The Lindy Institute's Urban Innovation Summit will kick off with a two-day Fellows Forum on October 30 & 31, engaging the work of three Urban Innovation Fellows, chosen from a pool of over 100 applicants. The Fellowship invited applicants to consider how their project idea interfaced with one of three focal points: Great Public Spaces, Urban Resilience, and/or Economic Development. The selected Fellows are working in communities in Philadelphia, addressing difficult urban challenges, and will be provided with 3-6 months of financial and academic support, to take their work to the next level. The Forum engages each Fellow with a team of local and global experts, invited members of their community, and Drexel faculty and students, to dig into their project questions over two days, generating an innovative approach plan by the end of the Forum.

The Forum teams were carefully crafted to include a range of backgrounds, skill sets, and innovative approaches. Teams include a range of creative thinkers, working locally nationally and globally, including:

• Carola Hein, Professor and Chair of History of Architecture and Urban Planning at Delft University of Technology, focusing especially on port cities and the global architecture of oil;
• Roberto Moris, Professor of Architecture at Catolica University in Santiago, Chile with a focus on disaster planning;
• Alan Greenberger, Lindy Institute Distinguished Fellow and Chair of Drexel’s Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism at Drexel University, with deep experience in large scale planning and economic development; 
• Shannon Marquez, Vice Provost at Drexel and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Drexel University, focused on sustainable solutions to address the environmental burden of disease and health disparities in developing countries; 
• Jeremy Nowak, Strategic Advisor and Distinguished Lindy Fellow at Drexel, founder of the Reinvestment Fund, one of the largest community investment institutions in the United States;

The Forum will be held at Drexel University, at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media, Arts, and Design. You can follow the Fellows throughout their journey, beginning with the Fellowship Forum, through Facebook, Twitter, and email updates. We hope you will track these three projects as they develop, join us at the inaugural Drexel Dialogues, and stay in touch with future work from the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation.