F. Kaid Benfield is Senior Counsel for Environmental Strategies at PlaceMakers LLC.  He is also a senior adviser to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law.  Kaid is a co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system; co-founder, Smart Growth America coalition; author of several books on smart growth and sprawl; and a regular contributor to several publications including The Huffington Post, the Sustainable Cities Collective, and Better! Cities & Towns.  Based in Washington, DC, Kaid was selected as one of the world’s “top urban thinkers” on the city planning website Planetizen and one of "the most influential people in sustainable planning and development" by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.