2009 SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Richard Harnish is the Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, a membership-based non-profit organization advocating for fast, frequent and dependable trains linking the entire Midwest. Harnish graduated from Elmhurst College in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in transportation management. After leaving Elmhurst, Harnish was a logistics manager at American President Lines and JB Hunt and managed industrial real estate on Chicago's west side. Harnish helped found the Midwest High Speed Rail Association in 1991. He became the first paid executive director of the Association in February 2001 after leading a successful fundraising campaign. While at the Association, Harnish has lead several successful grass roots campaigns, including winning a doubling of Amtrak service linking downstate Illinois to Chicago.
LUNCH PANEL - THE BURNHAM PLAN: 100 YEARS LATER
Frank Beal is executive director of Chicago Metropolis 2020. Previously, Beal worked at Inland Steel Industries for two decades, and was President and CEO of Ryerson/West, a subsidiary of Inland Steel. He was director of the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources and special assiistant for energy and environmental affairs for Governor James Thompson. He also served as deputy director of the Institute for Environmental Quality. Beal serves on the boards of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, and was appointed by Mayor Daley to serve on the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Board.
Carl Smith (Ph.D. American Studies, Yale University) is the author of Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920 (1984) and of Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman (1994), which won the Urban History Association's prize for Best Book in North American Urban History and the Society of Midland Authors' first prize for non-fiction. His most recent book is The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City (2006), which won the Lewis Mumford Prize for Best Book in Planning History, given by the Society of American City, Regional, and Planning History. He is also the curator of the online Chicago Historical Society exhibitions, The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory (1996) and The Dramas of Haymarket (2000), which have received several awards. Smith teaches American literature and cultural history at Northwestern University and holds a joint appointment in the history department. A recipient of a WCAS Outstanding Teaching Award, Smith was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 1994.
Richard Harnish is the Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, a membership-based non-profit organization advocating for fast, frequent and dependable trains linking the entire Midwest. Harnish graduated from Elmhurst College in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in transportation management. After leaving Elmhurst, Harnish was a logistics manager at American President Lines and JB Hunt and managed industrial real estate on Chicago's west side. Harnish helped found the Midwest High Speed Rail Association in 1991. He became the first paid executive director of the Association in February 2001 after leading a successful fundraising campaign. While at the Association, Harnish has lead several successful grass roots campaigns, including winning a doubling of Amtrak service linking downstate Illinois to Chicago.
LUNCH PANEL - THE BURNHAM PLAN: 100 YEARS LATER
Frank Beal is executive director of Chicago Metropolis 2020. Previously, Beal worked at Inland Steel Industries for two decades, and was President and CEO of Ryerson/West, a subsidiary of Inland Steel. He was director of the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources and special assiistant for energy and environmental affairs for Governor James Thompson. He also served as deputy director of the Institute for Environmental Quality. Beal serves on the boards of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, and was appointed by Mayor Daley to serve on the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Board.
Carl Smith (Ph.D. American Studies, Yale University) is the author of Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920 (1984) and of Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman (1994), which won the Urban History Association's prize for Best Book in North American Urban History and the Society of Midland Authors' first prize for non-fiction. His most recent book is The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City (2006), which won the Lewis Mumford Prize for Best Book in Planning History, given by the Society of American City, Regional, and Planning History. He is also the curator of the online Chicago Historical Society exhibitions, The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory (1996) and The Dramas of Haymarket (2000), which have received several awards. Smith teaches American literature and cultural history at Northwestern University and holds a joint appointment in the history department. A recipient of a WCAS Outstanding Teaching Award, Smith was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 1994.
Photo (adapted): Mike Miley | Flickr
