About Claire Nelson and Nicole Rupersberg

Claire Nelson is director of Urban Innovation Exchange, an initiative to advance the growing movement of people leading impact in cities. She is also founder of the Urban Consulate, a new network for cross-city exchange launching next year in Detroit, New Orleans and Philadelphia. A 2015 Knight Cities winner, Claire is a passionate advocate for quality of place and civic engagement, having led a number of Detroit projects including Bureau of Urban Living, Open City, Declare Detroit, Mind the Gap and On the Ground. In 2014 she was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and a speaker at TEDxDetroit. A graduate of Smith College and Columbia University, Claire currently splits time between Detroit & New Orleans.