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Urban@UW
Urban@UW

Annual Letter, Fall 2024

Dear Urban@UW Community, 

As the autumn leaves fall, we recognize this community’s commitment to co-creating cities that foster health, well-being, resilience, sustainability, equity, and justice. We are glad to be working with you, and we hope the coming year will bring new experiences, positive challenges, and joys. But first, join us in looking back at our year. 

Our Director, Jen Davison, left Urban@UW to become UW’s tri-campus community’s Community Engagement Project Director. Jen began as Urban@UW’s Program Manager in 2015. She became Director in 2019 and has steadfastly helped Urban@UW grow. With Jen’s shift in roles Rachel Berney, former Faculty Director, has moved into the Director position. Urban@UW is excited to announce the hiring of Program Manager Kate Landis, who started half-time on January 2nd and moved to full-time on October 1st. Welcome, Kate! Ten months into our new roles, we are collaborating at the speed of light and planning a dynamic future for Urban@UW. 

In September 2024, Rachel and Kate traveled to New York City to lead a workshop during New York Climate Week as part of UW’s close relationship with the New York Climate Exchange. The workshop showcased the Research to Action Collaboratory. Workshop participants expressed enthusiasm for the community/university research team incubation process and its potential to work at other academic institutions. 

Inspired by the potential of community-university partnerships to drive significant impact in urban environments, Urban@UW launched the Research to Action Collaboratory in 2023, funded by the Bullitt Foundation. The RAC provides financial support, thought partnership, and skill-building for multidisciplinary teams collaborating on urban challenges. Jen Davison and Rachel Berney are the Co-Directors of this research accelerator program. 

Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory incubated four projects this year. Two teams were selected in the spring of 2023 to be the inaugural cohort of the RAC, and they are wrapping up their time with us now. Another two teams were chosen this past spring and are just beginning their RAC journey. 

The teams selected for the Research to Action Collaboratory meet quarterly for training and to share updates. Once a year, the cohort gathers for a multiday retreat. The 2024 RAC retreat was held at the Waterfront Activities Center on the UW Seattle campus in May. This autumn, our 2024-25 teams gathered for a “field trip,”  visiting project sites in Kent and Tacoma. The RAC provides valuable time for research teams to learn from each other and to build skills with the RAC staff.

During 2023 and 2024, Urban@UW committed to the power of convening to spark new relationships and ideas and help people reconnect by leading, supporting, or participating in the following events.

We saw three excellent Spark Grant projects wrap up in 2023. Each project was highly collaborative and applied, and we are excited to see what comes from them! Read more here. 

In 2023 Urban@UW highlighted BIPOC junior faculty across all three campuses, including Assistant Professors Dana Nickson, Melanie Malone, and Ruben Casas.

Collaborative scholarship efforts in the upcoming year include more active participation with UW’s MetroLab and continuing to develop the RAC. During the past year, we collaborated closely with College of Built Environments leadership, which supports Urban@UW through thought partnership and in-kind services, to ensure broad participation and benefits in our efforts.

Stay tuned! We invite you to connect with us as we convene more cross-boundary activities on critical urban topics and leverage emergent opportunities to address urban challenges and opportunities collectively. 

Rachel Berney, Urban@UW Director and Co-Director, Research to Action Collaboratory, and Associate Professor, Urban Design and Planning
rberney@uw.edu

Jen Davison, Community Engagement Project Director, UW University Initiatives and Co-Director, Urban@UW Research to Action Collaboratory

jnfrdvsn@uw.edu

Kate Landis, Urban@UW Program Manager
klandi@uw.edu