Equitable Development Forum
2023 Spring Meeting Equitable Development Forum
Tuesday, May 16th
8:30 am – 11:30 am EST
LOCATION: Metro Toronto Convention Center- North Building, 201EF
Affordability: Recognizing that the development industry has historically focused on increasing housing supply in its response to addressing the rising unaffordability. That alone is not enough. A human-centered approach to affordability would focus on delivering quality of life and complete communities that allow for anyone to age in place.
The Equitable Development Forum will introduce three case communities from Toronto and another US city, where leaders have looked beyond the supply issue to measure success.
Panelists:
José Campos is the Manager of Planning and Design Review at the San Francisco Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, with twenty years’ experience in land use planning, community building, and urban redevelopment. His former posts include Planning Division Manager at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and Director of Citywide Planning at the San Francisco Planning Department. Mr. Campos was the Secretary General of the Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports. He holds a BA in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of California at San Diego and, as a National Urban Fellow, an MPA from Baruch College, City University of New York.
Kofi Hope is a Rhodes Scholar and has a Doctorate in Politics from Oxford University. He is the co-founder of Monumental, a Toronto based strategic advisory firm. He writes a monthly opinion column for the Toronto Star newspaper and is an Urbanist in Residence at the University of Toronto School of Cities, an emeritus Bousfield Scholar with the Geography and Planning department and a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He serves as a board member for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and has volunteered widely across Toronto. In 2017 he was winner of the Jane Jacobs Prize and in 2018 a Rising Star in Toronto Life’s Power List. Kofi was the co-founder and former Executive Director of the charity the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals.
Zahra Ebrahim is the Co-Founder of Monumental. She is a public interest designer and strategist, and her work has focused on community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. She is an established bridge builder across grassroots and institutional spaces. Prior to this role, she built and led Doblin Canada, Deloitte’s Human-Centred Design practice, focusing on engaging diverse sets of stakeholders to use design-led approaches to address complex organizational and industry challenges. In her early career, Zahra led one of Canada’s first social design studios, working with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes, leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. Zahra has taught at OCADU, MoMA, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. She is the Vice-Chair of the Canadian Urban Institute, and the Board Chair for Park People. She was recently named Next City’s Vanguard “40 under 40 Civic Leader”, Ascend Canada’s Mentor of the Year, one of “Tomorrow’s Titans” in Toronto Life, and one of WXN’s Top 100 Women in Canadian Business. She is the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at Lake Superior Provincial Park, and Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities.
Leslie Woo CRE® is a respected city leader with over 25 years of experience building sustainable communities and shaping urban development in Canada’s fastest-growing urban region, greater Toronto. Leslie assumed the role of CEO at CivicAction in 2020. CivicAction is a premier civic engagement organization that convenes established and rising leaders from all sectors, backgrounds and experiences, CivicAction catalyzes actions and impactful solutions to address pressing challenges in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and beyond.