Annual CRP Young Alumni Panel
February 27, 2015
This spring, as part of the CRP 2015 Spring Colloquium Series, OCP and the AAP brought three recent graduates return to Ithaca to share their experiences as young practitioners in the field of planning.
About the panelists
Andrew Bielak (M.R.P. ’11) is the director of multifamily storm recovery in the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Bielak was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master of regional planning from Cornell. In his current position, Bielak oversees the distribution of federal funds to all multifamily properties in New York City that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy. He has previously worked in transportation policy and journalism. He is a member of the Telluride Association, an educational non-profit based in Ithaca.
Daniel F. Kelleher
Daniel F. Kelleher (M.R.P. ’10) was hired in December 2011 to serve as the Adirondack Park Agency’s special assistant for economic affairs. In this position, Kelleher acts as liaison between the agency and economic and community development interests that are catalysts to the park’s economic improvement, including state and local economic developers, the region’s business community, potential entrepreneurs, and local government officials. Kelleher also provides analytical support to the agency’s planning, regulatory, and enforcement programs on issues of market analysis and development finance, as well as fiscal and economic impact analysis. Kelleher previously served as the business development manager for the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District where he facilitated business retention and recruitment programs as well as assisted developers in the permitting and financing of residential development projects. Kelleher previously served as a research assistant and intern for Professor Emeritus Roger Trancik’s Urban Design Consultants, and played an integral role on the Hamlets 3: Planning for Smart Growth and Expansion of Hamlets in the Adirondack Park project. Kelleher earned a master of regional planning from Cornell with a minor in real estate and a bachelor of arts from Plattsburgh State University.
Katelyn Wright
Katelyn Wright (M.R.P. ’10) is the executive director of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, which was founded in 2012 and is acting in partnership with the city and county to address a backlog of tax-delinquent, sizeable properties, planning to acquire and facilitate the redevelopment of approximately 2,000 properties over its first three years. The land bank’s mission is to return vacant and abandoned properties to productive use in a coordinated and planned manner.
Prior to her role with the land bank, as a planner for the City of Syracuse, Wright conducted data and policy analysis related to vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent property and led the team which developed the land bank’s business model and the city’s revised tax collection policy — a phased approach to addressing these challenges which, combined, affect nearly one in five properties within the City of Syracuse. As a land use planner for the City of Syracuse, she was the primary author of the land use and development component of the city’s recently adopted Comprehensive Plan 2040.
Wright earned her M.R.P. from Cornell in 2010. She earned her bachelors at the University of Washington.