President Robert J. Zimmer, Arts and Public Life Director Theaster Gates, and faculty from UChicago Urban Labs will be among speakers at panel discussions during this week’s Chicago Forum on Global Cities, organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The forum, to be held May 28-29, features a robust lineup of speakers from cities around the world addressing the impact cities can have on the future, and vice versa, from a broad range of perspectives.
On May 28, a panel on “Reimagining Urban Infrastructure” will be held at the Spertus Institute, 610 S. Michigan Ave., from 1:30 to 3:15 p.m. Panelists will include:
- Henry Cisneros, chairman of CityView; former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and former mayor of San Antonio
- Theaster Gates, founder of Rebuild Foundation; director of Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago
- Adam Lowry, chief greenskeeper of Method Products, PBC
- Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation
- Abdulla Saeed Al Shamsi, executive director of strategic affairs, Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council
Admission is open to the public, and the event will be streamed live.
Also on May 28, UChicago will host a discussion of the Urban Labs and its model for improving urban life at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St., from 2 to 4 p.m. Panelists will include:
- Evelyn J. Diaz, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services
- Timothy Knowles, Pritzker Director of Urban Labs
- Jens Ludwig, director of Crime Lab; co-director, Urban Education Lab; and the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law and Public Policy
- David O. Meltzer, director of Health Lab; chief, Section of Hospital Medicine; director of Center for Health and the Social Sciences; and chair of Committee on Clinical and Translational Science
The public is invited, and the discussion will be streamed live.
On May 29, the following speakers will participate in a discussion on “Educating for the Knowledge Economy”:
- Pasi Sahlberg, visiting professor of practice in education at Harvard University; former education minister of Finland
- Trung Le, founding partner, Wonder, By Design
- Shoshana M. Vernick, managing director of Sterling Partners’ Education Opportunity Fund
- Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago
The discussion at the Art Institute of Chicago is not open to the public but will be streamed live from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
