Maria MacDonald, Executive Director

maria@centerforthelivingcity.org

Maria MacDonald is a practicing interior architect and Program Director of Interior Architecture at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  She specializes in adaptive reuse, preservation, and restoration projects.

With over 25 years of experience, she partners her professional practice with her teaching. Throughout her career she has been a team leader for many significant community projects. As an educator her intense focus is on service and community outreach, providing community-based, experiential learning opportunities for her students and the people in the communities where they work.

She is a graduate in both Architecture and Interior Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design where she received the Excellence in Design award for her work on the “Reclamation of Forgotten Spaces.”

Maria is a founding faculty member of Marywood University’s School of Architecture and has served as the Interior Architecture Program Director for the past 15 years. She has steered the program successfully through two full NASAD accreditations.

With her integrative, holistic design approach, she works to strengthen the relationships between the allied design disciplines and the people and environments where we live.  

Conor Kelly O’Brien, program Director

conor@centerforthelivingcity.org

Conor (he/him) is a theater-maker, nonprofit leader, and cultural organizer. Conor has performed Off-Broadway and has performed (or seen his original works performed) on stages across the United States and Great Britain, as well as a few small TV roles. Conor is a proud member of the New Vintage Ensemble, the Dramatist Guild of America, and is the co-founder of the Scranton Fringe Festival. He is a Pennsylvania state-rostered artist and is thrilled to be working with the Center For The Living City once again having served as the manager of the Observe Scranton Festival in 2021 and 2023. With over twelve years of nonprofit leadership experience, his work is centered on creating inclusive and dynamic mission-centered programming through the arts, humanities, and community-driven dialogue. 

Joshua berman, living city lab AMBASSADOR

jberman@maryu.marywood.edu

Joshua Berman is the Associate Director for Graduate Studies at Marywood University’s School of Architecture in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Through an integrated approach to history, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse, his teaching emphasizes the importance of experiential learning and public engagement as change agents for community empowerment. Joshua is passionate about developing action-oriented projects that focus on creating places where people reflect on a sense of shared inheritance and collective consciousness as a means of community building. His interdisciplinary approach to public design projects bridges the gap between education, service, and networking to strengthen bonds between students and their neighbors at the local scale. He holds a master’s of Interior Architecture from Marywood University, and a bachelor’s in History from King’s College, Pennsylvania.

Stephen Goldsmith, senior advisor

stephen@centerforthelivingcity.org

Stephen previously served as the Executive Director of the Center for the Living City, was an Associate Professor in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah and also served as the co-director of the University's Consortium for Dark Sky Studies. As the former Planning Director for Salt Lake City, Stephen was the first artist/planning director appointed in a major city in the U.S. During his tenure, which included preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, he completed projects including an award-winning guide titled, Towards a Walkable Downtown: urban design strategies to improve the pedestrian environment in Downtown Salt Lake City; a project to develop high-performance, green building policies for the city; development of the city’s first Transit Oriented Zoning districts, and a “Walkable Communities” ordinance. During the 2002 Olympics he produced an international symposium and exhibition titled, “The Physical Fitness of Cities: Vision and Ethics in City Building.”

Stephen was also the founding director of Artspace, a community development corporation creating affordable housing and workspace for artists and others in Salt Lake City. He is an accomplished sculptor whose water features and environmental installations can be seen in public spaces throughout Salt Lake City.

Stephen is both a former Loeb Fellow, Advanced Environmental Studies (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University) and former Director, Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship Program.

Chelsea Gauthier, Senior Advisor

chelsea@centerforthelivingcity.org

Chelsea Gauthier served as the Associate Director from 2013-2023. She now runs the Utah Main Street Program (a coordinating program of Main Street America) under the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. As of summer 2023, Chelsea assists with back-end operations and management of the Center. Her background as a ballet dancer fostered her love of embedded story within historic buildings and finding inspiration from artistic nuances that people and place bring to city life. Chelsea is passionate about engaging youth and women in the design of their communities. Her interests and experience include urban ecology, environmental planning, historic preservation, and community engagement projects that create a platform for citizen activists to create change in their communities. She believes in the power of small scale interventions in cities to make big impacts within a community. She holds a Master’s degree in City & Metropolitan Planning, a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation, and a Bachelor’s in Urban Planning from the University of Utah.