Bio: I am currently employed at Lawndale Christian Health Center as the coordinator for group pregnancy and pediatric care. I have also worked as a social worker for women with high risk pregnancies in the North Lawndale/Little Village neighborhoods and as an elementary school counselor in Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.
Education: MA, Social Service Administration, University of Chicago; BA, Sociology, Wheaton College
Bio: Corner Farm Chicago is a group-run volunteer effort to raise fresh foods for Logan Square (Chicago) food pantries, create open space in one of the most park-poor neighborhoods in Chicago, and cultivate community amongst our neighbors. Entering our 5th season, we have two community farms working to support these goals.
Bio: Marisa joined the Metropolitan Planning Council in 2011. She manages technical assistance and support to communities facing development challenges related to housing, transportation, environment, and economic development. Her work directly assists communities to promote revitalization, housing in job-rich areas, sustainable development and conservation, and interjurisdictional and corridor planning. Prior to MPC, Marisa spent a year in Milan, Italy, completing her master’s degree in urban planning with a focus on international community development. Her studies were informed by years of work on the ground in Chicago, most recently as the senior project manager for Lawndale Christian Development Corporation. There, she directed more than $30 million in affordable rental and for-sale housing development in the North Lawndale neighborhood. She also worked in community development at the Steans Family Foundation and Carole Robertson Center for Learning, where her efforts on a Welfare to Work initiative first sparked her passion for affordable housing as a justice issue.
Education: Marisa has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology, master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, certificate in affordable housing finance, development and management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and master’s in urban planning from the Istituto Politecnico di Milano, where her master’s thesis explored the role that an intermediary could play in advancing the community development field in northern Italy.
Key Publications: http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6587 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6539 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/6404 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6506 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6370 http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6367
Past Assignments: Congress for New Urbanism 2012, presentation on Chicago Union Station, Presentation to the School of the Art Institute on placemaking work in Miller Beach, Multiple lectures to the University of Illinois at Chicago graduate planning program students, Moderator for a Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs event on the role of artists in placemaking
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