Deputy Mayor of Integrated Development | City of Akron

George Abbott is director of external affairs at the Memphis River Parks Partnership leading marketing and communications, development and programming. Previously, Abbott served as program director for the Communities portfolio at Knight Foundation. Abbott launched and led the Knight Cities Challenge and served as Knight’s interim program director in three communities; Macon, San Jose and St. Paul. Previously, he worked in communications at ArtPlace America, a funding collaborative working to accelerate creative placemaking across the United States. Abbott worked on the 2013 presidential inauguration and as an organizer on President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. He is an author with numerous published works, including “The Economics Book” (Dorling Kindersley). Abbott holds a bachelor’s degree from Newcastle University.

Bridget A. Marquis is the director of Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national initiative transforming public places to foster engagement, equity, environmental sustainability and economic development in cities. In this role she manages the national Civic Commons Learning Network, housed at U3 Advisors, providing coordinated learning, impact assessment and storytelling across 10 U.S. cities. Previously, Bridget developed and executed grantmaking strategies for ArtPlace America, a public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S. and served as program director for CEOs for Cities. She is a frequent speaker and author on reimagining public space as critical civic infrastructure for resilient communities.

Alexa Bush is passionate about creating equitable and resilient cities. She is the Urban Design Director of the East Region in the City of Detroit Planning & Development Department, managing a team of planners and designers responsible for planning and implementing neighborhood and economic development projects on the City's east side. She has also been a project lead for Detroit's Reimagining the Civic Commons initiatives, working with a multi-sector team to improve civic engagement, equity and environmental sustainability through reinvestment into neighborhood scale public spaces, co-created with residents. Prior to her Detroit work, she gained diverse experience in communities across the US on urban design, historic landscape preservation and large-scale planning projects. Alexa is a licensed landscape architect and was recently selected as a Knight Foundation and 880 Cities 2020 Emerging City Champion. She received her bachelor's degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and her master's in Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. Alexa serves on the Board of Directors for the Landscape Architecture Foundation.