Currently Associate Professor, School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Delaware and Director, IULA Office for Research & Training in the U.D. Institute for Public Administration, Dr. Arno Loessner represented the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA) at the United Nations from 1978 to 2000. He has worked with local officials on a variety of representation, training, and research activities, primarily in the areas of finance and urban management.

As a member of consulting/advising teams organized by The Salzburg Seminar, he has worked with university rectors (presidents) to help develop higher education management in the former Soviet Union. At the request of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, in February 2004 he consulted with Austrian university rectors on higher education reform in that country.

Dr. Vitor Serra is a Lead Urban Development Specialist with the World Bank, which he joined in 1992. He has led or (participated in) Bank teams preparing projects in the following fields: municipal development, administration and finance; housing finance and planning; municipal services, public utilities and urban upgrading; land policies, planning and management; and urban cultural heritage. He has worked in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. More recently, Serra moved to the Bank’s policy and studies area, where he is leading the preparation of studies on urban upgrading and land markets in Latin America. He also coordinates the activities of the Bank’s Cultural Heritage Management Group.

Director of Urban Innovations with Cisco, Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) Before joining Cisco, Gordon Feller worked for more than 30 years to change the way that cities work how they govern themselves, how they partner with the business sector, how they collaborate with NGOs and international agencies, how they are led, and how they plan for a more sustainable future.

Tim Honey joined the Urban Age Institute in June, 2007. He brings a unique background and proven track record as an entrepreneurial manager and leader. Tim has over 35 years of experience in local government management, intergovernmental relations, local government association work, international development, and university teaching and administration.

In June 2007 Tim returned from a “service sabbatical” in South Africa where he and his wife volunteered for 5 months in a township in Cape Town.  Prior to that he served as Executive Director of Sister Cities International from 2000-2006. Tim also served as city manager of Portland, Maine and Boulder, Colorado, as well as Executive Director of the Rhode Island Mortgage and Finance Agency. Tim has also been a legislative lobbyist for the National League of Cities.

Michele Goldberg comes to Urban Age Magazine after studying the Spanish language in Spain and after traveling in Guatemala and Belize. Prior to her travels, she was an account executive with SkillSoft Corporation's custom solutions group. Before joining SkillSoft, Goldberg was the first sales executive and 17th employee at DigitalThink, where her clients included Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems, Motorola and Siebel Systems, among others. Prior to joining DigitalThink, Goldberg gained valuable technology experience as an account manager with Affiliated Computer Services and as a marketing manager with Omega Performance Corporation.

Goldberg earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As an independent consultant, Daniella brings more than 12 years of international development experience in program design, project management, resource mobilization, communications and partnership building. Her areas of expertise include municipal capacity building, city-to-city facilitation, youth empowerment, gender participation and conflict resolution.

Daniella developed and managed projects with international organizations, including the World Bank, UN-HABITAT and UNIFEM. She recently completed a 4-year project management assignment for a city-to-city capacity building initiative with cities in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and USA through the World Bank Netherlands Partnership Program.