Mikayla Townsend
Program Manager

• Email:[email protected]
• Hometown:Boston

Mikayla Townsend joins the National Civic League as Project Manager for the Community Foundations for Civic Health project, bringing more than five years of experience in community engagement, equity-focused facilitation, and democratic innovation research. She has led multi-stakeholder projects that strengthen civic participation, designed and evaluated public engagement initiatives in partnership with local governments, schools, and nonprofits, and authored widely used case studies and resource guides on participatory democracy practices from around the world.

Mikayla also serves as Program Coordinator for New Hampshire Listens at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, where she facilitates community dialogues, co-leads equity-focused workshops, and provides technical assistance to organizations seeking to integrate inclusive engagement strategies.

She previously held public engagement roles at Public Agenda, contributing to projects on civic health, health equity, and community-led research. A former McCourtney Institute for Democracy Nevins Fellow, Mikayla earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations with a minor in political science from Penn State University and is completing her Master of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.