Abundant Cities: Climate, Environment, and Connection

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Deborah Cullinan is a leading thinker on the pivotal ability of the arts to shape our social and political landscape, and has spent years mobilizing communities through arts and culture. She joined Stanford University in early 2022 as the first full-time vice president for the arts. Previously, she was CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), and served as the executive director of San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts. She is a cofounder of CultureBank, and serves on the boards of the Community Arts Stabilization Trust and EPACENTER, and recently served as co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance and vice chair of the Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy. She was the inaugural national field leader in residence at Arizona State University’s National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation and a former innovator-in-residence at the Kauffman Foundation. She served on Mayor London Breed’s San Francisco Economic Recovery Task Force and on Governor Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Her passion for using art and creativity to shift culture and advance equity and justice has made her a sought-after speaker at events around the world.

Katy Lackey is a senior associate at PolicyLink, a national research and action organization advancing racial and economic equity for the 100 million people living in or near poverty. At PolicyLink, Lackey supports the Water Equity & Climate Resilience (WECR) Caucus, a national network of 80 organizations advancing solutions at the intersection of water, climate, and justice. She works on federal advocacy, water affordability, climate justice, narrative change, and increasing the capacity of frontline organizations to effectively engage in federal policy. Prior to PolicyLink, she served as the director of climate action at the US Water Alliance. While there, she led processes for shaping vision and action for climate mitigation efforts through water, built partnerships with cities and local/federal government agencies to advance equitable flood resilience strategies, and developed new programming for emerging water leaders and to integrate arts and cultural strategies to help solve water challenges. She brings a decade of expertise in the water and climate sectors, and a lifelong passion for finding ways to shift power and build common ground solutions.

Amanda Lovelee is a civic- and environmentally focused artist whose work sits at the intersection of science, connection, and system change. Her public practice uses empathy and play as tools to shift conversations about shared futures. She works with governments and in cross-sector collaborations, creating engaging and complex large-scale public art projects. In past projects, she has partnered with arborists, planners, biologists, water resource managers, and scientists. Lovelee is currently a US Cultural Policy Fellow at Stanford University, working on projects that foreground art, culture and climate change. She is a cofounder of CAIR Lab, a firm that builds and supports the field of artists in residence in government, and a cofounder of Plus/And, a civic design studio that builds stronger cities through relationships and art. Lovelee holds an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and BFA from University of Hartford. Her work has been supported by ArtPlace America, Jerome Foundation, Knight Foundation, McKnight Foundation, MN State Arts Board, Salzburg Global Seminar, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a 2022/2023 McKnight Visual Artist Fellow and 2022 Design for Civic Change Fellow at the Center for Urban Pedagogy.

Roopali Phadke is professor of environmental policy at Macalester College, where she has taught since 2005. She also serves as associate director of the Serie Center for Teaching and Scholarship at Macalester. Her teaching and research focus on energy, water, and climate policy, with an emphasis on public engagement and community-based research methods. She received her PhD from the University of California–Santa Cruz in environmental studies, a master’s degree from Cornell University, and a bachelor of arts from Wellesley College. Phadke has served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her research is focused on civic engagement in infrastructure development and energy transitions. Her most recent projects, funded by both the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, consider how urban mining supports a circular economy of metals through e-waste collection. She is a member of the Future Mississippi Collaborative, a research collective focused on the potential for dam removal on the Upper Mississippi. Phadke serves on many local and national boards, including World Learning, Native Sun, and Recycling Electronics for Climate Action (RECA).

Benny Starr is an artist and cultural strategist whose work engages Black Southern traditions and musical legacies to examine themes of resilience, justice, and historical memory. His practice merges artistic creation with cultural policy, exploring the role of the arts in civic infrastructure and social change. His 2019 project A Water Album, recorded live with the Four20s and released on Juneteenth, was the first Hip-Hop performance at Spoleto Festival USA and named South Carolina’s Best Album by Free Times. In 2020 he cofounded Native Son with Rodrick Cliche, merging music and activism. Their project The Land amplifies the struggles of Black Legacy Farmers, and their concert film Restoration has been screened at festivals nationwide. Starr was the inaugural One Water Artist-in-Residence at the US Water Alliance, and later served as senior fellow of arts and culture, integrating arts-based strategies into sustainability and equity initiatives. In 2021 he was recognized by Grist as one of its “50 Fixers” for his climate and justice leadership. Starr launched Watercolor Creative in 2023, a platform advancing artistic practice, cultural policy, and social impact. He is currently a US Cultural Policy Fellow at Stanford University, where he examines the intersection of arts, culture, and civic infrastructure.

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