Effective Community Engagement: A Case Study in San Francisco
The City of San Francisco has prioritized community engagement as part of its ongoing historic preservation planning efforts. One example of this effort is its cultural districts program where cultural heritage strategies are being used to promote place-keeping and place-making throughout the city. This webinar will cover how the program's strategies successfully engage the community in various components of the project, lessons learned, and funding opportunities used to move the program forward.
Education Committee Leaders & Moderators
Rita Cofield received her BA in Architecture and Planning from Howard University and an advanced degree in Heritage Conservation from the University of Southern California. She is a cultural resource manager and neighborhood preservationist and has stage-managed theatrical productions throughout the United States in order to sharpen her creative skills. Rita is passionate about finding ways to re-insert multiple perspectives into the larger narratives of our collective history. That is why she joined the Getty Conservation Institute in 2022 to lead the African American Historic Places, Los Angeles project. The project fosters innovation and collective community memory when it comes to caring for historic resources in African American neighborhoods throughout the city of Los Angeles. She was born, raised, and still lives connected to the Watts community where she volunteers as the interim executive director for the Los Angeles-based cultural arts organization Friends At Mafundi.
Elysha Paluszek is an Associate Architectural Historian and Preservation Planner at Architectural Resources Group. With ten years’ experience in the field, she has experience with historic resources surveys, historic context statements, National Register and local landmark nominations, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) technical reports, and Section 106 technical reports. She has a Masters in Historic Preservation from the University of Southern California.
About Our Speaker
Ashley Lindsay is a dynamic city planner at the forefront of development review and engagement coordination with the Planning Department at the City and County of San Francisco. With a diverse background in both the private and public sectors, Ashley's expertise spans land use compliance, infrastructure development, and community engagement. Graduating from the University of California, Irvine with dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Urban Studies, and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, Ashley brings a comprehensive perspective to her work while ensuring successful project execution.