Robert A. Simons is a Professor and former director of the Master of Urban Planning, Design and Development program at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio.  He is also the faculty advisor for the Certificate Program in Real Estate Development and Finance, offered in conjunction with the Nance College of Business at CSU.  During Fall 2005, Dr. Simons was a Fulbright Scholar at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also been a Lady Davis Scholar at the Technion (1999 and 2010-11). Dr. Simons received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in City and Regional Planning, with an emphasis in real estate. He also holds a Master of Regional Planning and a Master of Science in Economics, both from U.N.C. His undergraduate degree in anthropology was earned at Colorado State University. He was a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) from 1983-2009. Dr. Simons is in the inner leadership group of the American Real Estate Society (ARES), and was program chair in 2009-2010 and is President in 2011-2012.  At the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs, Dr. Simons teaches courses in real estate development, market analysis and finance, public economics, Ph.D. research methods, environmental finance and megacities of Asia. Dr. Simons has published over 50 articles and book chapters on real estate, urban redevelopment, environmental damages, sustainable real estate, housing policy and brownfields redevelopment. He authored a book entitled Turning Brownfields into Greenbacks, (published by Urban Land Institute), and When Bad Things Happen to Good Property, (published by Environmental Law Institute in 2006), and was the lead editor for an international research monograph on Indigenous Property and Valuation (2008, ARES). Another Adaptive Reuse book has been completed.  He serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate.  Dr. Simons has an active consulting practice, and has served as an expert witness in over 60 matters related to real estate, housing markets, and environmental contamination, including over 30 depositions and several trial appearances.

James Kastelic, formerly Deputy Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and currently Senior Park Planner for Cleveland Metroparks, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in geography from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts degree in urban geography from Kent State University. He has over 40 years of experience in city planning, land use regulation, public management, environmental resource assessment and site analysis. He has served as a board member and officer on a number of statewide and regional organizations, including the Ohio Coastal Resource Advisory Council, the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District, Scenic Ohio, and the Cuyahoga Valley Regional Council of Governments. Mr. Kastelic also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, where he teaches courses in community and regional planning.