Jessica Lotz Executive Director

Jessica Lotz is a lifelong Memphian and joined Innovate Memphis as Executive Director in 2022. Her favorite innovation skills include data visualization for storytelling, program evaluation, and gamefied/simulation-based facilitation techniques. Prior to her time at Innovate Memphis, Lotz worked at Memphis-Shelby County Schools for over eleven years including six years as the Director of Research and Performance Management. Lotz has also been a member of the Playhouse on the Square board of directors since 2015. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Rhodes College and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University.

Contact: jlotz@innovatememphis.com

Courtney McNeal Chief of Staff & Partnerships

Courtney is a native Memphian who has experienced many of the barriers that impact the quality of life for her fellow citizens. Her work at Innovate Memphis enables her to focus on social equity while carrying out her personal mission of helping and loving the people of her amazing hometown. Courtney has a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Memphis, where she was also a graduate fellow in the Housing and Community Development Research Program. She is certified in Nonprofit Management and Leadership by the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance of Kansas City, and has a graduate certificate in Philanthropy Leadership at the University of Memphis. Courtney’s areas of focus include community outreach and development, education equity and special events.

Contact: cmcneal@innovatememphis.com

Susan Dalton Strategic Initiatives Director

Susan is a lifelong Memphian, drawn to Innovate Memphis by the unique opportunity to make meaningful social impact. Since joining the team in 2017, she has performed research, design, and project management roles for multiple programs and priority areas. After years of supporting City Innovation projects, including Mobility Management and Neighborhood Condition, she continues a focus on public space and special projects as Director of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, she continues to provide leadership and project support for the local Reimagining the Civic Commons collaborative. Susan also supports organizational operations, technology integration, process improvements, innovation delivery, and design for Innovate Memphis. Her background is in interrelated fields of the environment, healthy communities, and social justice. Prior to joining Innovate Memphis, she worked for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center on research studies related to public health and previously led digital strategy and database management for an agriculture technology startup. Susan graduated from the University of Memphis with a B.A in Communications and achieved a certificate in Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice.

Contact: sdalton@innovatememphis.com

Kira Morin Data Midsouth Director

Kira Morin is an experienced servant leader in the education sector and a former researcher who is driven to achieve equitable community outcomes through user experience. Her greatest passion lies in researching complex problems, generating innovative, human-centered solutions, and streamlining workflows with the help of technology and data.

Prior to joining Innovate Memphis, Kira spent 3.5 years at Memphis-Shelby County Schools, where she led the analytics team responsible for producing and maintaining over 250 internal enterprise-wide reports, serving 1.3K unique users. During her tenure, she implemented best practices to optimize data management and governance processes, established efficient knowledge management systems, and significantly improved user experience through research, usability testing, and quality assurance standards.

She is a proud alumna of Education Pioneers’ Impact Fellowship, MATCH Teacher Residency, Americorps VISTA, City Year Boston, South Carolina’s Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, and Northeastern University, where she earned a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience. She has also obtained certificates in User Experience, specializing in UX Management through the Neilson/Norman group.

In her free time, Kira enjoys learning new styles of dance, reading narrative and historical fiction, and spending time with her partner and two dogs at Shelby Farms.

Contact: kmorin@innovatememphis.com

Jackson McNeil Transportation and Mobility Director

Jackson recently joined Innovate Memphis as the Transportation and Mobility Director for Commute Options. In this role, Jackson is responsible for providing project management and delivery of current and emerging transportation-related projects with a focus on encouraging individuals, employers, and schools to promote transportation alternatives. The position includes research, policy, and outreach opportunities to encourage system-wide improvements to transit and mobility in Memphis and Shelby County.

Jackson has deep roots in Memphis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Rhodes College and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis. His prior work includes local community engagement with BLDG Memphis, transportation equity with the New York City Department of Transportation, and consulting for government and nonprofits with Consilience Group, a Memphis based mission-driven systems transformation firm.

Jackson is married to an elementary school teacher and has a young son who is hesitantly testing out his new balance bike.

Contact: jackson@innovatememphis.com

Angelica Carey Project Research Manager

Angelica has been passionate about the environment, people’s health, community service, and social justice from a young age. Growing up in Lynn, a diverse and economically challenged city just outside of Boston, MA, she witnessed that people’s social and historical backgrounds, along with their zip codes, strongly influenced their lived experiences and access to opportunity.

She pursued a dual degree in Anthropology and a self-designed major Civic Environmentalism at University of Massachusetts Amherst. After her undergraduate, she taught K-8 Music with Teach for America in Arkansas before moving back to Western Mass to pursue her dual graduate degree at UMass Amherst in Regional Planning and Sustainability Sciences. During these years, she pursued studies in people’s lived experiences with food insecurity and climate issues. She worked for the City of Memphis in the Division of Planning and Development to lead community engagement and project management for the Memphis 3.0 comprehensive planning process from 2017 - 2022.

At the start of 2020, she became heavily involved in a newly ignited Food Accessibility and Insecurity Collaborative that was initiated through Church Health. She immersed herself in understanding food issues in Memphis and was determined to work towards solutions that combined data, mapping, policy, and programming. This led her to co-author a food policy proposal advocating for a paid position in government to manage food security issues. Angelica is proud to serve as the No Kid Hungry fellow and hopes to lead valuable change that is grounded in community work and data. She has three cats and resides in Cooper Young with her talented partner Elliot. She has been training in Krav Maga self-defense and loves yoga, gardening, and singing.

Contact: angelica@innovatememphis.com

Austin Harrison Senior Research Fellow

Austin Harrison is a Ph.D Candidate in the Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University. His research interests include neighborhood change, community development, urban policy and shrinking cities. In addition to his Ph.D research, Austin is also an active practitioner in the housing and neighborhood arena. Through his independent consulting firm, he has worked with nonprofits, local governments, and developers across the country to implement programs and policies aimed at inclusively revitalizing neighborhoods, developing quality affordable housing, and stabilizing systemically disinvested communities. He also is a Research Fellow for Innovate Memphis, supporting the launch of a local open data intermediary in Memphis, Tennessee focused on applied data analysis and policy research to drive advocacy for neighborhood and housing concerns such as evictions, abandoned property, and local market dynamics.

Jordan Spuryer Applied Anthropology Graduate Fellow

Jordan is a proud Memphis native who has spent 26 years in the city. She earned a BA in Anthropology from the University of Memphis, where she is currently pursuing an MA in Applied Anthropology. Her research interests include urban studies, environmental studies, sustainability, education, and tourism. Jordan aims to leverage her education to create positive change and foster community development in the city she loves.

Kelsey Leigh Huse City & Regional Planning Graduate Fellow

Kelsey Huse comes to Memphis by way of Austin, TX where she was a transit & housing grassroots organizer. She has a background as a Software Engineer and is currently working on a Master's of City & Regional Planning at the University of Memphis. She's an avid e-bike rider, Irish fiddler, and loves Overton Park.