Place Lab

Janet Li serves as a Liaison under the Office of Resident Engagement at the Chicago Housing Authority. As a Liaison, she works with residents and local stakeholders on community building efforts in mixed-income housing developments that arose under CHA’s Plan for Transformation. 

Li holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.A. in social service administration with a concentration in poverty and inequality from the University of Chicago.

Jeremy Lile is an ordained pastor turned community organizer who helped establish City Hope Akron, a nonprofit in West Akron, Ohio whose mission is "the restoration of people and place." Lile has helped envision and inhabit numerous ideas that have lead to community clean ups, gardening, meals, and block watches. Additionally, City Hope Akron has impacted hundreds of lives in its community through several programs, including an open choice food pantry, food backpacks at two local schools, mentoring, summer kids programming, and literacy efforts.

Liles is currently working on a project that involves the restoration of an abandoned building in his community. Following renovations, The Grand Exchange will be a beautiful place for people to gather to create, collaborate and (ex)change.

Lile’s says of himself: “I am no one special. I am simply someone who is willing to take the first step to lead out on ideas and get the ball rolling. I am very aware that none of this would be possible without the daily commitment of the incredible people in our community who want to make our community a great place to live and work.

Jennifer Q. Mahar joined the Fairmount Park Conservancy, the non-profit champion of Philadelphia parks, in 2012. As Senior Director of Civic Initiatives, Jennifer helps oversee the ‘Reimagining the Civic Commons’ project – an innovative, collaborative network of public space organizations in Philadelphia. Together, the collective will demonstrate the ways that civic assets can be connected as an integrated system and how they can be designed and developed to foster talent, opportunity and engagement. Jennifer also oversees the Neighborhood Parks Stewardship Program, a unique partnership with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and our network of 100 volunteer park friend groups. Together we organize, resource and advocate for our wonderful city parks.

Ernel Martinez was born in Belize. He was raised in South Central Los Angeles and Detroit. His introduction to art world came in the form of graffiti. Martinez Studied art at Pratt Institute and attained his BFA from the Kutztown University. In 2004, he received his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2003, Martinez began making public art in the city of Philadelphia, as well as working with various non-profits and social services to provide art to disenfranchised youth. His artistic practice focuses on creative methods to give urban communities the tools to tell their stories through art making. He uses their stories as a framework to produce social practice artwork to engage and build dialogue.

Meida Teresa McNeal is an Independent Artist and Scholar of performance studies, dance and critical ethnography. McNeal works with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting arts and culture partnerships and programming initiatives across the city's parks and cultural centers. Additionally, McNeal is part time faculty in Interdisciplinary Arts and Dance at Columbia College Chicago. She is also Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance, an Afro-feminist creative collaborative that integrates movement, theater, and first-voice to examine the nuanced ways people negotiate identity, belonging, and difference in their lives and cultural memberships.

Cindy McSherry is the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Chicago District Council. As one of the most respected sources for broad, objective information on urban planning, growth, and development, ULI relies heavily on the experience of its global membership to provide leadership in the responsible use of land. Drawing upon this deep knowledge, ULI Chicago’s 1300+ members have been instrumental in building the District Council’s cornerstone program of technical assistance services providing sustainable, creative solutions for challenging land development issues, often in communities with limited resources and capacity. A hallmark of ULI Chicago’s program under McSherry’s leadership is engaging local community members and municipal leaders where they are at; having conversations that lead to an understanding of how people live, work and relax; the challenges they face; and, the aspirations they have. Using this understanding as a framework, ULI Chicago’s technical assistance program develops recommendations grounded in reality. As a result of partnering with the City of Chicago, neighborhood leaders, and suburban municipalities, ULI Chicago has grown a valuable network bringing industry knowledge and connections together to form new partnerships. Recognizing her contribution to the field, McSherry now serves as a National Advisor for other ULI District Councils across the country seeking to launch or strengthen technical assistance programs in their regions. With over 30 years in the not-for-profit sector, McSherry has a broad understanding of management and growth issues and how organizations develop into productive, effective catalysts for change.

Kevin Moran, an association and non-profit leader with an affinity for urban places, is the executive director of the Fairmount Community Development Corporation in Philadelphia's Art Museum Area. His experience includes developing research and policy agendas, providing corridor management services, advocating for healthy urban places and crafting strategic messaging to position urban districts as great places to live, work and invest. Prior to joining Fairmount CDC in this role, Moran served as the Marketing & Communications Manager at the International Downtown Association, a leader and champion for vital and livable urban centers. He has a M.A. in Strategic Communication and B.S. in Business Administration, Marketing from Villanova University. A Fairmount resident, when Moran isn’t working he enjoys traveling, craft beers and exploring new cities by bicycle.

Matthew Naimi is the founder and Director of Operations of Recycle Here! Naimi attended the University of Tennessee and graduated in 1996 with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy. Not long after graduation, his entrepreneurial spirit and desire to make Detroit a better place brought him back to Michigan. 

Naimi’s first challenge was to creatively rehabilitate an old, obsolete, automotive warehouse into a Green business as well as a creative space for the cultural community. He created a community within this warehouse where local musicians and artists can rehearse and create music and art. Naimi created Recycle Here! in 2006 to address the need for a recycling option in the City of Detroit. To date, over 17.5 million pounds of recyclable material has been collected from over 400,000 citizens visiting Recycle Here! drop off facility. These two programs formed the backbone of the  Lincoln Street Art Park, a guerilla style urban art space surrounding the facility that has served as a community gathering spot and given the neighborhood an identity.

Kristofer Nonn has been with the NoLi CDC since June 2014, where his role is to oversee all design and construction aspects of NoLi CDC's programs and operations. Nonn and his family relocated from Madison, WI, where he had worked at KEE Architecture for the previous 6 years. After earning his Bachelor of Trumpet Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002, Nonn went on to get his Masters of Architecture from the University of Tennessee in 2006. This, along with subsequent experiences designing and building his own house in Madison, as well as more experimental design & construction work done in Santa Elena Venezuela, combine to inform how he thinks of the built environment as a framework for and representation of the community's aspirations, history, individuality, beauty, and challenges.

Alysia Osborne is an urban placemaker that works to improve public gathering places, community stewardship, and creation of equitable development strategies in the Charlotte community. Osborne joined Charlotte Center City Partners (CCCP) as Director of Historic West End in October 2015. In this role, Osborne works closely with neighborhood stakeholders and local businesses, coordinating Charlotte Center City Partners’ efforts to create and implement a vision for a strong neighborhood center that preserves and enhances existing neighborhood assets while attracting new investment.

Osborne joins CCCP from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department, where she has worked for eight years as a Planning Coordinator in the Long Range Planning Division. Prior to that, she served as a Transportation Planner for the Charlotte Department of Transportation, and as a Planner for the City of Jackson, Miss. She began her career with Parsons Brinkerhoff.

Osborne, a Mississippi native, has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science/Pre-Law from Tougaloo College and a Master of Arts Degree in Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Environment/Land Use Law from Jackson State University. She is a certified planner in the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and a member of the American Planning Association, International Downtown Association, and has executive and advisory roles on the local and national levels of the Urban Land Institute. 

Todd Palmer is the Associate Director and Curator at the National Public Housing Museum. In this role and as its Interim Director in 2014 he's spearheaded the creative rehabilitation of the museum's historic site, organized exhibits that activate place through interdisciplinary creative collaboration, and piloted educational and public programs to catalyze a more equitable public sphere. In 2016, Palmer joined the Chicago Cultural Alliance Board of Directors, after steering their multi-institutional 2015 Chicago's Families project. He collaborated on the content development of the Community Galleries at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African-American History and Culture (2011-12), culminating more than a decade of professional design, curatorial and planning work on a wide range of arts, cultural heritage and civic conscience projects in the US, Australia and Europe. 

Palmer has spoken globally on contemporary arts and cultural issues, completed installations and public art commissions for The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and published historical and critical essays in The Avery Review and African American National Biography. His creative and curatorial works have been recognized in organs including The New York Times, Artforum, Art News, Metropolis and Domus. Todd holds a BA, summa cum laude in Architectural History and Theory from Princeton University and a M. Architecture from Columbia University. He was born on the Indiana University Bloomington campus to parents descending from Great Migration families who settled in East Chicago, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky (by way of Harlem). Though he was raised in Denver, Colorado, his first memories are of Chicago and Philadelphia.

Eve Picker’s world is wrapped around cities and change. Picker’s background as an architect, city planner, urban designer, real estate developer, community development strategist, publisher, and instigator, has given her a rich understanding of how cities work, how urban neighborhoods are revitalized, and what policies are needed to make change. Her latest urban (ad)venture is Small Change, a real estate equity crowdfunding portal. Small Changes raises funds for real estate projects that make cities better by connecting developers to investors. The organization stay true to its mission by scoring the impact of each project with a proprietary Change Index. This measures the mobility, sustainability and economic vitality contributed by the project to its city or neighborhood. You can read more about Small Change at learn.smallchange.com/change, and learn more about Picker at evepicker.com.

Kelli Pirtle is an Arts + Culture Policy Fellow at Place Lab, whose research evaluates the economic impact of cultural policies aimed at igniting change in local communities. She is currently pursuing a joint master's degree in public policy and business administration at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy and Booth School of Business. With experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, Pirtle's most recent roles were on projects related to financial inclusion in low and moderate income communities at the Center for Financial Services Innovation and economic policy implementation at the Federal Reserve. Pirtle's scholarly interests lie at the intersection of social impact, economic development, and real estate investment.

Robert (Rob) Rose is Executive Director of the Cook County Land Bank Authority. Rose previously served as Chief Operating Officer at the Chicago Community Loan Fund and Director, Commercial Real Estate at Urban Partnership Bank. Prior to his time in Chicago, Rose worked for The Lynd Company and GE Capital. Rose serves as a board member of: Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago; Illinois Department of Transportation Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Revolving Loan Fund; Citibank New Markets Tax Credit Advisory Board; Mercy Loan Community Development Entity Advisory Board; and as a past member of Sweet Beginnings LLC Board of Managers and The Law Project Advisory Committee. He is a recipient of the 2016 Men of Excellence Award from the Chicago Defender newspaper and is a 2017 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow. Rose has an MBA from Cornell University and BBA from St. Edward’s University.

Paul Rosenblatt is a licensed architect nationally recognized for planning and design of facilities for purpose driven groups like health service organizations, museums, and universities. As founding partner of Springboard Design, Rosenblatt provides creative direction to the firm and brings his distinctive artistic vision to each commission.

Since 1987, Rosenblatt has taught in the School of Architecture and the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is currently Associate Professor (adjunct). Since joining Carnegie Mellon University in 1987, Rosenblatt has balanced the teaching and practice of architecture with work as an exhibiting artist. Previously he taught at Yale University, and has lectured and served as a juror at numerous schools of architecture throughout the US and Canada.

As an exhibiting artist, his one-man-installation was included in the 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial. Entitled "Well-Played: Paul's Vinyl Records," the installation incorporated paintings, sound, and over 15,000 vintage vinyl records.

These overlapping practices in art and architecture led to the founding of a new artisan residency in Johnstown, PA, Creator Square, which is an anchor project of that community's 2025 Visioning Project built on the framework of Carnegie Mellon
University's Remaking Cities Institute.

In 2011, Rosenblatt published Every Building A Museum, a book about museums and cultural facility design with a contribution by Raymund Ryan, Director of the Heinz Architectural Center. Earlier research has been included in publications for ACSA Annual Meeting, CAAD Futures, and the London Futures Conference, among others.

Lindsey Scannapieco is the Founder of Scout, an urban design and development practice that activates underutilized space through creative programming and innovative development. Most recently, Scout is redeveloping the 340,000 sqft Bok Vocational High School into an innovative new space in South Philly for innovators, artisans and entrepreneurs.

Previous projects include the innovative pop-up Films on Fridges, which was named “the UK’s hottest cinema” in 2011, a community-led project that reconsidered traditional construction hoardings and the design of 9 pieces along the Southbank Centre in Central London.

Previously, Scannapieco worked for the Olympic Park Legacy Company where she developed an Interim Use Strategy that proposed a business model and cross-departmental approach for temporary uses across the Olympic site after the 2012 Games. 

Scannapieco was recently named by Curbed National as a Curbed Young Gun, a designation which seeks to identify ten of the most promising up-and-coming practices and people in architecture and urban development. In 2014, Scannapieco was selected as a Vanguard to attend the Next City Vanguard Conference and identified as a “Keeper” by Leadership Philadelphia. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Condé Nast Traveller, TimeOut London, GOOD Magazine, FT Weekend, Le Cool and the Guardian.

Scannapieco holds a B.S. in Real Estate Finance from the University of Southern California and MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics.

Benjamin Shorofsky is a Technical Associate at Delta Institute, where he provides technical and programmatic support across all of Delta's work, including the areas of deconstruction, environmental markets, green infrastructure, and community development, among others. Shorofsky holds an M.S. and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University. Prior to joining the Delta team, he completed a Fulbright Fellowship focused on piloting an innovative wetland treatment system for textile effluent in the Thar Desert Region of Rajasthan, India.

A native of Lexington, KY, Ashley C. Smith graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. Pairing her effective, strong communication skills, and work ethic she achieved a combined 10 years of experience in the healthcare, non-profit, and hospitality industries. Within this time she was awarded the Saint Joseph East Teen Volunteer of the Year 2001, and Regatta Employee of the Month August 2005. Within her first year as Marketing Events Coordinator at NetGain Technologies, Smith increased the event metrics associated with client attendance and event offer conversion. Evolving her position within the organization, Smith managed the Internship Program, where she professionally invested in and develops college students. Smith pioneered and managed the Professional Lead Sharing Program, which is focused on reciprocal lead sharing with organizations in the community. She was awarded the NetGain Technologies Marketing and Development Employee of the Year in 2012. 

As the first Development Coordinator at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, Smith brings her track record for producing success. Under her leadership, The Lyric has secured partnerships with leading companies such as Forcht Bank, EHI Consultants, Toyota Manufacturing, PNC Bank, LG&E/KU Foundation, Keeneland Foundation, Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky resulting in $42,446.00 raised its inaugural year of development efforts. She is tasked to present and produce fundraising efforts through grant writing, program development, and cultivating strategic partnerships. Smith refines her development skills as a member of the Bluegrass chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Currently, she serves as the Scholarship Chair. In addition, her community participation includes Not The Only One in the Room, a women of color empowerment group. She has served on a Management Team Member and Vendor Services Manager for crave food + music festival, a 2 day event visited by over 100,000 annually.

Michael Smith recently joined Invest Detroit through the Detroit Revitalization Fellows Program. As Director of Neighborhood Strategies, Smith will be assisting the President & CEO and other staff in community outreach and making the day-to-day connections and inroads into strategically targeted Detroit neighborhoods beyond the borders of the 7.2 square-mile Downtown and Midtown cores. Previously, Smith spent the last fifteen years in Major League Baseball, most recently as Director of Baseball Operations for the Detroit Tigers. He also has served as a board member of The Greening of Detroit since 2010, most recently as board secretary. Smith received a Bachelor of Science in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University in 1999 and a Master of Community Development from the University of Detroit Mercy in 2013. He has resided in Detroit since 2005 and now makes his home in the Hubbard Farms neighborhood with his wife Kristen.

Tayyib Smith has long been a successful conduit between artist, niche brands, and the music industry, earning the respect of corporate brands for his unique ability to connect with the hearts and minds of the trend-setting youth market via facilitation of successful relationships. His marketing reputation was further solidified through his work with SCION, introducing the brand to the Philadelphia region through a series of underground marketing initiatives. He has also worked with such clients as Nike, Heineken USA, Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation, and Red Bull, and showcased artists such as Diplo, Common, The Roots, Questlove, Talib Kweli, and John Legend.

Presently, Smith serves on the Philadelphia Jazz Project Brain Trust funded by the William Penn Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia chapter of the Recording Academy and on the planning committee for Philly Tech Week.

Linda Steele is an Amherst College Wade Fellow and 2016 recipient of an Artworks grant from The National Endowment for the Arts for The Fellows Program at ArtsMemphis, where Steele oversees all social change grantmaking and capacity-building initiatives at the organization. She invests in projects that demonstrate the role of arts and culture in a neighborhood’s revitalization and redevelopment. Steele launched the ArtsMemphis Fellows program to build the capacity of Memphis arts groups, artists, and neighborhood leaders in the emerging field of arts-based social change and has presented across the country on this work.

Steele came to Memphis from New York City where she was a Fellow with the Arts Leadership Institute at Columbia University. Her professional experience includes work at Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education, The Art Institute of Chicago, and Cool Culture, Inc. Steele’s career has focused on building diverse and inclusive audiences for theaters, museums, and performing arts venues. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard University.

Prior to ArtsMemphis, Steele worked as an arts consultant based in New York City where she helped to open the first arts-based private pre-school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She began her career in the arts at Playhouse Square Center and Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.  She also has a background in youth development and K-12 education.

David Stovall, Ph.D. is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His scholarship investigates four areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) concepts of social justice in education, 3) the relationship between housing and education, and 4) the relationship between schools and community stakeholders. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he has spent the last ten years working with community organizations and schools to develop curriculum that address issues of social justice.  

Stovall's current work has led him to become a member of the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School of Social Justice High School design team, which opened in the Fall of 2005. Furthering his work with communities, students, and teachers, Stovall is involved with youth-centered community organizations in Chicago, New York and the Bay Area. Currently this work manifests itself in his involvement with the Peoples Education Movement Chicago, a collection of classroom teachers, community members, students and university professors who engage in collaborative community projects centered in creating relevant curriculum.  In addition to his duties and responsibilities as a professor at UIC, he also serves as a volunteer social studies teacher at the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School for Social Justice.

Angela Tillges is a Chicago-based public space artist, educator, and programmer working with cultural, social and public institutions, on the intersecting topics of education, public art, community creative development, and social well being. She holds a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Arts in Education program. Tillges currently serves as Senior Program Specialist for the Chicago Park District's Department of Culture Arts and Nature. Formerly she served as Associate Artistic Director and lead Community Educator to Redmoon, a Chicago-based public art and spectacle organization from 2007-2013.

Susana Vasquez joined IFF as vice-president for strategic initiatives and resource development in November 2015. In this role Vasquez serves on the executive team and helps develop innovative strategies and identify capital and grant opportunities to advance IFF's mission. Prior to joining IFF, Vasquez served as the executive director of the Chicago office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Vasquez led a professional staff of 15, an active program grant making and real estate loan portfolio, and an organizational budget of $10 million. Before serving as executive director, Vasquez led the New Communities Program a ten-year demonstration of comprehensive community development which is considered a national model.

During her 12 year tenure at LISC, Vasquez helped raise $100 million in grant and loan commitments for the Chicago program from private and public sources to support neighborhood development. Prior to LISC, Vasquez worked for The Resurrection Project, a community development organization in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

Vasquez earned a master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Vasquez serves on the Board of Directors for ChangeLab Solutions, the Advisory Board of the University of Chicago's Civic Leadership Academy and is a member of The Chicago Network. Twitter Handle: @susanalvasquez

Joan Vorderbruggen is the Director of Public Art and Placemaking for Hennepin Theatre Trust. An artist and organizer, Vorderbruggen envisions possibilities for the most dejected spaces, connecting local and international artists with opportunities to revitalize the West Downtown Minneapolis Cultural District with innovative and inclusive Creative Placemaking initiatives.

In 2013, Vorderbruggen developed and implemented Made Here, a project which pairs Minnesota based artists work with vacant commercial storefronts. Made Here is the largest storefront initiative of its kind in the nation, now in its sixth iteration having featured work by more than 300 artists in more than 200 vacant storefronts across 15 city blocks. In fall of 2015, Vorderbruggen worked with internationally renowned street artist Eduardo Kobra and his team to create a five story mural of Bob Dylan in the heart of downtown Minneapolis.

Vorderbruggen is a founding member of the Placemaking Leadership Council and serves on the Board of Directors for Forecast Public Art. Vorderbruggen continues to be a visionary source of creative urban revitalization that connects and celebrates diverse cultural landscapes.

Brent Wesley is the man behind Akron Honey Company, which is quickly becoming a popular phrase in Akron and Cleveland. A 35-year-old resident of Akron for ten years, Wesley began exercising his responsibility and devotion for his city and her people by transforming a vacant, blighted city plot into an apiary (bee yard) in 2013. Wesley has experienced a snowball of momentum and media press since creating Akron Honey Company, including regular requests for educational engagement with school children; a successful kickstarter campaign; high demand for his small batch urban honey from different parts of Akron; and the recent launch of his new personal care line. To Wesley it's all about how you feel, and when he imagines his future with the city, the feeling is sweet.

A native of Detroit, MI, Rebecca “Bucky” Willis received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) in 2012. Bucky has volunteered and worked for a number of nonprofit organizations in Detroit, including the Foundation for Agricultural Resources in Michigan (F.A.R.M), Habitat for Humanity, Detroit Future City and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. The heart of her career and research lies at the intersection where architecture and design meet social issues and emotional impact. This career and research focus inspired her to create the concept of Bleeding Heart Design a design movement and nonprofit that inspires altruism. Bucky believes that artists, designers and architects should seek to improve humanity and solve social issues through design. Designers who embrace their social responsibilities are what she likes to call "design superheroes"!

Carol Zou is a Texangelena by way of the Chinese diaspora. Her work focuses on layered human geographies, craft as non-western cultural production, and polyvocality through a community organizing model. Her work ranges from facilitated community collaborations to more personally driven, conceptual works. Zou is the current project manager + artist-in-residence for Trans.lation, an arts and cultural platform initiated by Rick Lowe and commissioned by the Nasher Sculpture Center, located in the immigrant, refugee, African American and Latinx neighborhood of Vickery Meadow, Dallas, Texas. Through resident-led councils, resident-taught workshops, professional development, and pop-up exhibitions, Zou facilitates a space of cultural freedom and self-organization among a diverse and polylingual community.