Brownfields University returns as our foundational pre-conference training program for Brownfields 2023. It will provide a curriculum of core brownfield concepts and practices to prepare attendees for the full educational program content.

Brownfields University provides valuable hands-on learning and engagement for emerging brownfield practitioners and seasoned professionals alike.  Attendees will be better prepared to select educational sessions to attend, and better prepared to engage presenters and exhibitors with freshly informed understanding of subjects covered throughout the conference.

Please note that Brownfields University courses have limited seating. To guarantee your seat, please sign up for the Brownfields University courses you wish to attend when registering for the conference.

How to Add a Ticket to Your Registration

If you are already registered for Brownfields 2023, you can add Brownfields University tickets to your already-existing registration.

  1. Go to the Brownfields 2023 registration site. (Click here)
  2. Click “Already Registered, Go to my Attendee Account”
  3. Log in using your username and password OR click “Account/Badge Number and Last Name” to log in with your badge number (ex. 1234-1) and last name. The account/badge number can be found in your registration confirmation email (from: brownfields@prereg.net, Subject: 2023 National Brownfields Training Conference Confirmation/Receipt).
  4. Hover your mouse over “⚙️Edit” and select “Events.”
  5. Select the Brownfields University workshop/s you would like to attend.
  6. Navigate to the end of the registration site to confirm and check out. Brownfields University is free and there will be no additional charge from those events.

Please email Will Fricke (wfricke@icma.org) if you are having trouble logging back in to your registration account, or submit a contact form (Click here to submit a contact form).

CURRICULUM

8:30am – 11:00am, Tuesday, August 8, Room 260, Portside Ballroom 

The session will serve as an introductory educational session for beginners or intermediate brownfields practitioners. The audience will be introduced to two case studies of brownfield sites that were successfully cleaned up and redeveloped, as the platform to discuss various aspects of identifying, investigating, remediating and redeveloping a brownfield. Experts will engage the audience in an interactive dialogue, walking through the history, approaches, challenges and successes associated with the two sites. A series of instructional sessions to learn how to identify brownfield sites and build brownfields inventories, and understand the stages of planning, assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment of brownfields and the principles of site reuse assessment.

Instructors:

  • Marisa Chrysochoou, Professor and Director of UConn TAB – University of Connecticut
  • Beth Grigsby, Regional Manager for TAB Services – KSU Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities
  • Joelle Greenland, Senior Planning Consultant – Center for Creative Land Recycling

8:30am – 11:30am, Tuesday, August 8, Room 360, Ambassador Ballroom

The Bipartisan Infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act’s investments in infrastructure, site remediation and redevelopment, and Green Bank funding means that more resources than ever before will be available to States, Tribes, local governments, and communities. But how can environmental justice and disadvantaged communities access these resources, and how can state and federal agencies meet their Justice40 Framework goals? This workshop for environmental justice advocates and other interested parties will help you become an informed navigator of funding resources for your community. Through case studies, an overview of funding opportunities and interactive Q&A, you will learn what resources are available, how to best position your community to access them, and how to navigate the application process at the federal and state level.

Instructors:

  • Vernice Miller-Travis, Executive Vice President – The Metropolitan Group
  • Donele Wilkins, President/CEO – The Green Door Initiative

8:30am – 11:30am, Tuesday, August 8, Room 320

Resilient communities have access to an adequate food supply and stores for emergencies. Individual/collective food production brings environmental benefits and helps to adapt to challenges posed by natural, health and economic disasters. Interest in vegetable gardening has risen dramatically as the COVID-19 pandemic and food supply chain challenges raised prices and helped created food shortages. Residents in urban food deserts rely increasingly on community gardens/urban farms to supply fresh, nutritious, and affordable food. While not all brownfields are suitable for growing crops, most sites could be used as gardens, orchards, or food forage areas after appropriate evaluation and by adopting best management practices. In this session we will teach the steps to safely grow food on brownfields so your community can become more resilient.

Instructors:

  • Sabine Martin, President – CTOR Solutions
  • Genga Hettiarachchi, Professor of Soil and Environmental Chemistry – Kansas State University
  • Ann Carroll, Senior Policy Analyst – EPA OBLR

8:30am – 11:30am, Tuesday, August 8, Room 330 B

Whether you already have an open Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grant, you are operating under an RLF Closeout Agreement, or you are so brand new you don’t even know what “RLF” means, this RLF-focused workshop is for you! Come join us for a deep dive into all things RLF, to include an EPA policy review of requirements and allowances under an open RLF grant versus an RLF Closeout Agreement, and opportunities for Q&A and interactive discussion with EPA. Then catch your breath as we go through a series of presentations and panel discussions with experienced RLF grant recipients who will show you the tools they have used to make their RLF programs successful.

Instructor:

  • Nicole Wireman, National Brownfields RLF Grant Program Lead – EPA OBLR
  • Susan Klein, Regional Brownfields Coordinator – EPA Region 7
  • Noemi Emeric-Ford, Regional Brownfields Coordinator – EPA Region 9

8:30am – 11:30am, Tuesday, August 8, Room 321

A Mini-Master Class on Brownfield Redevelopment: Led by Todd S. Davis, Esq., who literally “wrote the book” for the American Bar Association (“ABA”) on brownfield redevelopment, and patterned on a “fast-paced” and award-winning ABA program, this hand-picked team of leading national experts will teach you to think like a brownfield redeveloper, and avoid the federal and state legal landmines associated with the redevelopment process. Topics will include a basic overview of applicable federal and state environmental laws, quickly quantifying environmental costs and constraints, fundamental environmental insurance strategies and how to position and evaluate your project for success from the perspective of top lawyers, environmental consultants and brownfield redevelopers. Strap-in and learn how the “best of the best” analyze and redevelop even the toughest brownfield transactions.

Instructor:

  • Todd Davis, Esq. Hemisphere Brownfield Group LLC, Cleveland, OH
  • Jose Almazar, Esq. Holland & Knight LLP, New York, NY
  • Craig A. Kasper, P.E. Verdantas, Dublin, OH
  • Grant E. Nichols, Esq. CAC Specialty, Miami, FL
  • Bryan Keyt, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Chicago, IL

8:30am – 2:15pm, Tuesday,, August 8, Room 250 A/B/C

Successfully leveraging federal, state, and philanthropic funds to achieve sustainable community revitalization and brownfields redevelopment requires planning ahead, stakeholder coordination, and advocacy. This preconference workshop session will explain how EPA brownfield grantees and municipal leaders can use the “Resource Roadmapping” approach to align priority funding needs with the best available funding sources. Sustainable Strategies DC’s (S2) funding experts will be joined by a municipal manager who has deployed the Resource Roadmap approach to leverage millions of dollars into brownfields redevelopment, in a session that will engage attendees to learn how to develop a matrix of optimal funding opportunities listing grant ranges, matching requirements, contacts, deadlines, and preliminary steps..

Instructor:

  • Matt Ward, CEO – Sustainable Strategies DC

8:30am – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 330 A

Are you ready?  The brownfield redevelopment world is a complex, strategic and often competitive environment that requires commitment and guidance.  This workshop examines the redevelopment process through a collaborative and interactive program. Using a case study and working in teams, participants will learn how to position a property for reuse and prepare a brownfields investment package to attract public and private investment. Participants will learn about EPA’s “Revitalization Ready” and “Creating a Brownfields Investment Package” guides and other EPA resources and guidance and how to apply these land revitalization principles and resources to real-world brownfield redevelopment situations. Additionally, the workshop will provide insights into a proven land revitalization framework, understanding the different key players, and critical decision-making steps that determine the outcomes of redevelopment. Lunch speaker includes Tim Conder, Vice President of Development for NorthPoint, currently completing several large brownfields projects in Detroit.

Instructors:

  • Michael Taylor, President and Founder – Vita Nuova LLC
  • Elaine Richardson, Senior Redevelopment Trainer – Vita Nuova LLC
  • Milton Reed, Economic Development & Community Economic Development Specialist – Vita Nuova LLC 

8:30am – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 251 A/B/C

Driven by the spirit of inclusivity and fun, this training will bring together beginners and seasoned experts to examine local places and share ideas. We will look at examples and build on ways that EPA StoryMaps and map tools help to achieve the objectives of our constituencies, with Detroit as a starting place for conversation and review. Engaging for experts and accessible for all, participants and facilitators will be inspired by guided dialogue and curated engagement. While the core purpose of this effort is to ‘add ideas’ to physical maps, together we will render new concept and share proven practice. This physical, practical, tangible (and liminal) exercise will allow everyone to participate and will provide insight we will share. We will capture all opinions and share them on a digital platform – stamping a moment in time for Brownfields 2023 but also creating a legacy digital space for everyone to collaborate.

Instructors:

  • David Savarese, Planner / Program Manager – Jacobs
  • Lucy Stanfield, GIS Specialist – EPA Region 5
  • Eric Knapke, Brownfields Project Manager – EPA Region 5
  • Cassi Meitl, AICP, PMP, Planning Manager – Spalding DeDecker
  • Timothy J. McGahey, Vice President, Environmental Due Diligence – AKT Peerless

12:00pm – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 260, Portside Ballroom

Ready to build on your basic knowledge of brownfields? If you are a practitioner or stakeholder that wants to dig deeper below the surface of brownfields redevelopment, this intermediate workshop is for you. Topics will include the 201 level of leveraging resources, financing, and addressing liabilities in partnerships. The workshop will feature case studies and ‘how-tos’ for innovative community engagement, integration of remediation into site redevelopment, and climate change and environmental justice considerations in brownfields reuse. Learn storytelling techniques to effectively pitch your project. A facilitated, interactive exercise will be conducted to help participants reimagine their brownfields roadmap. Let us show you how to overcome the common redevelopment hurdles and move your brownfield project to redevelopment success.

Instructors:

  • Cailyn Bruno, Project Manager – NJIT Center for Community Systems
  • Colette Santasieri, Executive Director – NJIT TAB

12:00pm – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 360, Ambassador Ballroom

Join us in reliving the journey to bring redevelopment to one of Detroit’s legacy brownfield sites. Spanning nearly a million square feet on the city’s west side was one of the last vacant sites of one of Detroit’s biggest legacy automakers, American Motors Corporation. Today it is in the early stages of development and anticipated to bring over 350 jobs and a multi-million investment. Participants will examine the seemingly insurmountable challenges encountered, work together to strategize solutions, share ideas with peers, and then hear about the real-world resolutions that took place. Through learning and applying reuse planning and attraction strategies, community engagement practices, environmental mitigation solutions, incentive funding leveraging, and stakeholder navigation participants will learn insights into real-world brownfield redevelopment of a highly challenging site.

Instructors:

  • Brian Vosburg, Director of Brownfield Development Authority – Detroit Economic Growth Corporation
  • Jean Belanger, Senior Real Estate Manager – Industrial – Detroit Economic Growth Corporation
  • Jessica DeBone, National Manager – Brownfield and Economic Incentives – PM Environmental

12:00pm – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 320

Scientists understood fossil fuels contribute to a changing climate over one century ago and modeled current conditions 50 years later. Complicated climate science reached scientists but not always decisionmakers. Sharing relevant climate information translated for non-scientists helps communities address brownfield challenges and invest wisely in mitigation and adaption actions. Place-based brownfield revitalization actions can engage communities, helping map and visualize risks to plan resilient revitalization. This session reviews climate science essentials, different US regional climate risks and key decision points to consider climate in brownfield projects to choose resilience and build capacity to address climate impacts of concern. Join EPA staff and colleagues to discuss climate connections and key decisions in brownfield project work where science informed decisions can guide reuse, plans and investments.

Instructors:

  • Ann Carroll, Senior Policy Analyst – EPA OBLR
  • Amanda Vargo, Manager, Climate and Sustainability – ICF

12:00pm – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 321

Discover the strategies to successful brownfield redevelopment in Detroit! Join us for an interactive training experience where a local development team shares their strategies, success stories, and lessons learned on acquiring incentives, remediating challenging sites, and constructing large-scale projects. We’ll examine multiple case studies to gain insights into how to tackle even the most difficult brownfield sites. Learn the commercial development process and walk away with practical knowledge to help you build your own successful projects. Don’t miss this opportunity to take your brownfield development skills to the next level!

Instructors:

  • Mark Quimby, Development Manager – Ashley Capital
  • Nicholas Maloof, RPG, ESQ., President and General Counsel – Associated Environmental Services, LLC
  • Jason Salazar, Senior Vice President – Oliver / Hatcher Construction
  • Jeff Lanier, Senior Consultant, SME

12:00pm – 2:15pm, Tuesday, August 8, Room 330 B

Apply smart planning and creative design to help your community revitalize brownfield sites in ways that align with the local goals and vision! You will work with other participants during two breakout sessions to discuss how planning plays a role in brownfield site reuse and the issues that are most important to the various stakeholders involved in a reuse planning project. Along the way, you will learn how to best prepare these sites for reuse through various planning, community engagement, and site design activities!

Instructors:

  • Nicole Henderson, Senior Environmental Project Manager; Managing Partner – H&M Environmental, LLC
  • Sean Garrigan, Landscape Architect – Stromberg Garrigan and Associates
  • Emily Blanton, Urban Planner – ICF