Sheila Foster is a leading scholar of cities, democracy, and the urban commons. Her work explores how communities share responsibility for the public spaces, institutions, and resources that shape everyday life—and how collective stewardship can make cities more equitable, democratic, and inclusive.

Judy Scott Feldman has spent more than two decades championing the National Mall as America's premier civic gathering place. As founder of the National Mall Coalition, she has worked to protect the Mall's historic legacy while advocating for its continued evolution as a place where future generations can gather, commemorate, celebrate, and participate in American democracy.

Her work reminds us that preserving great public spaces isn't about freezing them in time—it's about ensuring they remain meaningful, accessible, and relevant for the publics still to come.

Anthropologist and urban scholar whose influential work explores public space, culture, access, belonging, and the ways social and political life are embedded in the built environment.

The National Mall Coalition advocates for comprehensive, forward-looking stewardship of America’s most prominent civic gathering place. Bringing together preservationists, planners, educators, and citizens, it works to ensure the National Mall remains vital, accessible, and capable of serving future generations.

In On the Plaza, anthropologist Setha Low explores how culture, politics, history, and everyday social life shape public plazas—and how plazas, in turn, shape the life of cities. Her research centers on Costa Rica while drawing comparisons with public spaces around the world.

Co-Cities explores new models of urban governance based on collaboration and shared stewardship. Drawing on examples from cities around the world, Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione examine how communities, governments, businesses, and civic institutions can collectively manage urban resources and services.

Drawing on decades of ethnographic research around the world, Setha Low examines how public spaces contribute to belonging, social connection, justice, and democratic life—and why the everyday experience of plazas, parks, markets, beaches, and sidewalks matters to individual and collective flourishing.

Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial drew an integrated crowd of 75,000 after she was denied Constitution Hall because of her race. The performance became a defining example of public space expanding who could gather, belong, and be seen as part of “We the People.”

Cara Courage is a researcher, writer, curator, and practitioner whose work explores placemaking, public space, arts and culture, and community participation. A leading voice in the international placemaking field, she has written and edited extensively on how creative practice and citizen-led approaches can shape more inclusive, connected, and meaningful places.