Mr. James, of Little Canada, is a lawyer and former Minnesota State Commissioner of Revenue with extensive experience in Minnesota’s tax structure and its impacts on land use. He is a respected authority on taxation who has authored and been consulted on numerous tax reform efforts. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and received a BBA with the highest distinction from the University of Iowa.

Mr. Casey, of Mound, is a land use attorney in private practice, representing individuals and citizen groups in their efforts to effectuate good land use decisions in their communities. He has more than 35 years of experience and serves on numerous regional and local land-use commissions. His work with communities grappling with growth-related decisions keeps the board in touch with current activities throughout the region.

Title: Ex-Officio Advisory Committee

Mr. Baltzersen, of Minneapolis, formerly a policy planner for the Metropolitan Council brings more than 20 years of experience in comprehensive land-use and transportation planning to the board. He also has considerable experience in the design of neighborhoods and communities and serves as treasurer on the board of the Minnesota Design Team.

Mr. Fields is the President of Development Strategies and Resources, Inc., a consulting organization that assists development organizations. Mr. Fields has over 25 years experience in Economic and Community Development and has assisted with financing over $1.0 Billion in development projects. His experience includes serving as Deputy Commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development, former Vice President for Springsted Public Finance Advisors, and Director with the National Development Council in New York. Mr. Fields has a Masters degree from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelors degree from the University of Illinois. He resides in St. Paul.

An applied education, communications, and community health researcher, Wynfred N. Russell, is a principal and co-founder of RussComm, Ltd., an international education, health, and public engagement firm based in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He consults widely on socio-economic, multicultural, public health, and social justice issues; authored many academic and popular articles, and has taught at a Research I university and a number of two-year colleges in Minnesota.

Mr. Russell specializes in advocating for at-risk and vulnerable populations, with skills in a wide range of participatory research techniques, experience in applying social science knowledge to everyday problems, and an interest in working with governments, private and non-profit organizations, to promote improvements in people’s lives.

He holds a BS in broadcast communications and a MA degree in public affairs from Northern Michigan University, and is a candidate for an interdisciplinary master’s in comparative education, community health, and communication studies from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Ms. Ihlan is an attorney with Briol and Associates. She has been a member of the Roseville City Council since 2004. She is a graduate of Macalester College and Harvard Law School, and has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota. She recently taught environmental ethics as a visiting professor in the Philosophy Department at Macalester College. Ms. Ihlan began her legal career at Dorsey & Whitney.

Ms. Schultze is an architect (not licensed in Minnesota), with an undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University and a Masters from the University of Southern California. Her broad experience includes neighborhood design, residential and commercial historic structures, new and adapted homes and academic and commercial buildings. She serves on numerous community groups, including Livable Rochester, Paint the Pavement, and the Rochester Downtown Alliance. In past years, she has worked with RNeighbors, which Provides Tools to Grow Great Neighborhoods, Rochester’s Planning and Zoning Commission and Committee on Urban Design and Environment and MnDOT’s Highways 52/14 Committee. She has lived and worked in several communities across the country and resides in Rochester’s “Pill Hill” Historic District.