Joshua Edmonds
Director of Digital Inclusion, City of Detroit
@JoshEdmonds216

Joshua Edmonds is the Director of Digital Inclusion for the City of Detroit. Edmonds is responsible for leading Connect 313, an action-oriented, digital inclusion Task Force comprised of individuals, nonprofits, academic institutions, government entities and businesses committed to bridging Detroit’s digital divide, with a mission to ensure all Detroiters have the information, access, devices, and skills they need to actively participate in the digital world.

Prior to joining the team, Edmonds reported to the Chief of Digital Innovation at The Cleveland Foundation, where he leveraged philanthropic investments and public private partnerships to help bridge Northeast Ohio’s digital divide. Prior to that role, Edmonds worked at the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority on President Barack Obama’s ConnectHome initiative. Edmonds holds a master’s in public policy from Howard University and a bachelor’s in English and Spanish from Notre Dame College. Edmonds also sits on the Cultural Center Planning Initiative Steering Committee.

rootoftwo
Cezanne Charles and John Marshall
@rootoftwo

rootoftwo, LLC is a research- and practice-driven hybrid design studio led by Cézanne Charles and John Marshall. Formed in 1998, their work engages in civic future-making, using design methods to facilitate people to imagine and shape collective actions for more just, resilient, inclusive, and adaptive futures. In 2019, rootoftwo was awarded the contract to masterplan the creative/civic technology aspects of the Cultural Center Planning Initiative by Midtown Detroit, Inc. and its partners. rootoftwo’s most recognizable public work ‘Whithervanes’ (interactive, headless-chicken weathervanes driven by the climate of fear on the Internet) has been commissioned by Locust Projects in Miami (2018) and originally by Creative Folkestone for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial. Exhibitions include ‘Detroit Institute of Arts| Midtown Cultural Connections Design Competition and Exhibition’ (2019 - Competition Winner); ‘Connected Objects: Are You Talking to Me? for Cite Du Design, Saint-Etienne, FR (2018); Post-Industrial Complex, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2012); ‘Trouble in Paradise / Medi(t)ation of Survival at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (2010). Permanent collections include the Folkestone Artworks (2014); the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute (2012) and Center for Land Use Interpretation (2012). They have been featured in Wired, FastCompany, Dezeen, Metropolis Magazine, Dwell, Studio International, Fresh Art International, and The Guardian.

rootoftwo creates innovative and tangible experiences, events, artifacts, spaces, methods, and strategies that allow us to perceive ourselves, the here and now, and the future differently.

Cézanne Charles is an artist and designer working on creative technology, social justice, and public policy projects. Cézanne Charles has more than 20 years of executive and senior management experience in nonprofit and for-profit creative industries in the United States and the United Kingdom.

John Marshall is a designer, educator, and creative technologist with over 20 years’ experience. John pursues new educational models, technologies, and tools for teaching and learning as a tenured associate professor of art & design, and architecture at the University of Michigan.

Kristin Shaw, LEED AP O+M
Communications & Public Involvement Coordinator, WSP
@detroitkristin

Kristin Shaw is an award-winning marketing and communications professional. In her current role as a Communications and Public Involvement Coordinator at WSP, one of the world's leading engineering professional services consulting firms, she is responsible for outreach and public involvement efforts on a number of transportation and infrastructure projects across the United States, focusing on both Michigan and Ohio. She recently worked to pivot a number of public meetings to an online format, focused on inclusion and accessibility in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to WSP, Shaw was Manager of Digital and Social Media at TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center), where she generated $1.75 million in digital marketing revenue and supported the $33M rebrand from Cobo Center to TCF Center. As a passionate sustainability champion, she also led the convention center’s green initiatives, including formalizing a donation program which acts as a pipeline for leftover event materials to be diverted from landfills or incinerators. Efforts from the 2019 North American International Auto Show alone resulted in the recycling or reusing of more than 100,000 pounds of materials, including the replanting of 30 full-grown trees at the Detroit Zoo and the donation of 90,000 square feet of carpet to local churches and non-profit organizations. Her role there also was to act as the Project Administrator for the convention center’s LEED certification. TCF Center is the largest gold-certified building in the state of Michigan, and the largest gold v4.1 EBOM building in the world.

Simultaneously, Shaw owns a photography business, Kristin Shaw Photography, where her passion for visual storytelling shines. Shaw is the co-chair of the recycling and waste reduction committee for Detroit City Council Green Task Force, a group dedicated to creating green jobs, improving environmental policy and building a more sustainable city. Shaw also is passionate about volunteering and takes an active role with Detroit USGBC, Detroit Youth Improvement Council and a variety of other non-profit organizations in Southeast Michigan.

Shaw has received numerous awards and accreditations in her budding career, most notably she’s a Crain’s 20 in Their 20s 2019 honoree, a Detroit Young Professional’s Vanguard Award recipient, Wayne State University PRSSA Alumni Award Recipient, AICP candidate and a certified LEED AP O+M professional. Shaw earned her Master of Urban Planning and Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations degrees from Wayne State University.