2nd Annual Women in Real Estate, Design and Construction Forum

Kelley Lovshin is a Senior Construction Manager at Boston Properties with over 15 years’ experience in design, development, project management and engineering of major commercial and residential projects. She is currently leading the construction of Dock 72 which is a 16-story, 675,000-square-foot commercial property in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the borough’s first ground-up commercial building in over a decade. Her large development projects in New York City also include the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences East Tower, Memorial Sloan-Kettering New Research Building, and 250 West 55^th Street. She is actively involved in the Urban Land Institute and is currently serving as a co-chair for the ULI NEXT committee. She holds a Master’s degree in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Samantha Rudin Earls started working at Rudin Management Company in July of 2007. She sits on the executive committee of Rudin Management Company. She focuses on development, redevelopment, design and marketing for the Rudin portfolio. She has been actively engaged in the development of 130 W. 12th Street and The Greenwich Lane Condominium Developments in the West Village, in addition to the Rudin’s latest project, Dock 72, a 670,000 SF office building focusing on the Technology sector at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In March of 2011 she joined the board of the Incarnation Children’s Center—the only skilled nursing facility serving children living with HIV/AIDS in New York City. In 2016 Samantha helped launch an Association for Better New York's Working Women's Committee which helps connect and find ways to support women from all sectors in New York. In February of 2017, Samantha joined the Roundabout Theatre board. She is also on the board of the May & Samuel Rudin Family Foundation as well as other family foundations.

Samantha is a proud New Yorker and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Samantha is married to David Earls. They have a daughter Elle Rudin Earls.

Sarah Ashcroft is Vice President and Senior Regional Director of Development for Rockefeller Group. In this role, Sarah is responsible for overseeing current development projects throughout New York City as well as future development projects in the Northeast region. Sarah has 20 years of commercial real estate experience, both in real estate and economic development and has extensive knowledge of New York City.

Previously, Sarah was Senior Development Manager for Jonathan Rose Companies, a New York City-based real estate investment, development and project management firm. While at Jonathan Rose, Sarah led the ground-up development of several residential projects including the 90-unit rental building The Pierrepont in Brooklyn Heights and the 650-unit mixed-use development in East Harlem, N.Y., Sendero Verde.  In Washington, D.C., she was responsible for the 96-unit rental project Portner Flats.

Sarah has also been Vice President, Real Estate Development for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), where she managed several large mixed-use development projects including Rockefeller Group’s Flushing Commons. She has also worked for the Greater Jamaica (Queens, N.Y.) Development Corporation as Senior Project Manager.

Sarah earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her master’s degree from New York University.

Luise A. Barrack is the Managing Member of Rosenberg & Estis, P.C and head of the firm's Litigation Department, imparting her trial and appellate experience to the firm. She is a staunch advocate for her clients, many of whom she has represented for almost 30 years. Her no-nonsense approach has helped make Rosenberg &  Estis, P.C. the tough and highly respected law firm it is today.

Ms. Barrack's practice focuses on complex commercial litigation at the trial and appellate levels.
She has substantial expertise in all facets of real estate litigation, and is an experienced practitioner in all of New York State’s courts, including at the appellate level. Her real estate practice concentrates on representing developers, commercial owners, hoteliers, not for profit corporations and educational institutions. Ms. Barrack is also one of New York City's leading Loft Law experts, handling legalization, valuation of loft fixtures, and the costs of code compliance.

Matters handled by Ms. Barrack include: defeating a claim that a developer was required to conduct an environmental study prior to filing an administrative proceeding for permission not to renew rent stabilized tenants' leases in order to demolish a Central Park South building; reaching a multimillion dollar deal and property exchange with Columbia University; representing New York Law School in recovering a site essential to building its new urban campus; and defeating a party claiming an option to purchase an interest in a High Line building containing a chic and extremely high profile nightclub.

Ms. Barrack also represents owners and developers in construction litigation, developments, demolitions and assemblages, and disputes including succession rights, non-primary residence,

Beth Barton has returned to Jaros, Baum & Bolles, bringing over 30 years of combined experience in engineering design and extensive project management leadership to JB&B.  Ms. Barton first joined JB&B in 1988, and for nearly a decade she performed electrical design and field coordination services on large-scale projects with clients such as Chase, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Citibank and Prudential Securities.

During her hiatus from JB&B, she has had a successful project management career with top firms in the pharmaceutical, central bank and financial services sectors.  Between corporate roles, Ms. Barton was a consultant performing portfolio, program and project management services for clients in the fitness, law, retail, investment banking, technology and private real estate development industries.

Ms. Barton earned her bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering from the New York Institute of Technology.  She is a Certified Project Management Professional of the Project Management Institute and Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

Mariana Circiumaru is the Head of U.S. Construction at GreenOak Real Estate, a partner-owned real estate investment management and advisory firm founded in 2010. In her role, she is responsible for providing oversight on the development and redevelopment projects of all asset classes of GreenOak portfolio, throughout the United States. She is directly involved in particular situations that requires solutions.

She is part of GreenOak investment committee, assisting with the acquisition of new buildings.

Mrs. Circiumaru has previously held the position of Project Executive at RXR Realty where she has provided leadership and oversight for all the construction operations and project management for a multitude of capital improvement, tenant fit out and repositioning projects as well as for the new development projects.

Mrs. Circiumaru was also an Assistant Vice President of construction at Forest City Ratner Companies and a Project Manager at The Lefrak Organization.

Mrs. Circiumaru holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Bucharest University of Construction. She has been certified by US GBC as LEED Accredited Professional and by OSHA for Construction Site Safety. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of design development and construction for retail, office space, residential and mixed-use lifestyle centers.

Rebecca D’Eloia is a real estate development executive with 20 years of experience in large-scale, public/private redevelopment projects in the metropolitan region. As a Senior Vice President for development at RXR, she oversees the company’s Long Island portfolio.

Her projects include the Nassau Hub –the 66 acres surrounding Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and Garvies Point—a $1 billion, 1,100 unit mixed-use redevelopment project which is reclaiming a 56-acre former industrial site along the waterfront in Glen Cove, the first phase of which will deliver over 550 units and 20 acres of open space by the end of 2019.

Prior to joining RXR, Rebecca spent twelve years as a Senior Vice Present at Forest City Realty Trust, focusing on the development and entitlement of Pacific Park in Brooklyn, and the design and construction of Barclays Center, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the NHL’s New York Islanders.  She also led the $160M renovation of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County.

Prior to Forest City, Rebecca was part of the team leading the redevelopment of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a $1.2 B reconstruction of the campus housing eleven world-renowned performing arts originations, including the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard School and the Metropolitan Opera.

Rebecca began her career at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, where she oversaw revenue contracts and licenses for the agency.  A graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Rebecca resides in Huntington, Long Island with her husband and 2 children.

A seasoned leader and construction project manager, Stacey Dackson has extensive experience in nearly every type of interiors construction, from corporate offices, to museums, to academic facilities. Stacey is well-versed in the management of large construction programs spanning multiple years with simultaneous ground up, renovation and interior fit-out work. Her work ethic, integrity and 23 years of successful projects led to her promotion last year to Vice President of Structure Tone’s Special Projects division.

Stacey received her master’s degree in urban planning from New York University and dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and urban planning at CUNY/Queens College. She also holds a Certificate in Building Construction Management from New York University, as well as OSHA 10 Hour, Mold Prevention and Scaffold Safety certificates. Stacey co-chairs our organization’s newly formed Diversity and Inclusion committee, is an active participant in our organization’s Women in Construction (STOWIC) and is a member of Professional Women in Construction.

Tanya is a Principal and co-founding Director of Thornton Tomasetti’s London office.   She has brought
her expertise and creative solutions ethos to the design of complex, fast-track structures, including several award-winning projects across Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia.

She is a Chartered Engineer in Australia & England, and spent two years as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Teaching Fellow in the University of Cambridge’s prestigious Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) Masters’ course.

Tanya is committed to promoting and supporting opportunities for others. She shares her expertise and experience as mentor and strives to create a positive, supportive work environment that facilitates individual and collective achievement.

Deeply passionate about advancing gender diversity in engineering, Tanya leverages her own career success in service of this agenda. She is a founding and steering committee member of The Equilibrium Network, a multi-disciplinary network of people of influence – both male and female – working to help address gender inequity in the built environment industry and drive policy shift.

Tanya sees being an engineer as a privilege and an opportunity to make a real and positive impact on society and the planet. She is currently exploring ways engineers can extend their contributions at all levels of society while maintaining financial sustainability.

Eliza Horstman, Senior Project Manager in Lendlease’s New York office, has over 13 years of New York City construction experience. She specializes in managing large-scale, logistically complex projects in various market sectors. Representative examples include Columbia University’s 450,000
sf Jerome L. Greene Science Center, constructed top-down, and Mount Sinai Medical Center’s new Leon Norma and Hess Center for Science and Medicine, roughly the same size as Jerome L. Greene and a forebearer in translational research. Prior to these, she got her start as an Assistant
Superintendent on Weill Greenberg Center, the first step in Weill Cornell Medical Center’s state-of-the-art medical school expansion. Eliza is currently embarking on her first multi-family high-rise in Morningside Heights for Lendlease’s development arm.

Eliza has her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Construction Management from Columbia University. She is also a certified healthcare construction and infection control professional through the American Society of Healthcare Engineers. Eliza is a member of the New York Building Congress for Young Professionals.

Ms. Anita Konfederak is a Vice President of Merritt Engineering Consultants, P.C..  With over 30 years of experience, she is an expert in high rise building restoration, waterproofing and roofing, having worked on hundreds of buildings in the tristate area for institutional, commercial and residential clients, such as; the Hospital For Special Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, NSLIJ, Mt. Sinai, Verizon, Citi Corp, Lawrence School District and numerous building management companies, developers and owners. Her reputation for high quality design, thorough project management and on-time delivery is well known in the industry. She also provides construction management, owner’s rep. and peer review services, as well as emergency investigation services after water infiltration, fire and structural collapse accidents.  Ms. Konfederak is responsible for multi-million dollar projects and up to 30 field and office employees.

Alexis Lenza joined Hines in 2017 and has over thirteen years of experience in construction and project management. Ms. Lenza is responsible for the design development, construction coordination and fit-out of One Vanderbilt’s building amenity, restaurant and observation deck floors. One Vanderbilt is a 59-story, 1.6 million square foot Class A commercial office tower currently under construction and across from Grand Central terminal in Midtown Manhattan.

EDUCATION, CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES

Bachelor of Engineering – Civil, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

LEED Accredited Professional

10-hour OSHA Construction Safety Certificate, United States Department of Labor

30-hour OSHA Construction Safety Certificate, United States Department of Labor

The Cooper Union Alumni Council: Chair of the Events Committee

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Prior to joining Hines, Ms. Lenza:

‒Led the $165 million interior and exterior renovation of the 14,500 seat Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale NY for Forest City Ratner Companies

‒Provided on-site construction project management services for the fit-out of a 3,400 SF luxury restaurant of the Baccarat Hotel, a 5-star property as an independent contractor.

‒Initiated and facilitated design coordination, system optimization and provided general project management for several parametrically designed exterior wall projects including the 95,000 SF fully custom and prefabricated aluminum composite cladding system for the Nassau Coliseum project with  SHoP Construction.

While working with Turner Construction Company, Ms. Lenza served as an Assistant Project Manager for several projects: Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Zuckerman Research Center; the World Trade Center Transportation Hub focusing on superstructure and exterior wall trades; and 610 Lexington Avenue, a Hines project.

Jessica Lappin is the President of the Alliance for Downtown New York. The organization manages New York City’s largest Business Improvement District (BID) and works to ensure that Lower Manhattan is a thriving and dynamic community. A lifelong New Yorker, former elected official, and previous Crain’s “40 Under 40” honoree, Ms. Lappin has a distinguished record in civic life and public service.

Lappin took the helm of the Alliance in February 2014. She is responsible for providing core sanitation and public safety services that keep the area clean and safe, manages a free bus service, and has made outreach to the street homeless in the area a priority. She has also significantly expanded the free public WiFi network in Lower Manhattan, produced award winning ads and marketing videos, instituted a district-wide solar-powered recycling program, and helped secure nearly $100 million in resiliency funding for Lower Manhattan. On the economic development front, she led the organization’s efforts to create a first-of-its kind innovation hub and collaboration center called Lower Manhattan HQ.

Prior to her tenure at the Alliance, Lappin was elected to serve two terms in the New York City Council, representing the Upper East Side, East Midtown, and Roosevelt Island, and was praised by the New York Times for her “steely resolve, dedication, and energy.” She served as Chair of the Committee on Aging and fought successfully to keep 100 senior centers from closing and to secure funding for meals and other critical senior services. She also played a key role in bringing the Cornell Technion Applied Science and Engineering Campus to Roosevelt Island, oversaw the approval of over 20,000 new public school seats citywide, and spearheaded the successful development of four new waterfront parks. And, as Co-Chair of the Women’s Caucus, she authored a nationally recognized, landmark bill to protect women’s health and reproductive rights.

The Aspen Institute, a renowned international think tank, selected her as a Rodel Fellow in 2011. The Rodel program is focused on transcending political partisanship and addressing overarching questions of leadership and effective governance.

She serves on the Steering Committee of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and the boards of the FDR Memorial and Four Freedoms Park, Battery Conservancy, American Skin Association, and as an Ex-Officio member of New York City Center and NYC & Company.

Lappin loves to run and cook and lives in Manhattan with her husband and two sons. She graduated from Georgetown University, Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and from Stuyvesant High School.

Anita Woolley Nelson leads Strategy, Marketing and Communications for AECOM’s $8 billion Construction Services Group, which encompasses over 14,000 personnel in 25 countries and manages some of the largest and most complex projects in the world in the buildings, oil & gas, power, civil, mining, and industrial markets.

Miss Woolley Nelson has over 15 years of experience, more than ten spent with AECOM, encompassing five global regions. A critical member of the CS leadership team, she leads the development and implementation of CS’ strategy – driving growth initiatives, organizational design, merger and acquisition strategy and integration. She oversees market intelligence and analysis efforts and, through close alignment with AECOM’s corporate strategy team, ensures alignment of AECOM’s strategic priorities, e.g., integrated delivery and international expansion.

Miss Woolley Nelson has played a key role in the strategic analysis, acquisition and integration of several high-profile mergers and acquisitions, resulting in AECOM becoming one of the largest construction services providers in the industry.

Kim joined Turner Construction Company in 2002 and is currently a Vice President & Construction Executive.

Kim received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University in Houston, Texas. While practicing for firms such as Willis Bricker & Cannady, Robert AM Stern Architects and Voorsanger & Associates, Architects, her expertise included high end residential, assisted living, commercial, transportation and museum projects.

At Turner Construction, Kim’s focus has mainly been on Healthcare and Laboratory Research projects. Her clients have included MSKCC, NYU Langone Medical Center, Columbia University, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Pfizer and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  Kim has managed projects ranging in size from $25 million to $925 million, the two most notable being MSK Zuckerman Research Center and MSK David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care.

Kim enjoys mentoring, she volunteers on the Ambassador Council for Nontraditional Employment for Women and is an active participant in Turner’s Women’s Resource Group.

Denise M. Richardson is the Executive Director of the General Contractors Association of New York, a trade association that represents New York City’s unionized, heavy civil, public works general contractors.  Prior to joining the GCA, Ms. Richardson had a long career with both the MTA and New York city government in construction contract procurement, administration and financial management.

Ms. Schreiber is a Senior Project Manager with a background in structural engineering. Before working for CWC as a
Senior Project Manager, she practiced as a structural designer (licensed P.E.). In her role at CWC, Ms. Schreiber is
responsible for coordinating, scheduling and planning all construction activities to ensure that the project is completed to meet the goals of the project team. She has broad authority to commit on matters of cost and schedule.

The Senior Project Manager works hand-in-hand with the Lead Superintendent, a relationship that emphasizes the importance of well-managed construction operations for the success of the project. Amy is also responsible for administrative and technical management, which includes providing all required reports, progress charts, and updated schedules. She also supervises all activities related to contract administration, change orders, submittals, and procurement.