Leadership

Board of Directors of the National Mall Coalition 

Officers

Judy Scott Feldman, Ph.D., Chair

A native Washingtonian, art historian, and educator, Judy Scott Feldman is a founder of the Coalition and has served as the Chairman of the Board since its creation in 2000. She has testified on Mall matters before Congress, and has been quoted and interviewed by national and international media including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Voice of America. She has been a guest on The News Hour, CBS Sunday Morning, and National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show and Kojo Nnamdi Show. She is author of “Turning Point: The Problematics of Change on the Mall” in The National Mall: Rethinking Washington’s Monumental CoreJohn Hopkins University Press, 2008. Dr. Feldman received the Committee of 100 on the Federal City Vision Award in May 2002, the D.C. Federation of Citizens Associations Award in 2005, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee of 100 in June 2011 for her Mall advocacy. Dr. Feldman holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in art history from Pennsylvania State University, as well as a doctorate in art history from The University of Texas at Austin.

M.J. “Jay” Brodie, FAIA, Vice Chair

M.J. “Jay” Brodie has spent a long career in economic development, architecture and city planning, most recently retiring as President of the Baltimore Development Corporation, responsible for the City of Baltimore’s city-wide economic development. Previously, Mr. Brodie has led other major redevelopment agencies in Washington and Baltimore, with his contributions to the revitalization of these cities being recognized in 1994 by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Thomas Jefferson Award, which honors public officials and public- and private-sector architects whose career achievements represent quality design. Mr. Brodie is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Urban Land Institute, and National Trust for Historic Preservation. Mr. Brodie earned a master of architecture degree from Rice University and a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Virginia.

George H. F. Oberlander, AICP, Vice Chair

George Oberlander’s came to Washington in 1965 to be Planning Director of the National Capital Regional Planning Council and then spent 31 years with the National Capital Planning Commission, mostly as the Associate Executive Director, DC Affairs. Mr. Oberlander’s 50-year urban-regional planning career has included work for various communities in the New York metropolitan area and Newark, N.J as well. Mr. Oberlander is a member of the DC Preservation League, a Trustee of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, and is active in the American Planning Association, American Institute of Certified Planners, and the International Fraternity of Lambda Alpha, among other organizations. He is a veteran of the Korean War and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University and a Masters of Science in Planning and Housing from Columbia University.

Ellen Goldstein, Treasurer

Ellen Goldstein has been actively involved as a volunteer in protecting the beauty and promoting the livability of Washington since arriving in 1970, in addition to a long career in teaching, politics, and government affairs, including serving on the White House Domestic Policy Staff (1977-1981) and as an executive in government affairs for General Electric.  She also served for more than 20 years on the board of Family Matters (previously known as Family and Child Services of Washington DC, founded in 1901) which provides many health care and adoption/foster care services to support the most vulnerable children, elders, and their families. Until recently Ms. Goldstein served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood which allowed her to be involved at the ground level on historic preservation.  She graduated from the Ohio State University and earned a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University.

M. Kay Murphy, Secretary

Kay Murphy has over 20 years experience working with numerous citizen-led grassroots nonprofits. She specializes in managing administrative functions, enabling leadership to focus on strategy and programming. Her clients include organizations in the Washington, DC, Colorado, and Arizona nonprofit communities.  Kay is also a lifelong student of yoga, and an ardent backpacker of the Rocky Mountains and Sonoran Desert. Her most recent adventure is the study and practice of permaculture in her hometown of Indianapolis, IN, working with an urban farming collective to provide tools, supplies, and support to startup community gardens in underserved communities.

Board Members

Lisa Benton-Short, Ph.D., Director

Lisa Benton-Short is Chair and associate professor in the Department of Geography at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and Senior Fellow with the Sustainability Collaborative. Dr. Benton’s interests lie in Urban National Parks, public memory spaces, and national identity and the political planning process. She has written a book about The Presidio of San Francisco, The Presidio: from Army Post to National Park, Northeastern University Press, 1998. Her new book, The National Mall: No Ordinary Public Space, Toronto University Press, 2016, examines planning and development issues confronting the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In addition to teaching urban geography at GWU, she hosted the 2004 public forum and workshops for the National Mall Third Century Initiative.

Stephen A. Hansen, Director

Stephen Hansen has over 30 years of experience in historic preservation, cultural resource management, and archaeological fieldwork and analysis. Stephen is Founder of Hansen Associates, Inc., a cultural resources management consulting firm, as well as Co-Founder and Principal of Preservation Matters, LLC. At Preservation Matters his work includes: architectural history research; preservation planning; eligibility determinations and nominations for National Landmarks and the National Register of Historic Places; advising clients on historic preservation policies; identifying and advising on the treatment of archaeological resources; Section 106 consultations; and representing clients before such bodies as the DC Historic Preservation Review Board, the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, the Old Georgetown Board, and the DC Zoning Commission. Stephen is an expert in both District and federal historic preservation matters and has been accepted as an expert witness before the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation (September 2017) and the DC Zoning Commission (February 2019).

Carolivia Herron, PhD, Director

Carolivia Herron is an African American Jewish author, educator and publisher living in Washington, DC. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania, and has held professorial appointments at Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, California State University, Chico, and the College of William and Mary. Currently she is the director of EpicCentering the National Mall, a multimedia creative writing project that guides youth of Washington, DC to create stories that interlink their own lives and neighborhoods with installations on the National Mall. Dr. Herron is also an emeritus Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Project Humanities at Arizona State University. Professor Herron makes school appearances as part of the Pen/Faulkner Writers in Schools and gives workshops promoting her multimedia educational programs, EpicCenter Stories. These programs use classic and contemporary epics, group stories, and the diverse cultures of the learners themselves as a multimedia framework for learning modules online and in communities.

George Idelson, Director

George Idelson is a long-time resident of Washington and a World War II veteran as an Infantry Squad Leader with the 26th Yankee Division in the European Theatre, earning a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Purple Heart. After the war, he completed college at New York University and entered the field of advertising, helping to introduce the Porsche automobile in the US market and serving as an adjunct professor in advertising at George Washington University. Mr. Idelson is president of the Cleveland Park Citizens Association and on the board of the newly formed Tregaron Conservancy.

Hon. David H. Marlin, Esq., Director

David H. Marlin has been a public interest lawyer in Washington, DC since 1961 having joined the Kennedy Administration then as a trial lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.  Other assignments include the Assistant General Counsel of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the deputy director of the Washington Neighborhood Legal Services Program, Director of Legal Research and Services for the Elderly (affiliated with the National Council of Senior Citizens), co-founder and executive director of the Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington. He served for 11 years as a trial and appellate administrative judge for the District of Columbia.

de Teel Patterson (Pat) Tiller, Director

Retired in 2005 after nearly 30 years with the U.S. National Park Service, Tiller served for seven years as that agency’s Deputy Associate Director for Cultural Resources. A 4’th generation native of Washington, D.C., he received his undergraduate degree in Drama and Theater from the College of Arts and Science, University of Virginia in 1970. He subsequently worked as a professional scenic designer in regional, Off Broadway, and academic theatre before returning to graduate school.  He received a Master’s degree in Architectural History in 1978 with an emphasis in historic preservation from the University of Virginia, College of Architecture.  He then served as a planner to the Texas Historical Commission and the West Texas Council of Governments in El Paso, Texas – responsible for 22,000 square miles in west Texas.  In 1978, he joined the National Park Service serving in the agency’s Washington, DC and Denver offices. Mr. Tiller taught architectural history and historic preservation policy, planning, and practice in adjunct positions at George Washington University, Goucher College, University of Wyoming, University of Virginia, and Kansas State University.   Since retiring, he served as a Trustee and Officer of The Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Officer on the Board of The Manassas Battlefield Trust, a member of the Executive Council of The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Friends of the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, National Park Service.

Charlene Dwin Vaughn, AICP

Charlene Dwin Vaughn is a Senior Historic Preservation Planner with The Urban Collaborative LLC, an interdisciplinary planning and urban design firm that provides leadership for the Department of Defense’s growing needs for environmentally, fiscally, and socially sustainable military installations. She retired from the federal government with over 40 years of experience in project management, urban planning environmental and regulatory reviews, policy development, training development, emergency management and cultural resources management for federal, state and local agencies. As a staff member at the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation for 39 years, she was recognized for her exemplary service in assisting the ACHP board of 23 members in developing policy improvements and conducting reviews of high profile and controversial projects. As the Assistant Director of the Office of Federal Agency Programs, her primary responsibilities included supervising a diverse professional staff responsible for implementing Section 106 reviews required pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and developing interagency contracts with Federal agencies for long-term liaison arrangements. Additionally, her portfolio included coordination of Section 106 reviews and development of program improvements for the Base Realignment and Closure Program (BRAC), transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, energy development, emergency and disaster responses, and rural housing and infrastructure programs. Ms. Vaughn also represented the ACHP in the annual grant reviews for the National Park Service underserved communities and Civil Rights commemoration programs, coordination of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) review. 

Joseph D. West, Esq., Director

Joseph D. West is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Co-Chair of the firm’s Government and Commercial Contracts Practice. For over 30 years, Mr. West has concentrated his practice on contracts counseling and dispute resolution. He has represented both contractors (and their subcontractors, vendors and suppliers) and government agencies, and has been involved in cases before various United States Courts of Appeals and District Courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, numerous Federal Government Boards of Contract Appeals, and both the United States Government Accountability Office and Small Business Administration.

3rd Century Mall Advisors

Gordon Binder, Senior Fellow, World Wildlife Fund

Tom King, PhD, writer and consultant, Cultural Resource Management