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.

Nobel Prize-winning political scientist Elinor Ostrom challenged the “tragedy of the commons,” demonstrating how communities can successfully govern shared resources through cooperation, collective responsibility, and locally developed rules.

Chelsea Ritter-Soronen is a multi-disciplinary visual artist, small business owner and public arts consultant. She is the Founding Principal of Ground Shift Studio, a mural company specializing in pavement art, established in 2013 (originally named Chalk Riot).

Rahul Kadri is an architect and urbanist whose work explores the relationship between cities, landscape, and public life. As Partner and Principal Architect at IMK Architects, he led the creation of Mumbai’s Malabar Hill Forest Trail, transforming an overlooked hillside into an elevated walk through the city’s urban forest.

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.”

Kathleen Rawson is a place management professional with more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, public space management, placemaking, and hospitality. Rawson currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for The Hollywood Partnership, the non-profit organization that manages the Hollywood Entertainment District, including the world-renowned Walk of Fame. Before her new role in Hollywood, Rawson served as CEO of Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM, Inc.) from 1997 to 2022.

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.

Anastasia Sukhoroslova is a Berlin-based urbanist, community builder, and founder and CEO of All Things Urban, a global platform connecting urban professionals with ideas, opportunities, organizations, and one another. What began as an effort to connect a highly interdisciplinary field has grown into a community approaching 100,000 people around the world, spanning planning, mobility, sustainability, technology, design, and other forms of citymaking.

Michael Berne is a retail planning and real estate consultant whose work focuses on the role shops, restaurants, and ground-floor businesses play in the life of downtowns and commercial districts. Through MJB Consulting, he advises cities, districts, developers, and communities on retail strategy and urban vitality.

Evan Weissman was a Denver-based artist, organizer, and civic provocateur who founded Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a “civic health club” that used art, culture, conversation, and a healthy dose of playfulness to get people engaged in civic life. His work explored how democracy could become something people actively practice together—not simply something they participate in at election time.

Stryker is the author of Transgender History, a widely used introduction to the political and cultural history of transgender communities in the United States, and co-director, with Victor Silverman, of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria. The film helped recover the history of a 1966 uprising by transgender women and queer people at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin—one of the earliest documented acts of collective queer resistance to police harassment in the United States.