Faculty & Advising

Chuck Benson

Chuck Benson is the director of the IoT Risk Mitigation Strategy program at the University of Washington, where he’s worked for more than 15 years on risk mitigation, information security and IT. He’s served as an investigator for a National Science Foundation research grant on interorganizational and communication aspects and risks involving IoT and operational technology implementations in the built environment. He’s also contributed his expertise about IoT risk mitigation in testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and as chair of university and national task forces and the UW’s Smart Campus Advisory Committee.

Benson is the author of Managing IoT Systems for Institutions and Cities. He’s a contributing author to Creating, Analyzing and Sustaining Smart Cities: A Systems Perspective and a 2022 publication, “What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare.” Benson has a master’s degree in computer science from Eastern Washington University. He is a former Marine Corps captain and helicopter pilot.

cabenson@uw.edu

Tim Larson

Tim Larson is an adjunct professor in the UW’s Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and an emeritus professor for the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, where he also teaches in the Master of Science in Civil Engineering: Energy Infrastructure. 

Larson has more than 40 years of experience in air quality research, specifically in characterization of urban air pollution and its sources. In recent years, his major focus has been assessment of human exposure to outdoor air pollutants, and he has collaborated with other UW researchers on many projects related to the health consequences of exposure to air pollution. He holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Washington.

Profile | tlarson@uw.edu

Nicola Marsden-Haug

Nicola Marsden-Haug is an affiliate faculty member in the UW Department of Urban Design & Planning. She’s contributed her expertise in communicable disease control and public health surveillance systems to local, state and federal communities for more than 20 years. As the zoonotic and foodborne disease epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health, Marsden-Haug managed statewide surveillance data and oversaw outbreak investigations. She also served several local health departments as an applied epidemiologist, focusing on infectious diseases and maternal and child health.

Marsden-Haug is passionate about public health workforce development, particularly in supporting epidemiologists. Her experience includes designing continuing education and training courses for the UW Northwest Center for Public Health Practice and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. She’s also designed and managed development for in-person trainings, e-learning courses, and a disaster response tabletop exercise. She earned her master’s in public health from George Washington University.

nicolamh@uw.edu

Kara Martin

Kara Martin is an affiliate faculty member in the UW Department of Urban Design & Planning. She’s worked to advance equitable community food systems across the Greater Seattle region for more than two decades, focusing on food system assessments, planning and policy development, program development and partnerships.

Martin is currently a senior project manager at New Venture Advisors, a food-business consulting firm. Previously, she was executive director at City Fruit, a Seattle-based food security organization. For seven years, Martin led development of the Food Innovation Network, a community-centered initiative in South King County with a food-business incubator and farmers market, aimed at providing business opportunity and financial stability for immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs and farmers.

Martin has served on the American Planning Association’s Food Division executive committee, Seattle Planning Commission and Washington State Food System Roundtable. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Washington.

kem7@uw.edu

Tom Maxner

Tom Maxner is an affiliate instructor in the Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management program. Maxner is completing his Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Washington and is an research associate at the university’s Urban Freight Lab. He’s primarily focused his work and research on sustainability in the freight and logistics industry, ranging from last-mile home delivery to maritime goods movement, and the role that public stakeholders play in improving supply chain efficiencies and sustainability.

Maxner spent a year as a guest researcher at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and prior to his graduate study, he worked for eight years in project management at a construction firm in Washington, D.C. He holds dual master’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in public policy and transportation engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Syracuse University.

tmaxner@uw.edu

Curry Mayer

Curry Mayer is the director of emergency management for the City of Seattle. Her more than 30 years of experience includes serving as the emergency management adviser to the undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and as the director of training and exercises for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. She’s also worked as a project contractor for the United Nations, the Department of the Army, the National Guard Bureau, and the White House Military Office.

She holds certifications in the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program and Master Exercise Practitioner Program and is certified to teach in both programs. Mayer is a board member for the Washington 211 network and of the advisory board for the Center of Excellence for Homeland Security and Emergency Management. She’s taught courses in homeland security and emergency management at the master's degree level and co-authored an emergency management textbook, The Future of Emergency Management after 2020. 

currym7@uw.edu

Scott Preston

Scott Preston is the business continuity program manager for MultiCare Health System and a guest lecturer in the Department of Urban Design & Planning. Previously, as an emergency manager with the UW Department of Emergency Management, he served as the university’s business continuity manager and primary duty officer.

Preston has worked in the field of emergency management for more than a decade and holds professional accreditation as a certified emergency manager, a certified business continuity professional and a master exercise practitioner. He has a master’s degree in emergency and disaster management from the American Military University and is a graduate of the FEMA/EMI National Emergency Management Advanced Academy.

scottpre@mail.com

Mary Roderick

Mary Roderick is an affiliate professor in the UW Department of Urban Design & Planning. She’s also the planning director for the Land of Sky Regional Council, a council of governments based in Asheville, North Carolina, serving four counties and 16 municipalities. Her current work focuses on Hurricane Helene recovery, directly supporting multiple jurisdictions with FEMA Public Assistance and coordinating across other federal and state programs to address recovery needs.

Roderick also works on watershed restoration, stormwater management, and water and sewer infrastructure system development, climate resilience planning and hazard mitigation. She earned her Ph.D. in urban design and planning at the University of Washington, with research focused on geodesign-based, multi-scalar and multi-functional green infrastructure planning. Roderick also has a master’s degree in community planning with an environmental specialization from the University of Cincinnati.

Profile | roderimj@uw.edu

Kelly Stone

Kelly Stone has worked in GIS for more than two decades. Currently, she’s a broadband GIS specialist for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the Department of Commerce. She works on GIS applications in support of multiple broadband grants offered to state and tribal governments, designed to increase equal access to broadband services across the United States. 

Previously, Stone was a regional analyst for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a risk analyst at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She’s a certified GIS Professional (GISP) and a certified information systems security professional (CISSP). Stone holds a master’s degree in geology from Michigan Technological University and a master’s in environmental studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.

stonek7@uw.edu

Shannon Tyman

Shannon Tyman is a lecturer in the UW Department of Urban Design & Planning and a fellow in the Program for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy at UW Bothell. Her research examines questions of social justice in urban food systems, and she has worked as a chef, interned on urban farms, taught courses on urban agriculture and served on the board of a food cooperative. She has also contributed food system research to universities and government institutions.

Tyman holds a bachelor’s degree in the growth and structure of cities from Bryn Mawr College, earned a master’s in environmental studies from the University of Oregon, and received her Ph.D. from the UW College of Built Environments in 2023.

skt8@uw.edu

Stefanie Young

Stefanie Young is president and director of sustainability at Delta E Consulting, a Seattle-based MEP consulting firm. Young brings more than 15 years of experience in assessing sustainable solutions with public entities, large stakeholder groups, architects and developers.

She has extensive expertise in creating targeted sustainability action plans, including ROM costing analysis and supporting green financing mechanisms through ESG. Her technical skills encompass carbon accounting and climate change resiliency analysis. Clients include Sound Transit, Microsoft and developers throughout the Puget Sound region. Young is active with the U.S. Green Building Council and was critical to writing LEED v5 with the path to decarbonization.

sy10@uw.edu