CNU34 will feature over a hundred sessions, tours, and workshops featuring a diverse swath of expert practitioners across a number of fields. Below are a few of our headlining speakers that you will see this May in Northwest Arkansas.
Keynote Speakers:
We Shape Our Neighborhoods, and Our Neighborhoods Shape Our Future
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Raj ChettyDelivering the Opening Keynote on Connecting Quality of Place to Economic Opportunity Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the Director of Opportunity Insights, which uses big data to study the science of economic opportunity: how we can give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding? Chetty’s work has been widely cited in academia, media outlets, and policy discussions in the United States and beyond. |
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Eric KlinenbergDelivering the Closing Keynote on Measuring the Impact of Place on Social Connectivity Eric Klinenberg is a bestselling author, renowned sociologist, and Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. His latest book, 2020, is a “gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history.” In his previous book, Palaces for the People, Eric argues that social infrastructure, “the physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact,” is the surprisingly simple key to building a democracy that works for everyone. |
CNU 34 Main Stage Speakers
Joining us at the Bentonville Main Stage on May 14 at the First Baptist Church, Carol Coletta has spent a lifetime championing public life, the joy it creates and the community it forges. In 2025, Urban Land Institute awarded her its highest honor, the ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. She is a Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow with the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University where she is exploring how public space can foster social connections to achieve more opportunity-rich and unified community.
As President/CEO of Memphis River Parks Partnership, she led development of a new riverfront concept plan, the redesign of two parks with confederate associations, a 5-mile bike-ped trail, the start of a new Flyway over the Mississippi River, and the design and construction of Tom Lee Park, winning international acclaim for its designers Studio Gang and SCAPE and the Partnership. She came to the Partnership on loan from The Kresge Foundation where she was Senior Fellow leading the foundation's investment in Reimagining the Civic Commons, a multi-funder, national effort to demonstrate that transformative public spaces can connect people of all backgrounds, cultivate trust, create more resilient communities, and generate greater value in neighborhoods nearby.
Joining Carol on the Bentonville Main Stage, Matthew is Managing Director of Gehl - Americas, where he leads work at the intersection of design, public life, policy, and place. For over twenty years, he has partnered with cities, developers, cultural institutions, corporations, and foundations to transform environments into spaces that are socially vital, economically resilient, and ecologically integrated. His current focus is social infrastructure: the spaces, programs, and practices that foster belonging and rebuild civic trust in an era of fragmentation. He believes the work of shaping how people inhabit the world together is not merely a technical craft but an opportunity for healing, presence, and reverence. At the heart of his practice is a conviction that joy matters: shared, spontaneous, or quietly cultivated, joy is not just a source of resilience and connection — it is a driver of market viability and long-term value in the life of a city.
Taking the Fayetteville Main Stage on May 14 at the Fayetteville Town Center, Janis Bowdler is president of the Solutions division of Enterprise Community Partners, where she leads a team delivering a broad range of housing and advisory programs and initiatives across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A nationally recognized leader in advancing economic opportunity and inclusive prosperity, Bowdler has dedicated her career to advancing policies and investments that expand opportunity and unlock the full potential of all communities.