Ben Welle is an associate with EMBARQ’s public health and transport group, which works to reduce road fatalities and increase quality of life in urban development. Prior to working at WRI, he was assistant director at The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence in Washington, D.C.–writing, consulting, and speaking on urban parks and public space and their relationship to urban development. He specifically worked on public health, transport and economic analysis. Prior to TPL, he worked in the Twin Cities at the Community Reinvestment Fund and at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. He has a masters degree in urban and regional planning from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in communications from Hamline University.