Lynn Ross

Biography: Lynn M. Ross is the founder and principal of Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC where she works nationally and across sectors with organizations on a mission to create and sustain equitable policies, practices, and places. The work of Spirit for Change takes many forms including serving as the lead consultant to the Knight Foundation on Reimagining the Civic Commons—a national demonstration working to advance equitable public spaces— as well as facilitating an 18-month process for the City of Akron, Ohio to establish a new Office of Integrated Development. Ross also recently served as the Senior Fellow for the Housing Playbook Project—an effort to reimagine the federal role in housing policy. The resulting playbook, New Deal for Housing Justice, was released in January 2021. Dedicated to serving mission-driven organizations, Ross has 20 years of multi-sector experience as a planner and policymaker including past senior leadership roles at the Knight Foundation; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing; National Housing Conference and Center for Housing Policy; and the American Planning Association. She serves on the boards of KABOOM! and Next City as well as the advisory board for the National Academy of Medicine’s Culture of Health Program. From 2017-2019, she served as co-chair and co-author of the American Planning Association’s historic Planning for Equity Policy Guide. In 2019, Ross was named one of 50 “Women of Influence” by the Royal Town Planning Institute’s The Planner magazine. Ross holds a Masters of Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.S. in community and regional planning from Iowa State University.