With: The Center for Active Design                            @active_design

The Center for Active Design is the leading nonprofit organization that uses design to foster healthy and engaged communities. It takes a multidisciplinary approach to translating research into practical design solutions. The center guides the creation and implementation of initiatives that respond to unique community priorities, and result in measurable outcomes. The center is spearheading the development of Assembly, which explores evidence-based design strategies that can mobilize residents and reinvigorate the public realm.

centerforactivedesign.org

With: Gehl                                                                             

Gehl is a thought engine for developing and amassing knowledge on the relationship between life and urban form. Its focus is to create cities for people. Gehl’s urban design services span across all scales, from strategic visions to design and implementation. Its clients include mayors, city administrators, nongovernmental organizations, developers, and private and public organizations.

gehlpeople.com

With: The Better Block Foundation

The Better Block Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that educates, equips and empowers communities and their leaders to reshape and reactivate built environments to promote the growth of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods.

betterblock.org

With: 8 80 Cities                                                         @880CitiesOrg

8 80 Cities improves the quality of life in cities by bringing people together to enhance mobility and public space so that together we can create more vibrant, healthy and equitable communities. 8 80 Cities exists to create safe and happy cities that prioritize people’s well-being. Its governing belief is that if public spaces are great for both 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, then they will be great for all people.

880cities.org  

With: Place Lab

Place Lab is a team of professionals from the fields of law, urban planning, architecture, design, social work, arts administration, and gender and cultural studies. A partnership between Arts + Public Life, an initiative of UChicago Arts, and the Harris School of Public Policy, Place Lab is a catalyst for mindful urban transformation and creative redevelopment. Led by renowned artist and University of Chicago faculty member Theaster Gates, this joint enterprise merges Chicago Harris’ Cultural Policy Center’s commitment to cultural policy and evidence-based analysis with Place Lab’s work at Arts + Public Life on arts- and culture-led neighborhood transformation.

placelab.uchicago.edu

With: Brad Schenck

Brad Schenck has been driving engagement via the internet for almost a decade and consults on advocacy and engagement digital projects around the world. For the past eight years, he’s been working on electoral issues in many roles—from in-person organizing to helping shape President Obama’s 2012 battleground state digital strategy. He was the founding digital strategist for Organizing for Action and National Day of Service digital programs manager for the Obama-Biden 2012 Inaugural team. In 2010, he oversaw regional digital strategy for the Democratic National Committee. During the 2016 election cycle, he was the head of engagement for Vote.org. In early 2017, he released his first book, “The Digital Plan,” a strategic guide for nonprofits and campaigns to build effective digital plans.

With: Hunter Franks                                                  @Hunter_Franks

Hunter Franks creates art that intervenes in the social and physical landscape of our urban environments. His participatory installations in public space break down barriers and help us reimagine our relationships with each other, our neighborhoods and our cities.

With: 8 80 Cities                                                         @880CitiesOrg

8 80 Cities improves the quality of life in cities by bringing people together to create more vibrant, healthy and equitable communities.

With: Jason Roberts                                                   @mannymoto

Jason Roberts is the founder of the Oak Cliff Transit Authority and Better Block, co-founder of Art Conspiracy and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, and a former candidate for U.S. Congress. In 2006, he formed the Oak Cliff Transit Authority to revive the Dallas streetcar, and spearheaded the effort in garnering a $23 million stimulus grant from the Federal Transit Administration. In 2010, he organized Better Block, taking blighted blocks with vacant properties in Dallas and converting them into temporary, walkable districts. The project has become an international movement.

With: Max Musicant                                                   @maxmusicant

Max Musicant is the founder and principal of The Musicant Group, an award-winning placemaking firm dedicated to transforming underused spaces into great places where people want to be. The firm has pioneered a holistic approach to the creation of place that integrates design, events and management systems all through the lens of user experience. The approach has been deployed to transform places as varied as Class A office buildings to vacant lots, from urban main streets to suburban strip malls, from block parties to bus stops.

With: Emilie Evans                                                     @bricksandrust

Emilie Evans is director of the Rightsizing Cities Initiative with PlaceEconomics and leads projects using Relocal, a data-based tool that uses 70-plus distinct metrics to develop tailored, parcel-level recommendations for reusing vacant buildings and lots. She also co-leads Brick + Beam Detroit, a group that connects Detroit’s building rehabbers with tradespeople, resources and each other. Previously, Evans served as Detroit preservation specialist working jointly for the Michigan Historic Preservation Network and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Evans earned master’s degrees in historic preservation and urban planning from Columbia University where she later served as an adjunct assistant professor.

With: Anuj Gupta                                                        @RdgTerminalMkt

Anuj Gupta is the general manager of the historic Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. He oversees all aspects of the nearly 80-merchant market’s operations including leasing, marketing, special events and guiding the nonprofit corporation’s strategic direction. Prior to this role, he served as executive director of Mt. Airy, USA – one of Philadelphia’s most successful community development corporations. From 2008 – 2010, he served in then-Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration and supervised many of the city’s immigrant integration initiatives. In 2013, he opened his own restaurant, Jyoti Indian Bistro.

With: Brian Ulaszewski                                              @BUlaszewski

Brian Ulaszewski is the executive director of City Fabrick, a nonprofit urban design studio based  in Long Beach, California. His work spans tactical interventions such as pop-up plazas and parklets, to building and landscape projects, to regional-scale planning and state policy, all dedicated to improving the vitality of communities. He works extensively with other nonprofit corporations, affordable housing providers, government agencies and community associations.

With: Margaret Jones

Margaret Jones recently completed the city of St. Paul, Minnesota’s 8 80 Vitality Fellowship, an 18-month position funded by Knight Foundation. Inspired by internationally renowned urban designer Gil Penalosa, the 8 80 Vitality Fund is part of the city’s long-term vision of creating vibrant places and spaces for people of all ages and backgrounds. As a fellow, Jones worked to embed a people-centric focus in the city’s projects. She also increased coordination among city staff and community partners, in part through a speaker series that focused on building sustainable urban environments.

With: Kate Catherall                                                   @kate_catherall

Kate Catherall is a creative strategist who believes that grassroots organizing can change the world. An Obama 2008 and 2012 campaign alum, she is the founder of CHORUS and a senior vice president at 270 Strategies. She has worked with clients in more than 40 countries to build and scale movements that move people to action around a common purpose. She believes we can strengthen communities by exploring the sweet spot at the intersection of organizing, behavioral science and human-centered design.

With: Lansie Sylvia                                                         @fancylansie

Lansie Sylvia is director of engagement for Here’s My Chance, a creative agency that works exclusively with nonprofits and socially responsible companies, and project director for Next Stop: Democracy!, the civic engagement initiative by Here’s My Chance funded by Knight Foundation. Her areas of expertise include nonprofit communication, fund development and millennial engagement. An active supporter of the arts, she is the founder of Philly Give & Get and secretary of the Charlotte Cushman Foundation.

With: Hajj Flemings                                                    @hajjflemings

Hajj Flemings is a leading brand strategist, speaker and tech entrepreneur who travels nationally inspiring people and brands to build, launch and grow their ideas. He was featured in CNN’s “Black in America 4: The New Promised Land, Silicon Valley,” which was viewed by more than 1 million people. The documentary chronicled the journey of Flemings and seven other entrepreneurs as they launched their startups. He is also founder of Brand Camp University and Rebrand Detroit.

With: Anusha Alikhan                                                 @AnushaA100

Anusha Alikhan is the director of communications for Knight Foundation. Working with her team, she crafts communications strategies across Knight’s program areas with a focus on building media campaigns and brand visibility. She loves a great story and is always exploring new avenues to highlight Knight’s work and the work of its grantees in dynamic and compelling ways. New digital tools present lots of opportunities to do just that, so her passion lies in crafting communications campaigns that combine narrative and technology to create impact.

With: Rosemary D’Amour                                          @rosedamo

Rosemary D’Amour is Knight Foundation’s digital communications officer, managing social media channels and executing digital and editorial strategy. She previously worked with the Center for International Media Assistance in Washington, D.C., where she was an associate editor focused on digital engagement and research initiatives. She has worked in community engagement with TBD.com, and as a blogger with the World Association of Newspapers. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s degree in international media from American University.

With: Danny Harris                                                     @dyuliharris

Daniel Harris is San Jose program director for Knight Foundation. Prior to joining Knight, Harris was a principal of StorySocial, a creative design studio. He is also co-founder of Feastly, an online marketplace that allows cooks to turn their homes into restaurants and promotes community connections at the dinner table. Previously, he was the chief storytelling officer for People’s District, an online oral history project launched in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured by Fast Company, The New York Times, NPR, TIME, The Wall Street Journal and Wired.

With: Cornetta Lane                                                   @Nettalane

Cornetta Lane is a storyteller. She is the founder of Pedal to Porch, a neighborhood-based storytelling initiative to get neighbors talking to each other. She is designing a suite of storytelling events that will create more opportunities for people to connect in her hometown,  Detroit. She has been recognized by The Huffington Post as a Millennial Helping Detroit Make its Comeback.

With: Lindsey Scannapieco                                         @scoutlimited

Lindsey Scannapieco  leads the U.S. development arm of Scout in Philadelphia, which is undertaking the transformation of the historic BOK building in South Philadelphia into a new space for creatives, makers, small-businesses and community services. Today the building has more than 80 tenants, 15 percent of which are nonprofits. Eighty-five percent of all building employees are local residents. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science in city design and social science from the London School of Economics. She was recognized in 2015 by Curbed National as one of the top 10 Young Guns in the U.S.

With: Chad Rochkind                                                  @peoplesdiplomat

Chad Rochkind is the founder of Human Scale Studio, an Emerging City Champion, and one of Metropolis Magazine’s “10 New Talents.” He earned a master’s degree in historical and sustainable architecture from New York University. His Knight Cities Challenge-winning idea, “The People First Project,” used a coordinated campaign of tactical urbanism interventions to transform Michigan Avenue, a state highway under the authority of the Michigan Department of Transportation, into a more human-centered street.

With: Luz Gomez                                                        @luzigomez

Luz Gomez is director for learning and impact for Knight Foundation. Previously, Gomez worked in the microfinance and small business sector for more than 14 years. Prior to joining the Knight team, she primarily worked as a researcher and consultant with the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program, where she conducted research on best practice and innovation in the U.S. microenterprise field. She is author or co-author of several studies related to scale, financial capability and small business job quality.

With: Daily tous les jours

Daily tous les jours is an interaction design studio with a focus on participation – empowering people to have a place in the stories that are told around them. Daily tous les jours leads multidisciplinary projects at the intersection of interaction design and narrative environments. Its projects focus on collective experiences in public spaces; they are opportunities to enable change, stimulate engagement that sparks conversations among strangers, and create strong bonds between people and their environment.

Amanda Thompson leads Knight’s Community Arts Grantmaking, which invests in the vibrancy of the arts communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, Macon, Georgia, Philadelphia and San Jose, California. Prior to joining Knight, Thompson was the planning director of the city of Decatur, Georgia. In that role, she managed the department’s operations for permitting and construction, staffed several resident boards and commissions, and managed planning projects in active living, historic preservation, community engagement, zoning and affordable housing.

Thompson is also a modern dancer and choreographer. She has performed for over a decade with Zoetic Dance Ensemble, an all-female contemporary dance company based in Atlanta.

With: Chris Horne                                                       @thischrishorne

A native of Macon, Georgia, Chris Horne has had more jobs than he can count (he can’t count higher than 35)—and that doesn’t include the time he tried to start a record label. Still, he somehow cobbled together something like a journalism career. A year after moving with his family to Akron, Ohio, he started the Knight Cities Challenge-winning Unbox Akron, a monthly subscription to celebrate the people, products, businesses and events that make the area unique. He’s also the publisher of The Devil Strip, a monthly arts and culture magazine that practices “narrative placemaking” to build community, instead of just building an audience.