Virtual Event
Sensors & IoT: Smart Cities, Infrastructure & Mobility

Brooks Rainwater is the senior executive and director of the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Center for City Solutions. Rainwater drives the organization’s research agenda, community engagement efforts, and leadership education programming to help city leaders create strong local economies, safe and vibrant neighborhoods, world-class infrastructure, and a sustainable environment.

As an advocate for strong local leadership, Rainwater leads a team of experts across the field of urban policy, and regularly advises cities both in the United States and globally on critical issues faced now and yet to come. He has published a wide variety of reports and articles on innovative solutions that lead to vibrant and successful cities.

Rainwater speaks regularly across the country and overseas on issues facing city leaders. Under his leadership of the Center, it has grown and developed a host of new programs from entrepreneurship and equitable development to alternative energy and resilience to urban innovation and enhanced city governance strategies.

Rainwater’s research and interests include advancements in technology and city innovation, mobility and the digital economy, and how the rise of state preemption is impacting local authority. His expertise is a draw for media outlets, including the TODAY Show, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, and the New York Times. Rainwater also frequently contributes to publications such as Fast Company, CityLab, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and Fortune.

Prior to joining NLC, Rainwater was Director of Public Policy for the American Institute of Architects (AIA). While there he developed the Local Leaders research series and spearheaded the Cities as a Lab initiative focused on the key role cities play as creative instigators of innovative practices.

Rainwater serves on numerous boards with current and past service to the STAR Communities Board, the American Library Association Public Policy Advisory Council, the International Advisory Board for the City of Rotterdam, and the Arlington County Environment and Energy Conservation Commission.

Christine Keung is the Chief Data Officer for the City of San Jose and a 2020-21 Harvard Business School Leadership Fellow. At the start of the pandemic, she joined a COVID-19 task force in the U.S. Small Business Administration to improve access to the Paycheck Protection Program. Christine began her professional career as an early member of Dropbox’s security team, and later Chief of Staff, serving as the operational lead of the company’s legal, policy, and security organization. She was also Head of Business Operations at Fountain, a growth-stage AI/ML start-up, where she led the company through data regulation changes like the European Union’s GDPR and the U.S. Privacy Shield. Christine earned her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College and her M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. As a 2014-15 U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholar, Christine restored a watershed in rural Western China. Her development work has garnered funding and recognition from National Geographic, World Health Organization, and the United Nations. She is the youngest person to win the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and in 2017, was recognized as a Next Generation Leader by TIME Magazine. 

Dr. Jonathan Reichental is the founder of Human Future, a global business and technology advisory, investment, and education firm. Previous roles have included senior software engineering manager, director of technology innovation, and he has served as chief information officer at both O’Reilly Media and the City of Palo Alto, California. 

In 2013 he was recognized as one of the 25 doers, dreamers, and drivers in government in America. In 2016, he was named a top influential CIO in the United States and in 2017, he was named one of the top 100 CIOs in the world. He has also won a best CIO in Silicon Valley award and a national IT leadership prize. 

Reichental is a recognized global thought leader on a number of emerging trends including urban innovation, smart cities, sustainability, blockchain technology, data governance, the fourth industrial revolution, and digital transformation. 

He holds several degrees including a Ph.D. in Information Systems. He is an adjunct professor in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco and instructs at several other universities. Reichental regularly creates online video courses for LinkedIn Learning. 

He is a popular global keynote speaker and writer, including authoring a bestseller on the future of cities. His latest book, Exploring Smart Cities Activity Book for Kids, will be released in Summer 2021. 

As Smart City Director for the City of Philadelphia, Emily is responsible for managing and leading the implementation of the SmartCityPHL Roadmap that provides guidance on how smart and emerging technology solutions can improve the quality of life for residents, businesses and visitors while improving the delivery of City services. 

Throughout her career, Emily has worked to help cities position themselves as globally competitive by utilizing a systems approach to develop strategies, projects and programs that exist within the intersection of sustainability, technology, and economic development. Most recently, Emily was Deputy Director with Envision Charlotte where she was responsible for leading the development of the Circular Charlotte strategy, which made Charlotte the first city in the US to have a citywide circular economy strategy, in addition to other local programming that created a smarter, more sustainable Charlotte. 

She has held a variety of positions in Europe and North America, including urban planning positions with both the District of Columbia and the city of Cleveland planning offices.  Emily was a recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt German Chancellor/ Bundeskanzler Fellowship, which funded a year of research focused on German approaches to the implementation of sustainability policy and climate change adaptation in brownfield development.  Emily holds a Bachelors of Science in Landscape Architecture from Arizona State University.  She is a member of the Emerging Leaders in Energy and Environmental Policy (ELEEP) Network.

Gwyneth Borden is a seasoned public policy professional of more than 20 years, having worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Gwyneth serves as Chair of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and Commissioner, San Francisco Parking Authority, providing policy oversight of San Francisco Muni, taxis, streets, micro mobility, and parking. Gwyneth’s transportation policy advocacy goes back 20 years to when she led transportation policy efforts at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.  During that time she served as the Vice-Chair of the Expenditure Plan Committee that created Proposition K, the half-cent sales tax that funds San Francisco’s many transportation projects.  Gwyneth led the campaign on Proposition K, which won 76% approval by San Francisco voters in 2003.  Prior to serving on the SFMTA Board, Gwyneth served six years as a Planning Commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco, during a time when significant community planning processes and major developments transforming the city were approved.  

Gwyneth is also Head of Public Policy for Diamond Foundry, a technology start-up that creates single crystal diamond wafers for semiconductors and gemstones; and serves on the non-profit boards of SFFILM and LINES Ballet. 

Jennifer Sanders is Cofounder and Executive Director of the Dallas Innovation Alliance (DIA) a 501c3 public-private partnership dedicated to supporting Dallas’ smart cities strategy. While at the DIA, she has collated a network of three dozen member organizations and works with over 20 departments within the city of Dallas. Its Phase I Smart Cities Living Lab is the fastest-to-market smart cities initiative in the country. The DIA is currently working on projects related to equity, mobility, digital divide and public safety in South and Southern Dallas. In 2020, she co-founded the North Texas Innovation Alliance, which will be the largest such initiative in the U.S., with the mission of creating the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country. Prior to DIA and NTXIA, she consulted clients in myriad industries including energy, technology, finance, economic development and commercial real estate.

She is actively involved with numerous civic organizations in Dallas, serving as a Past President of the mayor’s Star Council, President of the Board of the Suicide & Crisis Center of North Texas, BoardSecretary of Better Block, Board Treasurer of the West End Association, an Ambassador for the DallasEntrepreneur Center (DEC) among others. In 2019, she received the UN Day Global Leadership Award for advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She has been named to the Dallas BusinessJournal’s 40 Under 40 and Top Women in Technology, State Scoop’s Top Women in Technology, the Tech Week 100, and the Dallas 500. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in psychology with a minor concentration in Economics.

A pioneer in the smart city space in the Philippines, Kris R. Villanueva-Libunao, an Internationally Certified Sustainability Practitioner and Project Management Professional, is the Executive Director and Chief Sustainability Officer at SmartCT (Smart Cities PH, Inc.). She trained under the ASEAN Smart Cities Leaders Programme of ASEAN Foundation and Data Stewardship under The Gov Lab of New York University . She is also a Smart Sustainable Cities Instructor with IoT Academy and International Telecommunication Union Academy (ITU-Academy).

With almost a decade of policy research consultancies with government agencies, international government organizations, and private companies, Kris’ current commitment is to create a movement transforming how the world thinks, does, and plans smart cities in the Philippines and developing countries.

Mandy serves as Deputy Director of Public Service assigned as the Smart Columbus Program Manager.  Mandy joined the City of Columbus in July 2017. She uses her 22 years of industry experience with an emphasis on complex project management to lead the delivery the USDOT, Vulcan and American Climate Change Challenge grant funded programs. Mandy also oversees Finance, Human Resources and Vision Zero for the department. 

Mandy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from THE Ohio State University and is a Registered Ohio Professional Engineer. Mandy is also a Women’s Transportation Seminar, Columbus Engineers Club and American Society of Highway Engineers member. 

Mandy has a passion for engineering solutions to societal challenges leveraging technology and innovation. 

Mark Vallianatos serves as Executive in the Office of Extraordinary Innovation at LA Metro, where he provides direction to strategic planning and special projects and staffed the agency’s COVID-19 Recovery Task Force. Mark has taught, written and advocated on a range of urban and environmental issues, including transportation and streets, housing and homelessness, planning and zoning, environmental justice, climate change, and global trade and logistics. He enjoys researching and exploring some of the ‘building blocks’ of the LA region, like food trucks, small apartment buildings and swimming pools. Mark received his BA and JD from the University of Virginia 

Oscar Romero is the director of inclusive innovation and international cooperation of the NYC Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (MOCTO). His work focuses on building innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems to address urban inequality across NYC by leveraging civic engagement, emerging technology, and global partnerships. 

 He oversees the design, management, and evaluation of global multi-stakeholder partnerships to address diverse urban development challenges in the US’ largest urban economy. Ranging from issues on displacement, safety, access to social services, workforce development, access to STEAM education, access to representation, housing rights, accessible mental health services, and access to critical infrastructure. 

Before joining MOCTO, Oscar worked for The New School’s Digital Equity Laboratory where he researched how broadband access and privacy protection policies affect vulnerable populations. Through his research, he analyzed the inequalities created by the architecture of the telecommunications infrastructure networks across the Americas. 

Oscar has worked on international cooperation for universities and international development organizations in The USA, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Oscar holds a M.A. in International Affairs from The New School and a B.S. in International Studies from the University of Guadalajara. 

Yaron Vilosny is the General Manager at Greenspot, an award winning leader in EV charging station development, installation, and management based out of Jersey City, NJ. Since 2014, Greenspot has been developing e-mobility charging hubs in cities and private developments throughout the United States and internationally. Yaron manages the municipality and government EV charging station deployment programs as well as outreach to Clean City Coalitions. He is leading Greenspot’s participation in the US Department of Energy program to build EV charging stations across the Mid-Atlantic states as part of the US government’s initiative to electrify America’s roadways. Prior to Greenspot Yaron was an E-Commerce Operations and Business Development Manager at JUUL Labs. Yaron was also VP of Operations and Growth at an e-commerce startup company R2net, which was later acquired for more than $400 million by Signet Jewelers in 2016.