Margaret McFarland
Professor Emerita
Founding Director, Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development, 2008 - 2018
Margaret McFarland has been involved in the real estate development arena from multiple perspectives for over two decades. Ms. McFarland began her career in real estate development as an urban planner for the Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Planning Commissions. On completing her law degree Ms. McFarland joined O'Melveny & Myers in private practice in Washington, D.C. assisting clients in financing hotel, office, and retail facilities, including commercial properties seeking historic preservation designation.
In 1985, Ms. McFarland was appointed counsel to Maryland's housing finance agency (CDA) and mortgage insurance fund (MHF) issuing revenue bonds for affordable housing and infrastructure projects and then expanded her responsibility as general counsel to the underwater archaeology, community development, and historic preservation programs of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Ms. McFarland spent two years on special assignment to Lieutenant Governor Townsend's Task Force to establish a quasi-corporate entity and cooperative relationship between St. Mary's College and Historic St. Mary's City – an outdoor museum at Maryland's First Capital.
At the close of her tenure with the Maryland Attorney General's Office, Ms. McFarland returned to the private sector providing consulting services to clients, both public and private, looking to use tax credits and other financing mechanisms to build or redevelop new communities, including affordable housing. Subsequently, she served as the executive director of the Housing Credit Group for the National Association of Home Builders where she developed a national reputation working with private sector bankers, builders, developers, investors, syndicator, and property managers for projects financed with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
She most recently served as general counsel to the District of Columbia Housing Authority as it expanded its mixed income housing and community redevelopment activities in the Southeast and Northeast sectors of Washington, D.C. Dr. McFarland is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland bars and chair of the Practice Division of State and Local Law for the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development. She is an outside director of the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, Inc., a non-profit real estate company with properties under development and/or management in Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, and Nevada. She is a trustee of both Andrews University and Washington Adventist University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Housing and Development Law Institute and the Advisory Board of the Housing and Development Law Reporter, and the American Real Estate Society.
Alan Ruby
Senior Architect & Senior Editor
Fentress Incorporated
Alan S. Ruby is a senior editor for the Real Estate Review. He presently manages the Architectural Services Division of Fentress Incorporated, a Washington D.C. area-based real property planning firm providing architectural and analytical services to the Federal Judiciary, General Services Administration, and other federal government agencies.
Mr. Ruby has more than 30 years professional experience practicing with large international architectural firms including the Omaha, Nebraska office of Leo A. Daly, and major U.S. corporations including Mutual of Omaha and Pacific Bell. He studied architecture and urban design as an undergraduate at the Ohio State University and holds a Master of Regional Resource Planning from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Throughout his career, Mr. Ruby has utilized his combined background in architecture and planning to look beyond the individual building and focus on the urban fabric. He has applied this interest to projects such as new cities in Saudi Arabia, U.S. Military bases in Europe, and infill redevelopment in American cities. Mr. Ruby is an avid scuba diver and cyclist, and a long-time collector of modern art.
Susan Ruby
Susan Ruby is a senior editor of the Real Estate Review. She was previously a city planner and housing finance professional with local governments in Ohio, Nebraska, California, and Virginia. Over her thirty year career, she was a project manager, division manager and assistant planning director, with responsibility in such areas as comprehensive planning, zoning administration, housing and community development, facility planning and capital improvements programming.
Ms. Ruby attended Washington University in St. Louis, and the Ohio State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts, Cum laude, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She attended the Master of City and Regional Planning program at Ohio State, and later the program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received a Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning, with a focus in housing policy.
Susan was a charter member of the American Planning Association and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners for over twenty years. She was an officer in APA in the States of California and Nebraska.
Jiemin Wu
Graduate Assistant
Before joining the PhD program of Urban and Regional Planning at Maryland, Jiemin Wu earned her Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University. Prior to Georgetown, Jiemin got both her first Master of Management and Bachelor of Management from Renmin University of China.
Jiemin has several internship and part-time job experiences in the public sector, international research institutes, and companies, like China Ministry of Land and Resources, U.S. Landesa Rural Development Institute, and China National Real Estate Development Group Corporation. In addition to her practical experience, she also has published articles in academic journals and international conferences.
Her research interests including housing policy, affordable real estate, sustainable community growth, and special policy for China’s Urban & Rural Integrated Development. Jiemin currently works as a graduate assistant at the school, as well as serving as assistant editor of the Real Estate Review.
Tanya Bansal
Clinical Assistant Professor
Assistant Director, Programs in Real Estate Development
Tanya Bansal joined the Real Estate Development Programs at the University of Maryland in November 2014, and currently serves as the assistant director and clinical assistant professor. Bansal teaches Introduction to Real Estate Development Principles and Process course to graduate and undergraduate students. She also teaches professional presentation and marketing skills to capstone students in the MRED program. As an assistant director, Bansal provides services with curriculum development, course scheduling, faculty and student recruitment, and program outreach. She also serves as the academic advisor for graduate students in the certificate and master of real estate development program, and dual degree real estate students in architecture, planning, preservation, and MBA programs. Bansal co-led a study abroad program to St. Petersburg, Russia in Summer 2018. A total of 40 interdisciplinary students from the U.S. and Russia participated in the program. Bansal currently serves as a senate member for the University of Maryland.
Outside the university, Bansal is active in various local and national organizations including Urban Land Institute [ULI], Lamda Alpha International [LAI], American Real Estate Society [ARES], and NAIOP. She played a key role in bringing speakers for the Annual Colvin Fall Lecture (2016 & 2017) from India.
Prior to moving to the U.S., Bansal worked with a well-known architectural company in New Delhi, India. As an interior designer, she was responsible for projects from preparing working drawings to site execution. After she moved to U.S. in 2012, she had the opportunity of interning with The Rappaport Companies, a well-known retail developer in the D.C. metro area as an asset manager. She also interned with Alex Brown Realty, an investment company based in Baltimore, where as an acquisition analyst she researched and analyzed various markets for potential investment deals.
Bansal came from India with an undergraduate degree in architecture and two years of work experience in the industry. She earned her Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Maryland in 2014, upon completing a capstone project on developing a parcel of land in Wheaton into a mixed-use apartment building, under the mentorship of Mr. James Agliata, Vice President for Development, Westfield, LLC. She was awarded third prize for the best project and presentation.
Susanne Cannon
Executive Editor
Susanne Ethridge Cannon, is professor emeritus, Department of Real Estate, and formerly the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Director of the Real Estate Center at DePaul University and now Managing Principal, MicroAnalytics. As the founding director of the Real Estate Center, and chairman of the Department of Real Estate, she built the academic program from its 2002 inception, including significant sponsorship by firms, associations and foundations; major endowment gifts; and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to establish the Institute for Housing Studies.
Throughout her academic career she has authored papers on topics as varied as financial institution and REIT corporate governance, real estate feasibility, technology, eminent domain, housing markets, and crowdfunding. She has also worked extensively in urban land use issues including zoning and down zoning cases, analysis of residential and office markets, and most recently, on the intersection of education, innovation, and public-private partnerships for real estate development.
Dr. Cannon has a BA in economics and a PhD in finance, both from the University of Texas, Austin. She is active in professional associations including: PREA, ULI, ICSC, Counselors of Real Estate, Lambda Alpha International, and the American Real Estate Society, where she has been a board member and where she was the initial chairman of the Education Committee, creating the education track at their annual meetings. She has been a distinguished fellow of the NAIOP Research Foundation and is currently a Weimer Fellow of the Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute, and a Fellow of the Real Estate Research Institute. She is active on several non-fo- profit boards and the managing director of Megalytics, a big data analysis firm, and was recently named one of the top fifty women in commercial real estate in Chicago.