David Kooris is a Vice President at Regional Plan Association. With our Connecticut office as his base of operations in Stamford's city center, he manages the Connecticut and Hudson Valley programs. He is also involved in work across the region to better understand the link between built form and climate change. Mr. Kooris currently manages several projects and research initiatives throughout the region that combine his background in urban design and sustainability with his devotion to the public process and climate action.

In Connecticut, RPA's office led by Mr. Kooris coordinates the City of Bridgeport's comprehensive sustainability initiative, BGreen 2020, which is presently involving hundreds of community leaders, business owners, and city staff in a process to balance economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity for residents, workers, and visitors. This effort works to implement many of the concepts outlined in the Greater Bridgeport Carbon Emissions Reduction Strategy, a research project conducted by Mr. Kooris to identify land use and transportation policies for a low-carbon future for Bridgeport and the surrounding towns. Lessons learned from this and a comparable effort covering the Hartford region are being scaled up to the state level to clearly articulate the role that development and infrastructure have in meeting our emissions reduction targets. Working with the Town of Fairfield and several other municipalities and neighborhoods with active transit service throughout the state, Mr. Kooris is helping communities identify the appropriate scale and character of transit-oriented developments to meet both local and regional goals.

In the Hudson Valley, Mr. Kooris manages RPA's component of a capacity building program for communities that will have expanded or new transit service following the reconstruction of the Tappan Zee Bridge. This program, Creating Quality Communities Around Transit, is working with Rockland and Westchester Counties and eight individual municipalities to put the policies in place to reduce automobile dependency today while laying the foundation for the transit-oriented communities of the future along the I-287 corridor. Also at the sub-regional scale, he manages RPA's component of the Newburgh Area Transportation and Land Use Study, an effort to coordinate planning around the City of Newburgh and Stewart Airport to encourage economic development while ensuring the preservation of this scenic area and limiting carbon emissions.

Mr. Kooris is just beginning his fifth year at RPA. He received an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Geography from McGill University and a Master in City and Regional Planning and a Master Certificate in Urban Design from PennDesign at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Stamford, CT with his wife Jessica.