Panelists

Cindy Cambray is a Planner for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) where she focuses her work on equity. She works on long-range plans to help implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. Cindy began her career as a community organizer working around issues such as education, immigration reform, and social justice. She later moved into the community development field and aided in the development of fair housing policy with the Latino Policy Forum and quality affordable housing with The Community Builders. Notably, Cindy has also worked in the political arena at both a local and national level including Obama for America. Cindy holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Chandra Christmas-Rouse is an urban planner and data artist who works to reimagine and redesign space — including physical, social and virtual — to make cities more just and sustainable. Her career encompasses developing urban development strategies to reduce poverty, expand economic opportunities, and advance sustainability in cities and regions in the US and developing countries—with a priority on shaping the delivery systems for environmental management, community development, climate action, and city and regional planning. Currently, she works as a Program Officer at Enterprise Community Partners leading programs that focus on regional sustainability goals, equitable transit-oriented development and healing-centered engagement. Her creative practice focuses on building spatial imaginaries and urban planning interventions as a way to inform dialogue and development in cities and to engage the moments of disinvestment through multimedia cartography. Her most recent works were about Black women’s spatial sensibility and the city, broaching interferences among spatial production theory and black feminist theories as a means to transform urban redevelopment in Chicago. She earned a BA in Environmental Sciences and Policy with distinction from Duke University and an MA in Urban Planning from the Harvard University.

Kirsten Cook serves as the Just Growth Portfolio Manager for the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), where she works on projects related to racial equity in planning, development, and infrastructure. She currently takes part in advising equitable strategies in local and regional development projects, implementing an Equitable Strategic Plan for the City of East Point, assisting in the convening of the Just Growth Circle (a network of practitioners working towards equitable development), and collaborating on projects in the other PSE issue circles –energy, opportunity, and health. Kirsten also develops and organizes resident leader academies that contribute to building the equity civic infrastructure in metro Atlanta.

Kirsten has a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Wheaton College. In the past, she has worked in local government as a County Planner and in non-profit planning organizations in both Atlanta and Chicago. Having spent the first 18 years of her life in Southeast Asia, Kirsten thrives in diverse settings and approaches her work with a global perspective. 

Samyukth Shenbaga is manager of the Community Development Group at the Atlanta Regional Commission.  In this role, he leads a team of planning professionals working with cities and counties throughout metro Atlanta on a range of issues ranging from housing affordability to historic preservation. Some of the most locally impactful programs within ARC including the Livable Centers Initiative, Community Development Assistance Program, and Community Planning Academy are led by his group.

Shenbaga comes to ARC from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), where he served as a principal planner in the agency’s local planning division. Prior to CMAP, Shenbaga worked at private consulting firms in Chicago and Madison, Wis., where he helped private developers and municipalities develop neighborhood and site-specific plans.

Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Shenbaga holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi. Shenbaga is a LEED accredited professional and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).