Benjamin Frost, Esq., AICP is the Director of Legal and Public Affairs at New Hampshire Housing, where he coordinates federal and state legislative initiatives. He frequently lectures on issues of affordable and workforce housing, planning and zoning law, and ethics. Ben has over 25 years of experience as a land use planner and 20 years as an attorney. He is a member of the Governing Council of Housing Action NH, a low-income housing advocacy organization and he represents New Hampshire Housing on the NH Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Energy Board. Ben serves as the Treasurer of the NH Planners Association and as the Public Information Officer of the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association. He coordinates a national consortium of American Planning Association chapters and divisions that provides free online training for professional planners. Ben is also a member of the legislative committees of the American Planning Association and the New Hampshire Bar Association and serves on the Community Development Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Ben holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Geography (with a focus on USSR environmental policy) from Colgate University and Syracuse University, respectively and a law degree from Cornell Law School with a concentration in business law and regulation. He lives in Warner, NH, where he serves on the Planning Board and chairs its Capital Improvements Program Committee. In his spare time, he engages in combat with the forest that constantly encroaches his house and he’s slowly working toward summiting New England’s 100 Highest peaks.
Jodie Levandowski is a Planner II with the City of Manchester’s Planning & Community Development Department. She is a 2008 graduate of Plymouth State University and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning with a focus on Geographic Information Systems. Prior to taking her position with the City of Manchester, she worked for three years in the Town of Milford, NH as their Town Planner/GIS Coordinator and before that spent two years on Long Island as an Environmental Planner. She has been approved to sit for the November 2015 AICP certification exam and is feverishly studying in anticipation. Jodie has provided staff support to the NHPA Executive Committee since 2012 when she first participated on the 2013 NHPA Annual Conference Organizing Group (COG). She resides in Manchester’s North End and when she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, running, gardening and also spending time renovating their 1950’s ranch.
Shanna B. Saunders is a 2003 graduate of the Resource Administration and Management Master’s Degree program at the University of New Hampshire and has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Conservation from UNH as well. She started her career path as director of the non-profit watershed group the Parker River Clean Water Association in Newbury, MA. From there she worked several years for the town of Rowley, MA as their Conservation Administrator. She now directs the City of Laconia Planning Department in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. While at the City of Laconia, she has integrated low impact development principals into construction proposals, redrafted the cluster ordinance in the form of Randall Arendt’s Conservation Subdivision, enacted steep slope protections, and ReImagined Laconia for the City’s Master Plan. She continues to strive everyday to integrate wise land use principals into New Hampshire land use policies. Shanna has been a NHPA Executive Committee member since 2009 and currently serves as President. energies on being more visible and useful to the membership and hopes to be more proactive in legislative lobbying and creating lasting partnerships with other organizations that strive, as NHPA does, for a better New Hampshire. Shanna lives, runs, cooks and gardens in Seacoast New Hampshire with her two beautiful and brilliant children!