Speakers & Panelists
Bob Hambly RGD
Creative Director, Partner – Hambly & Woolley, Inc. – Toronto, Ontario
A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, Bob Hambly is the creative director of Hambly & Woolley Inc., a Toronto-based, multi-disciplinary graphic design firm he co-founded with his partner, Barbara Woolley. Over the past 20 years, the firm has received over 350 national and internationaldesign awards.
Bob’s creative mind is always at work at H&W, where clients like the Royal Ontario Museum, The Toronto Zoo and Harry Rosen benefit from his fresh perspective, eye for detail and knack for personal service. As creative director he oversees the development of a range of projects, with a particular focus on branding initiatives. Bob is also an illustrator – he contributed to the “Lives” column of the New York Times Sunday Magazine for 12 years. Bob has taught illustration and lectured frequently on design and design-related topics to varied institutions, associations and organizations.
Peter & Sharon Exley
Principals – Architecture is Fun! – Chicago, Illinois
In 1994, following traditional paths in the architecture and design professions, with a young child in tow, Sharon and Peter Exley noted a lack of advocacy for architecture with children in mind. Presented with a hands-on learning 
commission at the prestigious Chicago Children’s Museum, they elected to craft their professional ambitions toward making meaningful, interactive places and spaces for families. Mindful to learn from both formal and informal places and historical, architectural precedents, they looked to elevate the standards of design for learning environments through the construction of new paradigms in pedagogy, play, and participatory experience through the simple implementation of good ideas.
Architecture is Fun, develops architecture, interiors, exhibits, and learning resources for visionaries interested in sensorial experiences as part of daily life. The firm scouts innovative approaches to design, design education, and young design talent. 
Architecture is Fun lectures, chitchats, exhibits, and participates in educational events around the world.
Multiple perspectives are valued within the firm. Dreaming is an essential daily activity. Within this studio, “hats” are traded, blurring disciplines and energizing concepts that are informed by both education and design. Collaboration is part and parcel of every project and as varied as the portfolio seems all projects share common goals: beauty, richness, complexity, simplicity, familiarity, accessibility, sustainability, all of which harness the power of play. A body of award-winning projects demonstrates architecture is fun and that spaces and places for children can be pedagogically based and culturally relevant!
Dr. Toby Israel
Toby Israel, Ph.D. is a visionary founder of the new field of Design Psychology. Defined as “the practice of architecture, planning and interior design in which psychology is the principal design tool”, this new discipline continues to gain international attention, including in The L.A. Times, 
The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Dublin Times, Oprah Home, on NPR’s Talk of the Nation and Radio Times, in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Design Psychology one-to-one interviews and group visioning sessions she conducts bring to the fore the vast personal store of experience and emotions that contribute to an individual’s or group’s sense of place. Using this process, Dr. Israel helps clients “design from within” to create deeply human homes, healthcare, schools and other special places. Those she has led through her “toolbox” of exercises include world-famous architect, Michael Graves, and T. V. commentator, Jane Pauley.
An acclaimed pioneer, Dr. Israel speaks both nationally and internationally, spreading the word about Design Psychology. Her most recent projects and presentations involve using Design Psychology to create healing environments. Dr. Israel’s international experience and groundbreaking theories about people and place are summarized in her book, Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places. (Wiley/Academy, 2003). This “extraordinary book. . . . . includes thought-provoking examples that incorporate the concept of design psychology for residential, institutional and corporate design.” (Design Management Review, 06/25/04)
Trained as an Environmental Psychologist, Dr. Israel has over twenty-five years of experience in design, psychology, the arts and education. She has served as an environmental consultant in the USA and UK including as head of the research division of LRK and of the Visual Arts Program for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. A former professor of architecture and psychology in the U.K., her work combines scholarship with “real world” wisdom that can be applied in everyday practice.
Cathie Looney
Cathie Butler Looney is a Certified Reality Therapist and a nationally acclaimed speaker. She is a much-sought-after personality whose insight and wit have helped educate parents and children in schools, churches, organizations and businesses throughout the United States,Canada and 
Europe. She works with Young Presidents Organization facilitating leadership workshops, seminars and retreats. Cathie has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers. She has been described in the Dallas Morning News by columnist Steve Blow as delivering her presentations with a “rapid-fire mixture of wit and wisdom”. She holds degrees in Elementary and Secondary Education and a Master’s degree in Counseling. Cathie did an extensive study under Dr. William Glasser at the Institute of Reality Therapy in California after completing her Master’s degree. Cathie has been married for 35 years to Jim, an architect who has firms in Dallas and Chicago. They are the proud parents of a son, Butler, who is 30 years of age and a graphic designer in Dallas and a daughter, Elaine, who is 25 years of age and is a Social Worker on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Linda Elliot Smith, FASID
President – Smith & Associates
Linda Smith, FASID, is a Past National President of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), where she served as a volunteer leader for more than 20 years. Smith also served for three years as President of the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCDIQ) (1997-1999).
She also served for two years on the now defunct National Legislative Coalition for Interior Design (NLCID), working to promote the recognition of and right-to-practice for interior designers across the nation.
While a practicing interior designer in the State of Tennessee, Linda worked tirelessly as an advocate for interior design licensing. Once that goal was achieved, she was the first interior designer appointed to the Tennessee Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners. Linda served two four-year terms, being appointed by two different governors. She served as secretary to the board and chairperson during her tenure from 1993-2000.
Linda has been a practicing interior designer for over 25 years, and is President of smith & associates, inc., an award winning interior design firm specializing in contract, hospitality and residential interior design. Through her practice experience Linda developed an understanding of the value of continuing education to help practicing interior designers stay current, and informed about changes in the industry. As an ASID volunteer she was trained to be a trainer. Through ASID she taught interior design professionals and others leadership skills, strategic planning, and business management strategies.
Matt Nardella, AIA, LEED
Matt is a LEED accredited architect practicing in Illinois and California, and principal architect of moss (www.moss-design.com). He is a member of the AIA and NCARB, with over twelve years of residential, civic, commercial, and institutional design experience. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Newschool of Architecture in San Diego, 
California. Matt understands the urban environment and how to sustain it as a community for all living things. He regularly devotes time volunteering for several local environmental organizations, including the Foresight Design Initiative and Openlands Project as a volunteer Treekeeper. Matt lectures on several topics, including sustainable design practices, alternative building materials, navigating the permitting process, and accessibility.
Matt seeks to produce energy efficient, unique, and sustainable architecture and design by merging straightforward methodologies of architectural design and theory with the realities of construction, building codes, and real estate development.
moss is committed to establishing meaningful, long-term relationships based on communication, education, trust, and mutual respect. Mutual respect is all encompassing for the client, the community, and equally important – our natural surroundings. We believe that successful design provides a solid connectivity with nature while responding to client needs, desires, and their vision of a comfortable, livable, and functional environment. This allows us to create site specific and sustainable architecture.
Christopher Wynn
Christopher Wynn is the Home & Dining Editor for FD Luxe, the monthly luxury style magazine of The Dallas Morning News. He was previously assistant editor for PaperCity magazine in Dallas and has also worked as a freelance writer. He lives with a watchmaker and two Boston Terriers.