Michael Gallis is widely considered America’s leading expert in large-scale metropolitan regional development strategies. He has pioneered a specialty in building frameworks through which public, private and institutional leaders can work effectively to create globally competitive regions. Through these frameworks, Gallis has mobilized leaders across the country to understand and develop new ways of responding to the challenges and opportunities of states and regions in the 21st century.
Michael Gallis & Associates, a strategic planning and design firm, was formed in 1988. Since that time, the company has grown to become a multi-disciplinary firm offering a wide variety of planning, real estate and information services to a broad range of public, private and institutional clients across the country.
Gallis has led in-depth development programs for a number of regions including Detroit, Cincinnati, Memphis, West Michigan and Charlotte, as well as for several states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. Through these programs, Gallis has developed innovative strategies for enhancing the long-term development of regional systems, resources and communities. His projects have resulted in strong regional consensus and new public, private and institutional coalitions for promoting and developing strategic regional development programs.
He has been a featured speaker and seminar leader for a variety of national meetings and conferences on subjects ranging from urban development and regional planning to transportation and economic development. Gallis and his firm have received many awards and honors, including a National Design Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and two National Economic Development awards for work on the Concord-Cabarrus Sourcebook.
Gallis has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Governor’s Commission on a Competitive North Carolina, the Advisory Board of the International Congress of the Atlantic Rim, the Mint Museum and the Mayor’s International Cabinet. He also was selected to join a technical assistance team sent to Poland, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, to provide advice on major metropolitan development, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Urban Design in New York.
Gallis was an associate professor of architecture and planning in the College of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1974 to 1997. In 1990 he was selected as the first Fellow at the Institute of Urban Studies. Gallis attended the University of Southern California, and received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkley. He also received two Master’s degrees – one in Architecture and one in City Planning – from the University of Pennsylvania.