Lan Richart, Member
Lan is a Co-Founder and Co-Director of Eco-Justice Collaborative. An ecologist by training, he received a BS in Zoology in 1971 and an MS in Biology in 1976 from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. From 1972 through 1976 he worked as a research assistant in the Aquatic Biology Section of the Illinois Natural History Survey, conducting field studies of aquatic invertebrates and water quality within Illinois lakes and streams.

In 1977 he moved to Chicago where he joined the Planning Department of DeLeuw Cather and Company, an international engineering firm specializing in the design of public infrastructure (now Parsons Corporation). There he served as a project manager, directing environmental impact analyses and the preparation of environmental documentation under the National Environmental Policy Act.

In 1983 he joined Planning Resources Inc. where in conjunction with his wife Pam and a senior partner, he helped establish the firm as one of Chicago’s leading planning, environmental and landscape architectural firms. Serving as vice president and then president of PRI, he had responsibility for business development and operations for the 18-person firm and directed the environmental department in technical studies related to preparation of environmental impact assessment, natural resource protection and impact mitigation design.