Joanna Trotter
Director of Place-Based Initiatives
An urban planner by training, Joanna directs a range of community and economic development initiatives in South Side neighborhoods surrounding the University. She has spent her career making the essential connections between housing, transportation, sustainability, and education that are needed to make communities vibrant. Joanna joined the University in May 2013 from the Metropolitan Planning Council, where she worked directly with communities across the greater Chicago region on issues of equitable, sustainable, and economic development.
Joanna has a MA in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA in African American Studies and Policy Studies from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.