s a strategic advisor and national expert on reclaiming vacant properties, urban sustainability, and municipal/civic capacity building, Schilling works with public officials and community leaders in the design and development of new models for urban regeneration and neighborhood revitalization. He leads the Vacant Properties Research Network (VPR Network)—a dynamic hub for policy and research translation which connects researchers and practitioners on critical revitalization issues such as code enforcement, urban greening and public health. In partnership with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Schilling is leading a policy and program inventory of green and sustainablity policies, plans and progams in legacy cities that will serve as the launching pad for a more robust initiative. Schilling is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow with the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program where his team completed a health impact assessment on strategic code enforcement and substandard housing in the city of Memphis. In 2016 he helped local leaders in Memphis develop the nation’s first Blight Elimination Charter and completed a comprehensive literature synthesis on the Multiple Meanings of Blight for the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful.
Before joining Urban, Schilling was Associate Director and Senior Fellow for Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute. He holds a Masters of Environmental Law (LL.M.) from George Washington University and a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.