Place Driving Equity: Investing in Public Space for Shared Prosperity

Shamichael Hallman is a social, civic, and tech innovator. His 2020 TEDx talk “Reimagining the Public Library to Reconnect the Community” garnered national attention among public libraries. As the Senior Library Manager of the Cossitt Library (Memphis Public Libraries), he is currently helping oversee the multimillion dollar renovation of this historic, riverfront building with the goal of creating a transformative public space that can connect people of all backgrounds, cultivate trust, and create more resilient communities. He holds a MS in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and sits on the board of a number of great nonprofit organizations in Memphis.

Kyle Kutuchief is Program Director in Akron for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The foundation invests in journalism, the arts and the success of cities where its founders once published newspapers. To help move Akron towards stabilization and growth, Knight invests in public life and the public realm to attract and engage new residents, with a focus on downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Akron is also part of Reimagining the Civic Commons, a Knight-supported national initiative that seeks to counteract economic and social fragmentation by revitalizing and connecting public spaces.

Eugenia (Gina) South, MD MS is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine where she serves as the Vice Chair for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. She is also the Faculty Director for the Penn Urban Health Lab, a research group that partnership with communities to build healthy neighborhoods and create policy-relevant evidence. As a physician-scientist, her broad vision is to improve health and quality of life for residents in Black communities through both research and clinical work. She is particularly passionate about leveraging urban nature as a community health tool. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work has been published in JAMA, PNAS, and AJPH, as well as been covered by national and international media outlets such as the Washington Post, NPR, and Time Magazine.

Lynn M. Ross is a nationally recognized urbanist and the founder of Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC where she works across sectors with organizations on a mission to create the equitable policies and practices that sustain just places. Lynn is also a visiting lecturer on planning and policymaking for equity and justice at Cornell University. She serves on the boards of KABOOM! and Next City, the advisory board for the National Academy of Medicine’s Culture of Health Program, and the Reimagining the Civic Commons national steering committee.