Finalists for the 2026 All-America City Award will have the opportunity to showcase how they strengthen civic health and build trust to a distinguished panel of nationally renowned civic leaders. These dedicated jury members generously volunteer their expertise and time to carefully evaluate the written applications, attend in-person presentations by the finalists, engage with insightful questions, and deliberate during the final collective decision-making process. This year’s jury consists of civic engagement practitioners, leaders from business, philanthropy, and nonprofit sectors, and youth representatives.
- Maia Comeau (Jury Foreperson), Founder & CEO, Comeau & Company
- Kayce Ataiyero, Chief External Affairs Officer, The Joyce Foundation
- Maya Guzdar, Director of Policy and Programs, Allliance for Local Leaders International
- Shamichael Hallman, Senior Director of Civic Health and Economic Opportunity, Urban Libraries Council
- Jim Hunt, Executive VP, Government Affairs, Bearing Advisors
- Lindsey Kerr, Partner, The Messina Group
- Steven Olikara, President, Bridge Entertainment Lab
- Hon. David Sander, Councilman, City of Rancho Cordova, CA
- Sophie Tipper, Committee Member (Senate District 16), Colorado Youth Advisory Council
- Nik Walker, Director of Constitutionally Limited Government, Stand Together
- Saanvi Yadav, Committee Member (Senate District 2), Colorado Youth Advisory Council
Our All-America City Award Finalists are the main attraction, but we’re thrilled about this year’s lineup of keynote speakers joining us in Denver, CO from June 27-29. Speakers, including leaders from the philanthropy, government, and the nonprofit sectors, will join us to speak about civic health, democratic participation, and grassroots organizing. Register today to hear from our speakers and learn from our finalists.
Keynote Speakers
Cristin F. Brawner, Executive Director, National Issues Forums Institute
Cristin F. Brawner leads the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to equipping, empowering, and mobilizing people to use deliberation to take action for the public good. Her career has focused on helping communities and our democracy thrive by building partnerships, designing programs, and strengthening the civic infrastructure that enables people to talk, decide, and act together.
Before joining NIFI, Brawner served as Executive Director of the David Mathews Center for Civic Life in Alabama. Brawner also founded the Southern Deliberative Democracy Network and is a former Associate with the Kettering Foundation.
Shamichael Hallman, Senior Director of Civic Health and Economic Opportunity
Shamichael is a social, civic and tech innovator. As a ’23 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he explored how urban design and planning can make for socially inclusive cities. He has served as the Senior Library Manager with Memphis Public Libraries where he guided the reimagining of the historic Cossitt Library. His 2020 TEDx talk “Reimagining the Public Library to Reconnect the Community” garnered international acclaim. In 2021 he co-founded Libraries as Bridges which focuses on evaluating how libraries build social cohesion, promote civic renewal and advance the ideals of a healthy democracy.
Evan Weissman, Founding Executive Director, Warm Cookies of the Revolution
Evan Weissman is the founding executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a civic health club that blends innovative arts and culture with crucial civic issues. Prior to founding Warm Cookies of the Revolution, he spent 12 years as a company member of the collaborative Buntport Theater Company, who the Denver Post called “Monty Python’s anarchist grandchildren,” winning over 100 awards as playwright, director, designer, and actor. His work with Warm Cookies includes creating over 400 arts-based civic programs (live events, installations, videos, music, and books) including Tax Day Carnival, Sunday School for Atheists, Civic Stitch ‘n Bitch, The Huddle, The Living Eulogies Project, Eco-Disaster Fashion Show. Evan can be found giving talks and workshops at fancy universities, conferences, alleyways, and kindergarten classrooms.
Evan was awarded a Roddenberry Fellowship, a Kellogg Foundation Leadership for Community Change Fellowship, a Livingston Fellowship, as well as the Colorado Governor’s Award for Creative Leadership and Parr Widener Civic Leadership Award. He was Denver Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, and Creative-in-Residence at the Denver Art Museum. Evan is a US Ambassador for the Royal Society for Arts.
Evan teaches courses on nonviolent social change at Colorado College. He was the founding organizer of Colorado Bend The Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Social and Economic Justice, and co-founder of the Denver chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. He was a Jane Addams-Andrew Carnegie Graduate Fellow at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, and a graduate of Colorado College. Evan is horrible at drawing and swimming, among many other deficiencies.
