Alex Leonard is a Senior Director of Development for Greystar Real Estate Partners. He is responsible for sourcing, coordinating, and executing project development for Greystar-owned projects in Southern California submarkets of the company’s Western region and is implementing the entitlements and construction of over 2,500 apartment homes worth over $1b in capitalized costs. Before joining Greystar in 2018, he was senior manager of development at AvalonBay Communities, where he delivered over 3,000 apartment homes, totaling over $1.2b in capitalized cost, in urban and suburban communities throughout Southern California. Alex holds a master’s degree in real estate from the University of San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in finance and sociology from the University of Nebraska. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He serves as a board member for HomeAid San Diego, a non-profit dedicated to building multi-unit housing for San Diego’s temporarily homeless. Alex is an Academy of Magical Arts (the Magic Castle) Associate member. He also is furthering his education by pursuing a sommelier diploma from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) and currently holds the Level 3 sommelier designation.

For more than 25 years, Weston Harmer has been dedicated to real estate,

striving towards developing housing and lifestyles for all generations, including

Market-Rate, Luxury, Senior, Student and Affordable Housing. Weston’s in-depth

knowledge of all Real Estate Sectors gives him an advantage over most. As Director

of Development, Weston oversees the financing, proforma modeling, design,

entitlement and permitting processes.

After graduating from the University of Utah, Weston was recruited to Southern

California, to begin his development career. Starting on the front lines, Weston lead

and directed over 25 Sales Agents. His time in sales provided him an in-depth

knowledge of the end users desires, patterns and psychographics.

Mr. Harmer was promoted to the development team and began leading

development portfolios as large as $400 million. Weston’s ability to work within all

sectors, banks and partners, has help him rise to the top of the Development

Industry.

A graduate of Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, David formed McCullough Landscape Architecture as a sole proprietorship in 1999 while consulting for another firm. After wife and partner, Catherine joined the business in 2001 and became Chief Executive Officer and President in 2002; the firm became a woman-owned corporation and a certified Small Business by the State of California.

With offices in San Diego and the Bay Area, McCullough creates spaces for hospitality, retail, mixed-use and institutional properties around the world. As principal landscape architect, David oversees all aspects of the design and production of firm projects at McCullough. He serves as head designer on all projects and maintains quality control on all work completed. Previous projects have earned awards and recognition in several national publications.

David finds time in his schedule to take leadership in creative organizations such as the the San Diego Architecture Foundation (SDAF) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) local Urban Design Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the Pecha Kucha Night program, which is on its sixth successful year. He finds it inspiring to take part in such a diverse mix of creative minds while bringing them together to share with the public their wild ideas.

In addition, recently David was appointed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer to serve on the Historical Resources Board as Chair, which governs the identification, protection, retention and preservation of historical sites in San Diego. Concurrently, he has been invited to serve on the city’s Code Monitoring Team (CMT).

David’s design philosophy is centered around merging context and creative passion with grit, soul, and style. The firm takes every project with a uniquely creative approach that centers around diversity, discovery and conservation. David feels it’s important to engage the human spirit with nature, while expressing empathy.

Recent projects include a large waterfront development in Shanghai, China, Seaport San Diego redevelopment, several multifamily projects in Calgary and Vancouver, along with other notable hospitality, entertainment, and mixed-use collaborations in the Western US and Canada.

Joe von Meier approaches each client’s unique legal and business challenges from a proactive, problem-solving framework. Combining strong business acumen with sound legal judgment cultivated over nearly 20 years in practice, Joe's focus on construction and development across all segments of the commercial real estate sector has established him as a trusted partner for some of the country's top developers, investment groups and construction firms. By leveraging his command of all aspects of the development process – from entity formation and financing to construction, stabilization and disposition – he expertly guides his clients in complex real estate ventures involving investment fund creation, traditional and non-traditional debt, design and construction, and disposition of multifamily, office and warehouse/industrial assets.

Uniquely, Joe gained specialized practice in the areas of development and construction when he was retained shortly after law school by an upstart real estate development company in Chicago. Being integrated with his client's operations providing comprehensive legal and business counsel, Joe helped the company expand and grow from multi-million-dollar single-family projects to luxury adaptive reuse condominiums, which spawned architecturally significant multi-family towers and eventually led to the client's current focus on national award-winning student housing communities. Today, Joe utilizes his extensive legal toolbelt to draft and negotiate design and consulting agreements and construction contracts for developers and end users of recognizable commercial, industrial and
residential projects. His national practice emphasizes mixed-use developments and research and development facilities in urban centers. A versatile advisor to his clients, Joe also delivers strategic value and helping entrepreneurs raise equity from private investors by preparing Private Placement Memoranda, Limited Liability
Company Operating Agreements and ancillary formation and regulatory documents.

Prior to joining CGS3, Joe launched his career at Chicago-based Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella PC where he worked for nearly 15 years and rose to partner. During his tenure with Burke, Warren, he served as Chair of the Summer Associate Committee helping many top attorneys launch their careers. A member of a variety of top legal and real estate industry professional organizations, Joe has become a valued and respected member of San Diego's business community.

Ms. Jhaveri has twenty years of progressive leadership and management experience with a proven record of commitment to continuously improving the student experience, building strong relationships with faculty and campus partners, new construction and capital projects and food service operations. She began her career at Illinois State University as an Assistant Residence Hall Coordinator and moved up to be an Area Coordinator for University Housing Services. She then served as the Associate Director of Residence Life at California State University, Chico for five years. Ms. Jhaveri then moved to the University of Texas at Austin where she served as the Director of Residence Life for nearly four years as well as the Director, Business Services for one year. Her most recent position at the University of Texas at Austin was Executive Director of University Housing and Dining.

In each of these roles she has designed and delivered innovative programs and services, showed a relentless commitment to top notch facilities and technology, exemplified collaboration with various campus partners and built great teams.

Ms. Jhaveri holds a PhD in Education and Human Resource Studies from Colorado State University. She holds two master degrees; Master's in Business Administration from Illinois State University and Master's in English Literature from the University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India.

On behalf of the entire UC San Diego community, I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mark Cunningham for his 38 years of dedicated service to UC San Diego. Mark's commitment to our students and to the academic enterprise at large has been unparalleled. His vision of making our campus a vibrant living and learning community is already materializing through transformational projects. I - and many others - will forever remain inspired by his contagious and positive energy.

Mr. Schulz is the University Architect at San Diego State University, responsible for long range planning, real estate, design and construction for the university. He has overseen over $2.4 Billion in projects to date at SDSU.

Mr. Schulz brings to his position over 40 years experience in design and construction, and project oversight on more than $4 billion of public facilities.

He is a licensed architect and a senior building official in California. He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Ball State University, and Master of Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona, and is a proud husband, father, grandfather, and Aztec for Life.

As Director of Development for the Michaels Organization, Abbie Hawkins brings 10 years of experience in real estate entitlements, permitting, development, and financing for all asset classes including retail, hospitality, senior and student living, affordable and market rate multifamily housing projects throughout California and the western region. Abbie has responsibility for all aspects of development, and vast experience with CEQA, due diligence, entitlements, project design, and project management . Abbie received her Bachelors of Science in Real Estate from San Diego State University.

Lisa brings more than 20 years of experience working collaboratively in communities around San Diego County providing enriching and transformative programs and opportunities to all ages. Prior to her current position, Lisa was the Executive Director for the Escondido branch of the YMCA. Lisa received her BA in Art from Montana State University Bozeman, where she volunteered as an athlete mentor to local middle school students and worked with the Montana Special Olympics. She has also served in leadership positions within her Rotary Club and as a member of Soroptimist International.

Since 2005, Wesley House has challenged barriers often experienced by those seeking to improve their prospects through education. From the beginning, our focus has been on addressing the basic needs of housing and food security among low-income post-secondary students. When we started, our services were only available to those residing in our affordable housing complex.

In 2021, Wesley House expanded access to our services to all low-income students in San Diego County. We further expanded access to most of our services to the community at large in the years that followed. Beginning with an annual client body of 24-32 individuals, Wesley House now serves over 2,200 people each year. Our services have grown to include wraparound case management, a food pantry, CalFresh application assistance, housing navigation, and life skills training. Our programming is developed with feedback and input from the community we serve and the experts who support them.

Our approach to student success through proven holistic interventions has a history of 95% retention of students continuing their education year-to-year through to completion.

Lindsey Sielaff, LEED AP BD+C, is an operations manager at Hensel Phelps with 20 years of experience in construction and development, including a significant portfolio of higher education work totaling $781.4 million in delivered project value. She began her career with Hensel Phelps in the Real Estate Development group, where she played an integral role in project entitlement, financing, acquisition, operations and construction, giving her a strong foundation in design collaboration and client engagement. Lindsey is an expert in construction operations with first-hand experience in both design-build and CMAR delivery methods. Her higher education experience spans a wide range of complex campus environments and building types, including large-scale, multifaceted projects such as the UC San Diego Ridge Walk North Living and Learning Neighborhood, the UC Irvine Verano 8 Graduate Student Housing project and the SDSU Life Sciences Building. Today, she provides strategic guidance to teams across Southern California, focusing on delivering high-quality projects through collaboration, innovation, and a deep understanding of all aspects of construction.

As a Principal for Gensler San Diego, Richard King leads work in Higher

Education across the Southwest with a focus on student life and student

housing. He has worked on seven University of California campuses, multiple

California State Universities, and community colleges and private colleges

across California. Experienced with broad idea-based design, balanced with

technical expertise for the detail and craft of buildings, Richard leads all

aspects of projects from concept through construction, ensuring the built work

serves to engage students and support the community. Richard is currently

leading the Evolve Student Housing project at San Diego State, as Principal-

in-Charge, driving the team to achieve affordability without compromising

quality. Richard is a long-time member of the AIA and USGBC and

participates with local schools in developing young professionals in

Architecture. Richard earned a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and

Art History from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Architecture from

the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Canfield is a Project Executive at C.W. Driver with over 30 years of experience in multifamily and student housing design and construction. Throughout his career, he has led complex housing projects from concept through completion, developing deep expertise in the challenges of delivering quality residential communities at scale. Jeff brings a builder’s perspective to the intersection of housing growth, affordability, and inclusive development, making him a natural fit to guide the conversation on balancing cost pressures with the urgent need for accessible housing solutions.