Colden “Coke” Florance, FAIA. LEED AP | SmithGroupJJR
Colden Florance has more than forty years of experience in the leadership of multidisciplinary design and planning teams for institutional facilities, educational facilities, mixed-use developments, government projects, commercial and corporate offices and residential projects. Mr. Florance’s practice has been devoted to developmental and planning issues critical to the city of Washington and he has played a major role in the city’s revitalization through his special interest in historic preservation. Examples include the design of 1100 New York Avenue, The Shakespeare Theater and Bricklayer’s Union, the Verizon Center, master planning for Poplar Point and Hill East and earlier work on the Anacostia River Waterfront and the Southeast Federal Center.

Mr. Florance was the managing partner of Keyes Condon Florance, successor firm to Keyes, Lethbridge and Condon, now SmithGroupJJR. He was a founding member of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board. He has actively participated on a variety of advisory Boards and Commissions for organizations such as the Federal City Council, the DC Preservation League, the Salvation Army, the Washington Project for the Arts, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Baltimore Architectural Review Board. He has also served on the boards of St. Albans School, Maret School and the Levine School. A past president of the Washington Chapter of the AIA, he served on a variety of committees and task forces in the 1980’s to help promote a living downtown.

In November 2000 Mr. Florance was honored by the Washington, DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects with the presentation of their Year 2000 Centennial Medal. He was also the 1999 recipient of the DC Building Industry Association’s Award for Contributions to Washington. The District of Columbia and the DC Preservation League recognized Mr. Florance in 2009 with their Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation.

Martin Ditto | Ditto Residential
Prior to starting Ditto Residential in 2008, Martin worked in construction and development at Bozzuto, Monument Realty, and ZOM where he managed mixed-use residential and commercial projects. Currently Martin is chief executive and leads all development activities at Ditto Residential. He is responsible for sourcing acquisitions and investment opportunities, as well as overseeing design direction and growth strategy.

Martin has a degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University and holds a Master of Science in Real Estate from the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University.

Brian Hanlon, AIA, LEED AP | Vice President, Skanska USA Building
Brian has transformed the built environment across the Nation’s Capital. As a leader, an architect, and executive, his career has spanned a vast array of design and construction types including educational, sports, public assembly facilities, office towers, historical renovations, medical facilities, parking garages, multifamily housing, retail, educational facilities, and recreation and athletic facilities. He has overseen the development of billions of dollars of such initiatives and has expertise across the range of development activities.

Brian provides direct management oversight for the project teams in the Washington, DC office. He provides continuity from preconstruction through the entire construction phase and assures the appropriate resources are available for the project. He takes an active role in key milestone events in the preconstruction phase to include the partnering session, GMP development, value engineering, constructability and schedule reviews. Brian oversees construction and leverages his experience and expertise to assure successful project execution.

Jennifer Olson | Principal, KGO Project Management
Ms. Olson is a Principal at KGO and has her MBA with a focus in Leadership. She has 20 years’ experience beginning her career as a member of the U.S. Air Force holding a Top Secret security clearance working under the NSA. She successfully moved on to pursue a variety of special project management opportunities in fields ranging from education to finance.

At KGO, Ms. Olson is responsible for the strategic vision and oversight on a variety of commercial and special projects. Her excellent communication skills enable her to thrive in building successful cross-functional teams. Her ability to pay attention to detail while focusing on the big picture uniquely positions her teams to excel on projects by controlling costs, managing project schedules, and maintaining timely collaboration amongst the various professionals involved with the project.

Ms. Olson’s project management skills allow her to supervise and coordinate multiple, simultaneous activities while maintaining focus on the details. Primary project tasks begin with strategic planning and site selection and continue through project close-out and include but are not limited to master project planning, scheduling and sequencing of critical milestones, maintaining project budget and scopes of work, reviewing contracts, invoices and payment approvals, coordinating with appropriate vendors, quality inspections and oversight, identifying coordination items and recommending and implementing solutions, chairing and coordinating weekly team meetings with the designers and engineers, general contractor, and owners, and change management.

Mina Wright | Director, Office of Planning and Design Quality, U.S. General Services Administration

Mina Wright is the Director of the Office of Planning & Design Quality (OPDQ) at the National Capital Region (NCR) of the General Services Administration (GSA).  A new office created in 2010 to improve the design of GSA’s Washington, DC, real estate holdings, OPDQ is staffed by architects, engineers, urban and regional planners, interior designers, historic preservationists, fine arts specialists, sustainability and environmental compliance experts whose work touches the entire regional portfolio of historic as well as contemporary buildings.

Prior to joining GSA in 2009, Ms. Wright was Director of Programs at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the state arts agency; she also served as a member of the Massachusetts Office of Economic Development’s Design and Infrastructure Committee and the Boston Society of Architects’ Public Art Initiative.  Before moving to Boston, Ms. Wright was appointed Director of the Design Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts; Curator of Exhibitions & Design at the National Building Museum when it opened in the late 1980s; and Director of the Preservation Office at the White House, launching the renovation and restoration campaign for the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that was only recently completed.  Ms. Wright served as a presidentially-appointed Expert Member on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and as U.S. delegate to the International Center for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome, Italy.

She is the recipient of several awards for her work in preservation, including the National Trust’s Preservation Honor Award, a Federal Design Achievement Award, a DC AIA Chapter Award, and several Design Excellence Awards.  Ms. Wright received her undergraduate degree from the George Washington University, where she also conducted graduate studies.

Holly Ellis, LEED AP ID+C | Senior Associate , Jones Lang LaSalle
Ms. Ellis is a Senior Associate for Jones Lang LaSalle’s Strategic Consulting Workplace Strategy practice in Washington, DC. Holly brings 8 years of expertise working with clients to align their business strategies and real estate solutions with the way their employees are working both today and tomorrow. She has leveraged facility and industry benchmarks, workplace research and programmatic requirements to implement facilities, program and workplace solutions.  These include but are not limited to workplace strategy, change management, master planning, developing pilot strategies and implementation oversight for new ways of working.

Her consulting work, which is partnered by a background in industrial design and commercial furniture, is helping to enable companies improve facilities performance, optimize utilization, integrate new technologies, and better engage the needs/wants of the current and future workforce.

Lance Hosey, FAIA, LEED AP | RTKL
As RTKL’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Lance Hosey leads the firm’s Performance-Driven Design initiative and is committed to setting a new standard for sustainable design. An accomplished author and recognized authority on all aspects of green architecture and design, Lance has contributed his expertise to a number of leading industry books including his most recent, “The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design.” He has also served as a speaker at SXSW Eco and TED City 2.0 and has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times and Forbes.