Ed mcmahon uli biography

Senior Resident Fellow, Urban Land Institute

Ed McMahon holds the Charles E. Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC where he is nationally known as an inspiring and thought-provoking speaker and leading authority on economic development and land use polices and trends.

As the Senior Fellow for Sustainable Development McMahon leads ULI’s worldwide efforts to conduct research and educational activities related to environmentally sensitive development policies and practices. He is also Chairman of the Board of the National Main Street Center and a Senior Advisor to ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative.

BIOGRAPHY
Before joining the Urban Land Institute in 2004, McMahon spent 14 years as the Vice President and Director of Programs for The Conservation Fund, where he worked to protect more than 5 million acres of land of historic or natural significance. He is also the co-founder and former President of Scenic America, a national non-profit organization devoted to protecting America’s scenic landscapes. Before that, he taught law and public policy at Georgetown University Law Center for 9 years, and served in the U.S. Army, both at home and abroad.

McMahon is the author or co-author of 15 books, dozens of reports and monographs and over 600 articles. His books include: Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes & Communities; Conservation Communities: Creating Value with Nature, Open Space and Agriculture; Land Conservation Finance; Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities; Better Models for Development in Maryland. McMahon also writes regularly for Urban Land Magazine, City Lab and other periodicals. During the past 30 years McMahon has worked with hundreds of communities in all 50 states on a wide variety of land use and economic development issues.

McMahon has served on numerous advisory boards and commissions including Chesapeake Conservancy, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Maryland, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Home Depot Foundation and the Orton Family Foundation.

McMahon has a BS from Spring Hill College; an M.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Alabama, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law School. He and his wife live in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Categories: Construction Industry, Environmental, TED Talk