Women in Urbanism: Ways to Grow Your Career and Make a Social Impact

This article first appeared at Remix.com

The Effect of Inclusivity and Diversity on Urbanism

When I was with Remix, the mobility planning platform, we began an experiment — an event series called Women in Urbanism— to create a space for women leaders working on urban planning projects and social impact issues to share their stories, in an effort to inspire other women who want to effect social change. Last month we held the first event in the Women in Urbanism series, called Upward Mobility, with a panel of three women working to build better cities: Allison Arieff from SPUR, Cathleen Sullivan from Alameda County Transportation Commission, and Kim Mai Cutler of Initialized Capital.

A Full House at Upward Mobility

Expecting about 40 people to show up, we were delighted with a final attendance of over 150. We even had to close registration early because of space constraints!

Why did our Women in Urbanism series attract so many people? We heard from attendees that they wanted a space to learn from other women how to impact the way cities are planned and built, no matter their current position. Each of the panelists talked about their own upward mobility, including career successes, challenges, and advice for creating a path to building more livable cities. Here are some takeaways:

1. Communicate clearly.

Allison Arieff takes stock in what she does best, and that’s communicate clearly. Her first several months at SPUR were “acronym hell,” as she puts it, and colleagues sometimes relied on jargon instead of the concepts they represented. Her answer? She drew on her past experience in publishing, where she had to read books and quickly distill their messages for others. In the same spirit, she’s now asked SPUR’s policy directors to avoid jargon and speak in plain English that everyone can understand, regardless of their background. Instead of residents being “multi-modal,” now they simply “get around by biking, walking, and the bus.”

Using her communication skills to “make jargon a 20th century relic,” she’s been able to advance sustainable urban policies. Arrief’s communication know-how has allowed her to combine her professional background with her love of cities, architecture, and design.

Photos: Remix

2. Don’t worry about a linear path.

Don’t specialize until you have to, says Arieff, noting you’ll create meaningful opportunities along the way while figuring out what you truly love. When she left graduate school, she wanted to work in publishing, and at 28, she became the oldest editorial assistant at Random House. But in New York City, she was working at the center of the publishing world, and when she moved to San Francisco, her experience gave her seniority. Within four years, she was editor-in-chief at Dwell Magazine.

Kim Mai Cutler had a similarly circuitous route to her current position. She began her career as a journalist, first covering bond markets, then tech. As a concerned community member who was frustrated with Bay Area housing and transportation policies, she realized her writing skills and tech connections could propel a platform of social change. She joined the board of a local homeless coalition and SPUR’s advisory board. Now at Initialized Capital, an early stage venture capital firm Cutler is helping companies build meaningful businesses. Her circuitous route ended up giving her more perspective and connections when she finally found her dream job.

3. Sometimes you have to take a step down to take a step ahead.

You might be in a position where you have to put in the time to get promoted. In government jobs, for example, promotions are often based on years of experience rather than skills learned. If you’re having trouble pushing ahead in your current role, you may have to leave to advance your career.

At one point in her career, when she was running campaigns, Cathleen Sullivan wanted to make a change, so she set up informational interviews, where she met Bonnie Nelson of Nelson\Nyggard, who offered her an internship. She took it because she knew it would eventually lead her towards something that she loved.

4. Lead from where you are.

Leadership is not a position, it’s a mindset. If you want to grow and have social impact you must take the perspective that you can contribute from whatever your position. Join your neighborhood group, attend a community meeting, be involved, and let your voice be heard. Cutler got involved with her local homeless board and spent the night before our event at a community meeting discussing affordable housing in a new development. If you want to have impact and change the trajectory of your city there are opportunities all around you, just do it.

5. You are responsible for your own success.

Our minds can be our best ally or our worst enemy, so it’s important to learn how to deal with our thoughts. Befriend and influence them. Be determined. Be your biggest advocate. It’s easy to get caught up, so lift your head to make sure you’re on a path of growth.

6. Support each other.

Part of building a more diverse workplace is being a role model for the behavior you want to see in other women. Look out for other women. Take informational interviews. If you’re in the position to do so, Arieff recommends promoting deserving assistants to ensure women have a fair chance at positions in which they can excel.

7. Embrace messy problems.

Sullivan has learned that in government you get to deal with messy problems — and that’s a good thing. Because messy problems often have little scope, you can be creative in how you bring your partners together and move an idea from inception to implementation. This advice reminded me that while working in Chicago, I had an idea to finance billions in transit projects through value capture, a mechanism that uses future property tax revenue to pay for the upfront cost of a project. Chicago hadn’t used value capture so I had to think creatively to bring stakeholders together to prove it would work and move the idea to reality.

8. Be an evangelist.

When Sullivan’s family heard she was a transportation planner, they asked her to come to their community because they wanted better transportation options. Little did they know she’d make them take the bus! Transit plays a huge role in economic development that grows urban spaces — as Arieff put it, transit must be concentrated in the Bay Area where it provides the most opportunity for growth — and it starts with getting the people you know involved.

If you missed the event, check out tweets from the event under the hashtag #womeninurbanism.