Dr. Lucy Kerman is Senior Vice Provost for University and Community Partnerships at Drexel University, and has worked to support education and community development in West Philadelphia for 20 years. At Drexel since 2010, Dr. Kerman is responsible for providing strategic direction for the University’s civic engagement initiatives, aligning Drexel’s academic and administrative resources to create a coordinated and comprehensive approach to community revitalization in University City. Before coming to Drexel, Dr. Kerman served as Vice President of Policy and Planning at the Urban Affairs Coalition, a fiscal agent for over 90 grassroots nonprofits in the greater Philadelphia area. Dr. Kerman was also a member of President Judith Rodin’s staff at the University of Pennsylvania, where she helped to coordinate Penn’s West Philadelphia Initiatives, a comprehensive community revitalization effort in University City near Penn’s campus. Dr. Kerman has worked as a consultant on projects involving inclusive growth and community revitalization, particularly the role of anchor institutions in supporting neighborhood redevelopment, economic development, inclusive growth, and school reform and improvement. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, and earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley and a business certificate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Wright is the Director, of Community, Economic, and Real Estate Development at the People’s Emergency Center CDC (PECCDC). James has 15 years of experience in neighborhood planning, economic and real estate development, and galvanizing multiple stakeholders to leverage community assets, specifically business corridors. James holds an MBA in Urban Economic Development from Eastern University. He was recognized as a 2016 Rising Star by the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations. Prior to PECCDC, James led real estate development at New Kensington Community Development Corporation. He has served on the boards of Mighty Writers and the West Philly Tool Library. He currently serves on the board for Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations. James is a Philly native and resides with his family in Cobbs Creek, West Philadelphia.

Nancy Rogo Trainer, FAIA, AICP, is University Architect and Associate Vice President for Facilities at Drexel University, where she leads design, construction, and space management. Prior to joining the University in 2013, she was a principal at Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, where she led architecture and campus planning projects for colleges and universities. She has been a member of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Chair of the City’s Civic Design Review Committee, and an Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. She was chair of the American Institute of Architects’ 2021 College of Fellows Jury and is currently an adjunct professor in Drexel’s architecture program, where she most recently taught urban design to fourth year students.

After becoming Drexel University’s 14th president in 2010, John Fry set out to transform Drexel into a private research university with a strong public purpose — an institution that harnesses its strengths in cooperative education, translational research, online education and entrepreneurship to serve students, its neighborhood, the city and nation. Under Fry, Drexel has helped lead the continuous revitalization of West Philadelphia, spearheading the designation of this area as a federal Promise Zone, and initiating Schuylkill Yards, a 14-acre innovation district at 30th Street Station. In addition to leading Drexel, Fry served as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, concluding his tenure in October 2018.

Rob is the founding partner of ROGERS PARTNERS Architects+Urban Designers. Believing that even a single building is a piece of urban design, Rob has been creating institutional and cultural buildings that are civic projects for over 30 years. His work assertively and elegantly combines urbanism, landscape and architecture. In addition to directing the redesign of the Constitution Gardens and Pavilion on the National Mall in Washington, DC with PWP Landscape Architects, Rob is currently overseeing the SandRidge Energy Headquarters and Commons in Oklahoma City; the expansion of Syracuse University’s CoGen Energy Campus into a community asset; Houston’s first Transit-Oriented Development; and the design of a new vision of Water Works Park in Minneapolis. Also under Rob’s direction is the recently completed Henderson-Hopkins school in East Baltimore, the first new public school built in Baltimore in more than 20 years. Rob has lectured on urban design and security in Lower Manhattan for the National Capitol Planning Commission and the National Academy of Sciences. He presented as keynote speaker for the National Building Museum's Spotlight on Design and the Malaysian Institute of Architects in Datum, Kuala Lumpur. He has also served as professor and architecture critic at prestigious design schools and universities including Columbia University, Harvard University, Rice University, Yale University, Pratt Institute, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), and Tulane University. Rob has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor in Architecture from Rice University and a Master of Design Studies, with distinction, from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

John serves as Wexford’s Northeast Region Executive and Senior Vice President of Development. In this role, John develops relationships and executes projects that create and expand Wexford Knowledge Communities throughout the Northeast, including UCity Square in Philadelphia, the Innovation Corridor in Pittsburg, and the Design & Innovation District in Providence. John brings more than 30 years of experience in building and managing public-private partnerships that drive investment, development, and job growth to his role at Wexford. Prior to joining Wexford, John served as President of PIDC, Philadelphia’s city-wide public-private development corporation where he was responsible for efforts to drive economic growth to every corner of Philadelphia. In that role, John led PIDC’s efforts to strengthen relationships among the public, private, institutional and philanthropic sectors to promote business growth, investment and development across the city and throughout its economy. He directed activities around business development, capitalization, impact assessment, and the development and delivery of real estate and financing products that filled project financing gaps for neighborhood and large-scale commercial, industrial and mixed-use developments and delivered capital to growing businesses. John joined PIDC in 1998 and served as its President for 9 years after serving in a variety of senior leadership positions, including overseeing PIDC’s city-wide real estate development activity and its acquisition and redevelopment of The Navy Yard as a premier business campus. Prior to joining PIDC, John spent 9 years with the Cooper’s Ferry Development Association planning and developing Camden, NJ’s commercial waterfront. John is a graduate of La Salle University with a BA in Economics and the University of Pennsylvania’s MPA program. He is active with a number of corporate, higher education and civic organizations in Philadelphia, including serving on the Board of Directors at PECO Energy, an Exelon Subsidiary; as a Trustee at La Salle University; and on the Board of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. He also serves as a member of the President’s Real Estate Council at Drexel University, the Corporate Council at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Innovation Advisory Board at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center.