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Civic Design with Equity in Mind
About
Powerful Pathways is an award-wining civic design lab and social practice that works in community development, public policy, and placemaking (placekeeping) using creative media and technology tools, the application of design thinking principles and a social equity lens.
Powerful Pathways is part arts and media organization, part urban planning and design agency and part Imaginarium - all in effort to address and disrupt longstanding complex social problems so as to improve the sustainability and quality of life for all.
Our mission is to facilitate positive social change through programming, research, consulting and training to non-profits, government agencies and social enterprises. Areas and Interests of Work include but are not limited to:
• Community and Transportation Planning
• Sustainable Community Development Policy Research
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Workshops
• Cultural District Planning
• Business Development Workshops
• Event Planning
• Equitable Creative Placemaking (Placekeeping)
We work everywhere, and with equity as a core value, we prioritize under-served communities, locally, nationally, and abroad. We also organize community initiatives, workshops, and civic hacks – events that highlight innovative interventions that disrupt chronic urban and civic challenges.
Our Approach: The way we do things defies easy categorization, because in order to be effective in our work, and meet the needs that remain unmet, we have to think outside of the box, and challenge normative approaches to social impact work. Learn more about approaches.
Who We Are
Allentza Michel, Executive and Creative Director
Powerful Pathways was founded in 2014 by Allentza Michel, an urban planner, social practice artist, researcher and EDI specialist with 25 years of diverse experience across community & economic development, education, arts, food security, public health and transportation. Prior to her current roles, she was a community organizer specifically working on local policy and land use campaigns, and a youth worker supporting the leadership development of at-risk young people and their communities. Her experiences inform her civic design approach, at the nexus of sustainability creative community engagement, public policy, social equity and impact design.
A serial experimenter and entrepreneur, her personal mission is in designing approaches and experiences that translate into equitable and sustainable development and innovative, solution-based and long-term neighborhood revitalization without displacement, just economic strategies and inclusive public participation practices that lead to better policy outcomes and improve the quality of life for under-served communities.
Ms. Michel received a master's in public policy at Tufts University's Department of Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning, bachelor’s degrees in English and Social and Political Systems from Pine Manor College, and a graduate certificate in non-profit management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. She also studied Civic Media and Art Practice at Emerson College and was trained in design and public policy from Rhode Island School of Design. She was a 2013 Neighborhood Fellow at Tufts, the inaugural fellow for Association for Community Design in 2015, and a 2016 Creative Community Fellow with National Arts Strategies. In 2021, Allentza received the Perez Prize in Civic Design and Public Art, awarded by Americans for the Arts and the Perez Foundation, and was named a Next 1000 by Forbes. In 2023 she was awarded the Hometown Hero award by the Celtics Foundation. She has also received commendations from the City of Cambridge (2012) and the City of Boston (2018) and the Town of Randolph (2025).
Ms. Michel speaks English (native), Haitian Creole (native), Spanish, moderate French, and conversational Japanese. She navigates her time between, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Associates
Ruby Reyes, Associate Principal
Ruby Reyes is a community advocate and non-profit professional with a range of advisory, administrative and organizational development experience. She spent ten years with The City School, a social justice youth education non-profit, first as a Development Associate and eventually graduating as Co-Executive Director. Most recently she has been executive director of the Boston Education Justice Alliance (BEJA). There she developed innovative shared leadership models that institutionalized that included equitable stakeholder voice in all parts of the organization from the board to staff to fund development. Prior to that she worked as a college and career counselor focusing on at-risk and immigrant students. She has a B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Journalism and Literature from Emerson College and is fluent in Spanish. Ms. Reyes is also a clothes maker and hand-makes all her clothing designs.
Abdul Syed, GIS Specialist
Abdul Syed is a civic technologist and GIS researcher, and the founder of Geovitics. He is the primary web developer, creating the mapping tool using ArcGIS interfaces. He has a master’s degree in telecommunications and possesses a broad skillset and 18 years of experience in analyzing and developing enterprise-level technology solutions in complex environments. He won numerous awards including the Google Gigabit challenge for smarter urban planning & visualization tool, Technology Incentive Program award for best GIS solution from the state of Missouri and Startup weekend award for map-based mobile app.
Anuja Chatterjee, UI/UX Designer
Anuja Chatterjee is a user interaction and experience designer (UI/UX) focused on digital web development. She has over 4 years of experience delivering education, technology, and community project solutions. She is skilled in leading teams, executing comprehensive design processes, and leveraging data-driven insights to boost user engagement, and customer satisfaction. Proficient in Figma, Sketch, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, R Studio, WordPress, and Adobe tools. Experienced in usability testing, heuristic evaluations, and competitive analyses to inform strategic design decisions, she is committed to creating accessible products that address user needs and meet business objectives.
Jeff Rosenblum, PhD, PE
Jeff Rosenblum has decades of experience as a practitioner, educator, and advocate with a focus on sustainable transportation. His expertise includes street design, traffic engineering, transit planning, transportation policy and research. He received his doctorate from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning with a focus on public policy and equity in urban transportation systems. As part of dissertation research on low-fare transit models, he designed an automated texting Chatbot tool to collect daily trip purpose data from participants. Jeff previously worked for Toole Design and the City of Cambridge and Livable Streets Alliance, an urban planning policy and advocacy transportation nonprofit which he co-founded in 2004. Jeff has served on several boards and advocacy groups such as the Bicycle Technical Subcommittee of the National Committee on MUTCD, MassDOT’s Advisory Board, Boston’s Complete Streets initiative, and MBTA’s Accessible Transit Infrastructure Advisory Group. He has worked on sustainable development projects in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Jeff has taught courses at MIT and currently at Northeastern University.
Laurie Goldman, PhD
Dr. Laurie Goldman is a lecturer and researcher in urban and social policy. She is a co-researcher and research advisor on the Mattapan Mapping Project. Her primary research interests include social welfare and housing policy, policy implementation, public and nonprofit management, and theories of practice and organizational change. She has a special interest in creative problem solving, inter-organizational collaboration, and the contributions of street-level practitioners to improving social services. Experience as a community organizer, policy advocate, grantmaker, and organizational consultant inform her research and sustain her dedication to social change. Ms. Goldman received a Ph.D. from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and has earned an M.A. in urban planning from the Technion in Israel and a B.A. in Anthropology from Reed College.
Advisory Board
Lawrence Barriner II
Lawrence Barriner is a communications strategist, connector, a freelance designer, systems thinker and budding photographer. He loves quotes, facilitating groups and processes, baking bread, feeding his worms, and cooking/eating good food with good friends. His current work includes communications and narrative strategy at the Community Innovators Lab at MIT and running a productivity coaching practice. Having studied urban planning and design at MIT, his previous work includes food systems & food justice research and consulting, web design, and graphic design. He plays a lot of volleyball, keeps busy with a million side projects, writes daily, and has a weekly newsletter.
Audrina Bell-Warren
audrina bell warren is an artist and an activist. She is currently freelancing after serving as Assistant Director at Proof Gallery in South Boston and coordinating East Boston Open Studios at Atlantic Works Gallery for several. Her work explores, activism, education and development in the public realm. https://www.audrinabellwarren.com/
Ruby Reyes
Ruby Reyes is a community advocate and non-profit professional with a range of advisory, administrative and organizational development experience. She spent ten years with The City School, a social justice youth education non-profit, first as a Development Associate and eventually graduating as Co-Executive Director. Most recently she has been executive director of the Boston Education Justice Alliance (BEJA). There she developed innovative shared leadership models that institutionalized that included equitable stakeholder voice in all parts of the organization from the board to staff to fund development. Prior to that she worked as a college and career counselor focusing on at-risk and immigrant students. She has a B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Journalism and Literature from Emerson College and is fluent in Spanish. Ms. Reyes is also a clothes maker and hand-makes all her clothing designs.
Nigel Jacob
Nigel Jacob is the emeritus Co-founder of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a civic innovation incubator and R&D Lab within Boston’s City Hall. Nigel’s work is about making urban life better via innovative, people-oriented applications of technology and design. Prior to joining the City of Boston in 2006, Nigel worked in a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area. He was also previously the Urban Technologist in Residence at Living Cities, and an Executive-in-Residence at Boston University. Nigel is also a board member at organizations such as Code For America and coUrbanize. His areas of focus include development of public-private collaborations; civic innovation; civic software architecture and engineering; and research and development. New America Profile.
Nakeeda L. Burns
Nakeeda Burns is a legislative administrator and graphic designer, with a background in non-profit program development and community focused marketing. She currently works as a Legislative Director in the MA House of Representatives under Michael Moran. Conceptually versatile with adaptive apply design skills to an array of industries, she utilizes her education in sociology, public administration and artistic design to help tell stories that attract wide audiences and advocate for constituents.
Gretchen Rabinkin
Gretchen Schneider Rabinkin AIA, Affiliate ASLA is the executive director of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) -- one of the largest, oldest, and most active chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Gretchen works with the board to guide strategic direction and serves as the administrative leader of BSLA and the BSLA Fund, including organizing design professionals in a variety of pro bono and community engagement initiatives. Prior to joining BSLA, Gretchen was Director of Civic Initiatives for the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) and BSA Foundation, including leading the Community Design Resource Center program. At the BSA, she initiated and helped coordinate community resiliency preparedness activities with multiple neighborhood and academic partners, organized the BSA Urban Design Workshops, and was on the steering committee for the Boston Living with Water International Design Competition. Gretchen led the architecture program at Smith College from 2000-2006, and currently teaches at Amherst College. She is former deputy editor of ArchitectureBoston. Gretchen received a BA from Smith College and a MArch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
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