguished design work.
Liz Ogbu, LEED AP, Associate Design Director, joined Public Architecture in August 2006 and is responsible for design initiative selection, execution, and advocacy. She recently was selected as "Green Giant" by Steelcase, Inc. for her work in promoting environmentally and socially sustainable design. 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. Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
John Peterson, AIA, Founder & President, created Public Architecture in 2002 and joined its staff fulltime in October 2008. John serves as the chief spokesperson and strategist for Public Architecture as well as design director and a member of the board of directors. John maintains a small private architectural practice, Peterson Architects, which for over 15 years has dedicated an extraordinary amount of time to pro bono work, serving arts institutions, city agencies, community development corporations, nonprofit organizations, and social service agencies. John has been appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to both the San Francisco Green Vision Council and Open Space Task Force. He is also an elected member of the South of Market Business Association board of directors as well as past chair and a current member of the Urban Solutions board of directors. John is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nice Modernist award from Dwell magazine and the Jefferson Award for Public Service. In 2009, John was recognized alongside Executive Director John Cary with the 2009 Designer of the Year Award from Contract Magazine. John earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. During the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Mia Scharphie, Campaign & Operations Associate, joined Public Architecture in 2008. Previously, Mia worked 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-interest design. 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 Nobel Laureate & Former Vice President Al Gore, Nobel Laureate & Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and others. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, John was a 2008 recipient of the Rome Prize fellowship in design. Earlier this year, John was recognized alongside President John Peterson with the 2009 Designer of the Year Award from Contract Magazine. This summer, John will hold the Public Affairs Practitioner Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como in Italy. John earned his Bachelor of Arts in architecture, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota and Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley.
Brad Leibin, Project Associate, joined Public Architecture in February 2009. Since completing his MArch Brad was an architectural designer at the New York City offices of Tina Manis Associates and Field Operations, where he worked on the project teams of the Highline Park in Manhattan and the Surfside Residence, a 14-acre garden on the coast of Nantucket Island. An essay written by Brad, on new models of design practice for addressing inequalities in the global built environment, was recently selected for inclusion in the 2009 ‘Unspoken Borders’ Conference at University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, with Penn teammates, he was awarded first prize in the Edmund Bacon National Student Design Competition for a scheme to revitalize a fragmented, underutilized public space in downtown Philadelphia. Brad earned his Bachelors of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded the Lewis E. Dales Travelling Fellowship as well as the Arthurs Spayd Brook Memorial Prize, Silver Medal, for distinguished design work. 
Liz Ogbu, LEED AP, Associate Design Director, joined Public Architecture in August 2006 and is responsible for design initiative selection, execution, and advocacy. She recently was selected as "Green Giant" by Steelcase, Inc. for her work in promoting environmentally and socially sustainable design. 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. Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
John Peterson, AIA, Founder & President, created Public Architecture in 2002 and joined its staff fulltime in October 2008. John serves as the chief spokesperson and strategist for Public Architecture as well as design director and a member of the board of directors. John maintains a small private architectural practice, Peterson Architects, which for over 15 years has dedicated an extraordinary amount of time to pro bono work, serving arts institutions, city agencies, community development corporations, nonprofit organizations, and social service agencies. John has been appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to both the San Francisco Green Vision Council and Open Space Task Force. He is also an elected member of the South of Market Business Association board of directors as well as past chair and a current member of the Urban Solutions board of directors. John is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nice Modernist award from Dwell magazine and the Jefferson Award for Public Service. In 2009, John was recognized alongside Executive Director John Cary with the 2009 Designer of the Year Award from Contract Magazine. John earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. During the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. 