Avila Kilmurray, now a consultant for the Social Change Initiative, spent years running the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland. She was instrumental in positioning the Foundation to help rebuild communities during, and after, the Troubles. Her work showed the capacity of small amounts of money to empower communities and their changemakers. While working in perhaps […]

Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director of the Gehl Institute, has been working to create better public spaces for many years now. Her current position with the Gehl Institute is allowing her to do this work in a number of new and fascinating ways. She shares some of her vision with us while also sharing some of […]

Dar Williams is an acclaimed singer-songwriter who has made a career out of telling compelling stories through music. After years of touring, she has visiting thousands and thousands of places with unique identities and challenges. After reflecting on all these places, she wound up writing What I Found in a Thousand Towns, a beautiful exploration of […]

Rony Jalkh is currently a Visiting Fellow with the Project for Public Spaces and has been a changemaker in Lebanon for many years. After years at UN Habitat and on other projects, he is now broadening his engagement into what makes cities work for the people that live in them. His work in Beirut is […]

Dr. Katherine Loflin, the “City Doctor”, is the Principal of Loflin Consulting Solutions. She has been engaged with what makes cities and communities work for many years now. Perhaps her best known work is as the lead consultant on the Knight Foundation’s “Soul of the Community” study. This work remains one of the most important […]

Valerie Warren has a lengthy history of working to make her community better. These days she is working to help implement participatory budgeting practices in Greensboro and across the South. Participatory budgeting is an innovative way of better engaging the public in local government. It literally takes democracy to a new level. We talk about […]

Kirsten Wyatt is the Executive Director of ELGL, a member organization for local government leaders. They have been instrumental in showing the importance of local government work and making it fun for people of all ages. In this engaging conversation, she discusses why we should pay more attention to local government and get more involved.

Mike Lydon is a Principal at The Street Plans Collaborative and one of the founders of Tactical Urbanism. It is through his work and his articulation of the work of others that many of us have come to learn about tactical urbanism. He remains on the cutting edge of trying to figure out how short-term […]

Ebrahim is the President and Co-Founder of Patronicity, a crowdfunding/granting platform for community & economic development. They have had great success partnering with economic development offices in several states and continue to grow. Ebrahim’s background as an entrepreneur and civic innovator was crucial to this success and has helped as the project continues to grow. […]

Ryan is the Founder and Executive Director of Urban Conga, a design firm focused on reintroducing play into urban environments. They have been able to do some really innovative work in parks in Tampa and beyond. It is fascinating to hear him touch on how play is important for growing community connections and encouraging creativity. […]