About our Staff
UPD's professional consultants have a wealth of hands-on experience, dedication and education. Each consultant has worked directly for both public sector agencies and private sector companies in leadership roles applying, in practice, the very tools, policies and structures they now assist clients in implementing. We boast a team of highly-skilled area experts who have remained working within the public sector realm out of a desire to help solve problems that will benefit the public good. Read brief profiles of our key staff below.
- Douglass Austin, President & CEO
- Robert Pipik, Manager
- Sherry Chen, Senior Consultant
- Bryan Richardson, Senior Consultant
Douglass Austin, President & CEO
Mr. Austin brings 20 years of public and private sector management experience to the team. As the founder of Urban Policy Development, his engagements have included large management reform projects for the Detroit Public Schools, the Miami/Dade Public Schools, the Washington, DC Department of Housing & Community Development, and the Philadelphia/Camden Empowerment Zone. In 2005-06, Mr. Austin was the Chief of Staff of the Baltimore City Public School System. Major efforts during his tenure include the permanent closure of several school buildings, revision of the district's budgeting process to make it more transparent, restructuring the district's special education management processes, and the reorganization of Human Resources' recruiting functions.
Prior to joining the Baltimore Schools, Mr. Austin served for three years as Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Department of Housing & Community Development and the city's Development Director. He was responsible for reorganizing the Development Division and making it much more "customer-oriented." He is credited with helping Baltimore take advantage of the surge in the housing market and opening up development opportunities to a wider array of developers and builders.
Mr. Austin has also worked for Carrier Corporation as a Domestic Credit Manager for U.S. operations, as a credit analyst and small business loan officer for Chemical Bank in New York City, and as the founding editor of the start-up magazine Urban Profile.
Mr. Austin received his B.A. in Politics from Princeton University and his Master of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy.
Robert Pipik, Manager
Robert Pipik has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in issues of urban redevelopment, housing, economic development, educational facilities and finance.
Prior to joining Urban Policy Development, Mr. Pipik was Executive Director of Facilities for the Baltimore City Public School System overseeing capital design and construction, repairs, custodial and planning efforts. All areas saw notable improvements under Mr. Pipik’s leadership. Mr. Pipik led the school district through a painful but necessary reconfiguration process resulting in the closure of the worst facilities and a projected reduction of 15 percent of overall square footage. Prior to Mr. Pipik joining the Baltimore City Schools, the district’s capital program was in disarray and threatened with takeover by the City of Baltimore. In addition, the district had unspent funds stretching back five or more fiscal years and a string of broken promises to local communities. In less than two years under Mr. Pipik, all systemic projects were put on track, long delayed major renovations were launched and all accounts made current. In addition, Baltimore became the first major urban public district to initiate a system-wide energy savings contract (ESCO) program resulting in upgrades to nearly every school.
Prior to joining the Baltimore City Schools, Mr. Pipik was the Director of Disposition and Asset Management for the Baltimore Department of Housing & Community Development. Under Mr. Pipik’s leadership, there was a over a 10-fold increase in the number of properties conveyed to the private sector and an even greater increase in the sales proceeds and tax revenues realized by the City through property sales. As importantly, disposition efforts were more tightly linked with community development planning efforts and overall development goals. Mr. Pipik helped create and led implementation of creative disposition strategies such as the Selling City Owned Properties Efficiently (SCOPE) program, a partnership between the City and local realtors, and the Homesteading Campaign which jump-started the Reservoir Hill neighborhood market through City sales to “urban pioneer” rehabbers.
Mr. Pipik led a similar redevelopment effort of City-owned property as the Manager of the Third Party Transfer Program for the City of New York. This program successfully transferred hundreds of properties to private ownership and ensured rehabilitation of the property through City-assisted loan programs. The program also drastically shortened the period of time when properties required operating subsidies from the City.
Mr. Pipik also has experience assisting with HOPE VI major Public Housing redevelopment initiatives in Boston Massachusetts; providing homelessness-related services and advocacy in Seattle Washington; and international development overseas in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Mr. Pipik has a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and B.A. from Columbia University in New York City.
Sherry Chen, Senior Consultant
To boards, executives, senior management, and other clients requiring assistance with evaluating and managing the forces that drive organizational performance, Sherry Chen brings a wealth of experience. For the past seven years she has earned a reputation for providing skilled and practical guidance to both the public and private sectors in the areas of organizational development, program evaluation, strategic planning, and project management. Her most recent endeavors include projects for the Washington DC State Department of Education and the Paterson Public Schools in Paterson, New Jersey.
From 2005-2007, Ms. Chen served as Director of Special Projects to the Chief Executive Officer of the Baltimore City Public School System, where she led the implementation of several management reform initiatives to improve performance and accountability in the Special Education division, including the development and roll-out of a related services electronic tracking system to streamline a historically inefficient, paper-driven process of collecting and maintaining federally mandated student special education service information.
Prior to her experience at the Baltimore City schools, Ms. Chen worked as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Community Development of Baltimore City, where she was responsible for developing performance baselines, benchmarks and outcomes for the Property Acquisition, Disposition, Asset Management, Finance, and Grant offices within the Development division. In addition, she was responsible for overseeing the implementation of program initiatives in the areas of neighborhood planning, land use/site assembly, affordable homeownership, development finance, CDBG grant making and non-profit capacity building.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Chen worked for Empower Baltimore, the non-profit corporation designated to administer the $100 million federal Empowerment Zone grant, where she was hired as Director of Data Monitoring and Evaluation to develop and implement strategies for improving the organization’s data and research capacity, including data tools for six community-based satellite organizations. While in graduate school in Ithaca, New York, Ms. Chen also launched a successful public-private partnership initiative to restructure a county-wide system for financing the costs of early education to low- and middle-income families with children, an initiative that remains grant funded to this date.
Ms. Chen holds a B.A. in American Studies and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Cornell University.
Bryan Richardson, Senior Consultant
Bryan brings 10 years of public and private sector management experience to the team. As senior consultant at Urban Policy Development, Bryan leads the firm's accountability and management reform engagements with school districts, state education offices, cities, and state agencies. Mr. Richardson specializes in advising executive leadership in the development and implementation of the "Stat" management process.
His engagements have included advising the State Education Office in the District of Columbia in their assumption of the state governance role over public education in the district under Mayor Adrian Fenty as well as advising the Public School District of Paterson, NJ to implement accountability processes around curriculum and instruction, facilities, and food service.
From 2004-2007, Mr. Richardson worked with the Baltimore SchoolStat Office of the Baltimore City Public School System, serving as its Director from 2005-2007. Baltimore SchoolStat is a data-driven performance measurement and accountability program based on the Baltimore CitiStat Program. Major accomplishments during his tenure included the creation of the district's "Stat" program to oversee its two year "Master Plan," overseeing reforms in teacher recruitment and staffing (which led to 110 fewer teacher vacancies and 43 percent more recruits eligible to be highly qualified in 2006 vs. 2005), and recovering $141 million dollars in state revenue for the district.
Prior to joining the Baltimore Schools, Mr. Richardson served as Professional Staff to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. At the Committee, Mr. Richardson formulated and negotiated legislation on behalf of the committee on issues involving clean water, infrastructure security, and environmental programs at defense facilities.
Mr. Richardson led legislative work the Water Investment Act, a $41.5 billion re-authorization of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
Mr. Richardson also worked as Director of Sales and Customer Service for Diginexo, Inc., an affiliate to Verisign, Inc., offering network security products and services to businesses in Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, and the Caribbean.
Mr. Richardson received his B.A. in International Studies from Emory University and his Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.