Jessica Lotz Executive Director

Jessica Lotz is a lifelong Memphian and comes to Innovate Memphis from Memphis-Shelby County Schools where she has been the Director of Research and Performance Management for six years. In eleven total years with the school district, Lotz has been responsible for scaling up data analytics resources for school and district leaders, program evaluation, continuous improvement coaching and strategic planning including co-developing the district's previous Destination 2025 plan. Lotz has also been a member of the Playhouse on the Square board of directors since 2014 and currently serves as Board President. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Rhodes College and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University.

Courtney McNeal City Innovation Director / Chief of Staff

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nikki Dildine Commute Options Schools Program Manager

Nikki is a Memphis transplant by way of rural northern Indiana. She moved here in 2007 after completing both her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s degree in School Counseling at Purdue University. She served Shelby County Schools as a School Counselor from 2007-2015. In 2015, she pursued an opportunity in the world of finance and joined Vining Sparks as a Client Support Manager. Joining Innovate Memphis as the Commute Options Schools Program Manager has brought her full circle back to working with students, parents and educators in the Memphis area. She is excited for the opportunity to educate our community on commute options, and the positive impact those choices can have on our neighborhoods and environment.

Nikki has been a member of the board of directors for the Memphis Farmers Market since 2019 and currently serves as Board President. Most Saturdays she can be found volunteering at the market. She is also active with the local dog rescue community, and her brood consists of three adopted dogs and the occasional foster (or two).

Angelica Carey Food Systems Innovation Fellow

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.

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.

Meghan Moody Applied Anthropology Graduate Fellow

Meghan Moody is a graduate student in Applied Anthropology at the University of Memphis. Her research interests are identity, policy, and development. She received her bachelor’s at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Anthropology, with a concentration in Disasters, Displacements and Human Rights (DDHR). After returning home, she worked as a legal assistant for a local law firm. She also has experience working on outreach programs through the Shelby County Government. She is passionate about equity and eager to make a difference using actionable strategies

Navid Enayati Shabkolaei Housing & Community Development Graduate Fellow

Navid has worked as an Urban Planning Specialist and GIS Specialist for a consulting company for 5 years in Iran. Some of his projects includes the Comprehensive Plan of Pakdasht City, The Feasibility Studies of Tehran Metro Lines 8, 9, 10 and 11, and the Revision of Road Network in Southern Areas of Tehran (District 9 to 21). As a University of Memphis Housing and Community Development (HCD) Fellow, Navid is proudly working as a Data Analyst Fellow for Innovate Memphis.

David Akinbode Critical Urban Research Fellow

David Akinbode serves as a research fellow at Innovate Memphis, where he plays a crucial role in the development of a formal data plan for the Greater Memphis Housing Justice Project. Simultaneously, he is pursuing his doctoral studies at the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Memphis.

 David completed his Bachelor of Technology degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Technology Akure in (Nigeria). He also holds a master's degree in Environmental Studies from Adelphi University (USA).  His research interests encompass various areas, including environmental planning and policy, public health, equitable housing, water resource management, climate change, and sustainable development.
Furthermore, he is a member of the Pi Epsilon Environmental Sciences Honor Society and the American Society for Investigative Pathology, reflecting his commitment to environmental and investigative endeavors.

Steven Willoughby Community Fiber Infrastructure Lead

Justin Entzminger Former Executive Director

Justin brings a decade of experience as a strategy and growth consultant for nonprofits, start-ups and for-profit businesses to his role as Director of Innovate Memphis. He joined the team in 2014, and leads its blight priority efforts, developing tools to measure blight and the impact of mitigation strategies. Previously, Justin served as the Director of Business Insights for Hyphen Market Solutions, Strategic Planning Consultant for media start-up DittyTV and Manager of Strategy Development for Southern Growth Studio. Justin received a Master of Entrepreneurship degree from the Massey School of Business at Belmont University and holds a B.A. in English from Georgetown University.