Liz Barry | Co-Founder & Co-Director
Co-founder of TreeKIT and director of urban environment at Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, Liz Barry develops geographic tools and civic science methods for collaborative cities. She holds an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from NCSU, and a MSA+UD from Columbia University. She teaches at Columbia University and Parsons the New School for Design. Previously, she worked at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill planning international new cities and campuses, at Durham Inner-city Gardeners (DIG) coordinating youth urban agriculture enterprise, and travelled around the country catalyzing interaction among strangers with a “Talk To Me” sign – a project that received international press including the New York Times, AP, CNN, Oprah and NPR’s This American Life. She likes to play outside.

Philip Silva | Co-Founder & Co-Director
In addition to his work with TreeKIT, Philip is a Ph.D. student in Natural Resources at Cornell University. His research looks at public participation in outcomes monitoring research for volunteer ecosystem management in cities. Philip has served as an adjunct faculty member at The New School, teaching courses in urban forestry, environmental history, and design. His consulting work covers variety of subjects related to environmental planning and education, with a focus on urban development, open space, and civic science projects. Philip has served as the Greenway Coordinator at Sustainable South Bronx, Assistant Director for Operations + Sustainability at The New School, and Program Manager at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Philip is one of 25 national leaders in urban forestry serving on the “Vibrant Cities and Urban Forests” task force, convened by the US Forest Service to craft federal policy recommendations for the next decade. Philip is also a recipient of the 2010 iLAB Residency of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature, and Dance (“iLAND”) and a 2009 Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.