Thea Crum

UIC Great Cities Institute | Chicago, USA

Thea Crum is Associate Director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she designs programs, raises funds, leads projects, and coordinates with community partners. Leading the Participatory Budgeting Chicago Initiative since 2012, she has worked to implement and expand PB with elected officials and in public schools. She has over 15 years of experience in community development, capacity building, and civic engagement. She regularly gives presentations on PB and community development, guest lectures graduate courses, and publishes research and practitioner reports. In 2016, she presented on Advanced Participatory Budgeting at the Second White House convening on PB in the United States. She has co-authored “Youth Citizenship in Action: Evaluation of PB in Schools Pilot” (2018), “Democratizing Tax Increment Financing Funds through PB” (2016) and “The Civics of Community Development: PB in Chicago” (2015) among other reports. She is a member of the North American Participatory Budgeting Research Board (2014-present). She holds a Master of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois Chicago (2011).