FILMMAKER, AUTHOR, AND CULTURAL COMMENTATOR - Mr. Detweiler is Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production at Grand Canyon University. He is a former professor of communication at Pepperdine University, and President of Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Produced and directed a documentary, Purple State of Mind & unCommon Sounds. In addition to serving on the festival jury, Craig serves as special advisor to Better Cities Film Festival.

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BLUE ZONES - Lynn Richards is the former president and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism ICNU) from 2015 to 2021. An internationally recognized speaker and leader on New Urbanism, Richards has presented on a range of topics, including economic development, highway removal and transformation, suburban retrofit, green infrastructure, and New Urbanism trends. Previously, Richards had a long and distinguished career at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), holding multiple leadership roles over 13 years including Acting Director and Policy Director in the Office of Sustainable Communities.

PRINCIPAL OF MOULE & POLYZOIDES, ARCHITECTS AND URBANISTS - Ms. Moule’s career includes architecture, urbanism, real estate development and education. She is a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and has been published in The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dwell and Residential Architect.

ARCHITECT AND URBANIST - Practicing for over 40 years internationally, Dhiru Thadani has been principal designer of new towns and cities, urban regeneration, neighborhood revitalization, and infill densification. Dhiru was born in Bombay, India and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1972 to study architecture. During his forty-four years in Washington, D.C. he has taught, practiced, and has strived to place architecture and urbanism in the public eye. Dhiru is the author of The Language of Towns and Cities: A Visual Dictionary, published by Rizzoli in 2010, and co-editor of Leon Krier: The Architecture of Community published by Island Press in 2009.

SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE NATIONAL MAIN STREET CENTER - Patrice Frey is past president of the National Main Street Center, where she directed their work offering technical assistance, research, advocacy, and education and training opportunities for Main Street’s network of approximately 1,800 members. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the National Main Street Center is a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has participated in the renewal of more than 2,000 older commercial districts during its 30-year history.

ARCHITECT - Perparim Rama, the CEO and Founding Director of 4M Group, is an award-winning Architectural Designer and Conceptual Artist. He is the winner of the best bar design in the World award from World Interior News at Saatchi Gallery in 2013, in 2016 he has been shortlisted with his innovative Restaurant.Bar design concept in London UK. His work has been published in several international design magazines including the London Building Design Magazine and has been interviewed by BBC, CNN, BLOOMBERG, RAI, The Times Newspaper on Architecture and Urbanism.

AUTHOR - James Fallows has been a national correspondent for

The Atlantic for more than thirty-five years, reporting from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and across the United States. He is the author of eleven previous books. His work has also appeared in many other magazines and as public-radio commentaries since the 1980s. He has won a National Book Award and a National Magazine Award. For two years he was President Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter. He is co-author, with Deborah Fallows, of the national bestseller “Our Towns“, a vivid, surprising portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE GODOWN ARTS CENTER - Joy Mboya is the Executive Director of The GoDown Arts Centre, the leading nonprofit multidisciplinary arts facility in Nairobi, Kenya. An outspoken advocate for artists she has spearheaded a variety of ambitious programs including Kenya Burning (2008) and the annual Nairobi-wide festival, Nai Ni Who.

PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL STORYTELLING CENTER - Kiran Singh Sirah is President of the International Storytelling Center (ISC), prior to his appointment at ISC, Kiran developed a number of award-winning arts, cultural and human rights programs in cultural centers across the UK and Ireland. Widely recognized for advancing storytelling as a tool for building social empathy and intercultural understanding, he has spoken and led programming at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the US Senate of foreign relations, US state department, and the Pentagon. Kiran champions his beliefs in the power of human creativity, arts, storytelling and social justice through his advisory role to UNESCO Scotland and through his service as a Rotary Peace Fellow. In 2017, Sirah was awarded the “Champion of Peace” recognition at the Rotary International Day ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva. Kiran firmly believes Storytelling not only has the power to enrich lives, but it also holds the key to building a conflict free society.