An EPIC Improvement in Stakeholder Engagement?

Gavin Luter is the Acting Managing Director of the EPIC Network, a global network of universities interested in working to improv cities. He is also Managing Director of the UniverCity Alliance, a network of leaders at University of Wisconsin-Madison serving as the front door for local governments who want to leverage teaching, research, and service to improve their communities. Gavin’s expertise is in developing and growing university/community partnerships and has created models and frameworks about how to achieve sustainable, equitable, and democratic partnerships.

Mzime Ndebele-Murisa found EPIC-N through her current work with START as the Program Specialist managing the Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) Program and now coordinates the Education Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC) Africa network. Before joining START, she had been based at the Chinhoyi University of Technology and the University of Zimbabwe. Mzime has coordinated several multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects in Africa focusing on aquaculture; climate change modeling, and adaptation such as the SADC Aquaculture Mentorship Program, Climate Impact Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement, and CODESRIA’s Comparative Research Network. Mzime has several publications, with contributions to the IPCC’s AR5 and AR6 Working Group II as well as a Climate Smart Agriculture Manual for Zimbabwe. She holds a PhD in Biodiversity and Conservation Biology from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; a Masters of Science in Tropical Resource Ecology, and a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Zimbabwe.

JOEL ROGERS is the Noam Chomsky Professor of Law, Public Affairs, and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also directs the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice and the High Road Strategy Center, a think-and-do tank on high-road development that also operates the Mayors Innovation Project, State Smart Transportation Initiative (with Smart Growth America), Government Performance Action & Learning (GPAL), and ProGov21. Rogers has written widely on party politics, democratic theory, and cities and urban regions. Along with many scholarly and popular articles, his books include The Hidden Election, On Democracy, Right Turn, Metro Futures, Associations and Democracy, Works Councils, Working Capital, What Workers Want, Cites at Work, and American Society: How It Really Works. Joel is an active citizen as well as academic. He has worked with and advised many politicians and social movement leaders, and has initiated and helped lead several progressive NGOs (including the New Party (now the Working Families Party), EARN (Economic Analysis and Research Network), WRTP (Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership), Apollo Alliance (now part of the Blue Green Alliance), Emerald Cities Collaborative, State Innovation Exchange, and EPIC-N (Educational Partnership for Innovation in Communities Network). He is a contributing editor of The Nation and Boston Review, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and identified by Newsweek as one of the 100 living Americans most likely to shape U.S. politics and culture in the 21st century.