David Beach, Chair

Director of the GreenCityBlueLake Institute,

Cleveland Museum of Natural History

David Beach is the director of the GreenCityBlueLake Institute at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The Institute was created from the recent merger of the Museum and EcoCity Cleveland. It will help engage the public about the design of ecological cities and how human beings can live in sustainable ways on Earth in the 21st century.

Before joining the Museum of Natural History, Beach was founder and executive director of EcoCity Cleveland.He built the organization into a respected center of thought and practice about sustainability and the design of cities in balance with nature. EcoCity Cleveland worked in city neighborhoods to promote environmentally-friendly redevelopment that improves quality of life and economic competitiveness. It worked in the countryside of Northeast Ohio to promote sensitive development that preserves open space and the ecological integrity of the landscape. And, balancing city and country, EcoCity worked to shape regional plans for land use and transportation.

EcoCity Cleveland’s projects, research, and publications won national acclaim. Its journal was nominated three times for national “Best of the Alternative Press Awards.” And its Web site, www.ecocitycleveland.org, was named one of the 50 best Web sites for planning and community development. EcoCity’s more recent work on its www.GreenCityBlueLake.org website has popularized the vision that “Cleveland can be a green city on a blue lake.”

David Beach has been writing and speaking about the environment, neighborhood development, and regional planning issues for more than 25 years. He has deep roots in Northeast Ohio; his family has lived there for six generations. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

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