Ashley Atkinson is a director in the Los Angeles Housing Department, stewarding the City’s portfolio of 47,000 units of affordable housing. She previously implemented a historic settlement agreement to ensure fair access to affordable housing for Angelenos with disabilities. As a performance manager for Los Angeles City Planning from 2017 to 2020, she developed metrics for planning, incorporated them into the Department’s functions, recommended strategic enhancements based on data analysis, and shared outcomes with stakeholders. From 2013 to 2017, as Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Senior Planning & Development Manager during his first term, Ashley worked with the departments of City Planning and Building & Safety to implement mayoral directives and achieve priority outcomes on land use, development, and housing issues. She served as president of the American Planning Association’s California Chapter for 2021-2022.
As the Deputy Director at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, I connect research to equitable policy outcomes. I identify and advance collaborations and partnerships to bridge the divide between academia, government, and community. I research the potential of government interventions to improve people’s transportation access to opportunities.
Ivory is a South Central L.A. native and equity-focused urban planner. She serves as Director of Neighborhood Initiatives for Watts Rising, a place-based, sustainable community development initiative currently implementing State and Federal community transformation grants, and anti-displacement programs, in concert with the $1B Jordan Downs public housing redevelopment. Ivory has a passion for animating the genius and promise of Black and Brown people in community design, and hopes to cultivate environments of opportunity for children like her two daughters, whom she is blessed to mother.
Ana Teresa Dahan works in Legal & Government Affairs at NBCUniveral while attending Loyola Law School. Specialties: Education reform, political strategy and advocacy, public relations, communications, social media, conflict resolution, government negotiations.
Seyron Foo leads public policy and government relations at Southern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy California, bringing best practices learned from philanthropy’s investments to better inform policymaking that strengthens communities. Previously, he spent time in state and local government, successfully enacting banking reforms to protect vulnerable Californians, managing citywide infrastructure projects, and overseeing press and community relations.
Edgar Garcia is Arts & Entertainment Deputy for L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. With extensive experience in arts administration, cultural resource management, and historic preservation, he is committed to expanding and diversifying the cultural life of Los Angeles.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kristen Gordon is an urban planner committed to equitable development. She serves as an Economic Development Deputy for LA City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. Ms. Gordon holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from UC Irvine and a Certificate in Real Estate from USC Ross.
Ashley Z. Hand is a transportation technology strategist fellow at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). She was the first Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri and is a professional architect. She has dedicated her career to community and civic engagement across North America and currently runs a nonprofit, Friends of Hale Cook, dedicated to public education which she co-founded in 2009.
Theresa Hwang is the Director of Community Design and Planning at the Skid Row Housing Trust, a non-profit permanent supportive housing organization where she was the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow from 2009-2012. Theresa is on the Board of Directors for the Association for Community Design.
Ms. Idemudia, a native from Detroit, holds a Masters of Planning from the USC and an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. She has multiple planning honors, including two APA Los Angeles Awards for her public outreach work with youth. Currently she works as a Planning Assistant with the City of Los Angeles.
Naria is Senior Planning Coordinator at KDI. She partners with policymakers and residents in underserved communities to establish resident-led land use through planning and design strategies. Naria holds a BS in Public Policy and Planning from the University of Oregon and an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA.
Chris Ko serves as the Director of Systems and Innovations for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. In this role he executes the collective impact work of Home For Good and works across its leadership network to eliminate systematic barriers and innovate long-term solutions to homelessness. Previously, Chris oversaw the development and operation of the Coordinated Entry System, which works to scale more broadly in his present position.
Michael Martin is an interdisciplinary leader with ten years experience in innovation strategy, program design, and community building. A city planner by trade, he currently is the Head of Communities at SignalFire, an AI-driven, early-stage venture capital fund.
Additionally, he is Co-Founder and Policy Director of Free Machine, a non-profit organization that develops public policy and creative projects to shape a high-tech future that is equitable, abundant and sustainable.
He is animated and passionate about the ways in which cross-sector partnerships can unlock long-term global challenges, specifically as it relates to frontier technologies and democracy. Serving as an interlocutor between technologists and civil society, he brokers relationships that are often asymmetrical yet, at their core, values-aligned.
In his previous work, he managed the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE and led Global Community Relations at the XPRIZE Foundation. He has also pursued affordable housing, urban resiliency, social impact communications, and been an executive at a local economic development non-profit.
Chelina Odbert is co-founder and Executive Director of the award-winning design and community development firm, Kounkuey Design Initiative. She leads urban and rural development projects in underserved communities throughout Africa and the US. Her research, writing, and practice focus on the intersection of participatory planning and design, and economic development. Chelina holds an MA in Urban Planning from Harvard University.
Prince is an experienced economic development policy researcher and advocate. Prince specializes in small business development, financial services, and community development policy. He is a collaborative team player with expertise in cross-sector coalition management, mixed-methods research, and policy analysis. Prince holds a Master’s in City & Regional Planning from UCLA.
Jeremy Rosenberg is the Assistant Dean, Public Affairs and Special Events at USC Annenberg. Formerly with the Los Angeles Times and of the Annenberg Foundation, Rosenberg’s writings about planning, policy, ideas, etc. have appeared in dozens of publications. Recent books include “Under Spring,” winner of the 2013 California Historical Society Book Prize. @LosJeremy on Twitter.
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Bill Sadler is nonprofit management professional with nearly 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and coalitions in California and across the country on equitable public health, climate change, and transportation policies and strategies. He currently serves as the Director of CivicSpark Fellowship program at CivicWell, which is an Americorps initiative dedicated to building local government and nonprofit capacity to address community resilience issues.
Elizabeth is the co-founder and co-executive director of LA-Más, an urban design non-profit based in Los Angeles. LA-Más uses policy and design to help communities shape their own growth. Elizabeth serves on Re:Code LA, and is an alumni from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and the University of Southern California.
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