Prove It Summit
October 8–10, 2026
Prove It: A National Summit on Design Excellence as Civic Practice
The Commons
300 Washington Street
Columbus, Indiana
→ Attendance is by invitation only
Interested in participating in the Summit? Reach out to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections.
The Prove It Summit tests a single proposition:
Design excellence is a civic practice that can be defined, practiced, and measured by any community willing to do the work.
Over three days, five Indiana cities will put that claim to the test on active public projects.
Learning from Columbus
Thursday, October 8
The Summit begins with a welcome lunch and introductions to the participating delegation cities, followed by walking presentations with Mayor Mary Ferdon at Columbus’s Riverfront and The Crump Theatre.
In 2026, The Crump Theatre received a nearly $6.1 million grant through Indiana's READI 2.0 Arts and Culture Initiative to support its historic revitalization, the largest single award in that program.
Mayor Mary Ferdon
Columbus, Indiana
Mary Ferdon is the thirty-eighth mayor of Columbus, in office since January 1, 2024. Before her election she spent eight years as the city's Executive Director of Administration and Community Development, leading 450 employees to deliver streets, parks, animal care, and public services across more than one thousand acres of parkland. Earlier she taught at IUPUC, worked at Heritage Fund, the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, and led Volunteers in Medicine. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's in urban administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She and her husband Steve have lived in Columbus for more than thirty years. Columbus hosts the Summit and the first Learning Partnership visit.
Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch
Michigan City, Indiana
Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch leads Michigan City, Indiana, with a commitment to progress, collaboration, and community-driven leadership. Elected in 2023, she made history as the first African American and second female mayor of Michigan City. She now serves as the newly elected Chair of the Indiana Conference of Mayors, working alongside mayors across the state to advance shared priorities and strengthen the voice of Indiana's cities. As mayor, she oversees a municipal workforce of more than 400 employees and manages a city budget exceeding $73 million. A proud Michigan City native, Mayor Angie earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Florida A&M University and a master's degree in public affairs from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs. With more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in telecommunications, utilities, and the nonprofit sector, she built her career at SBC Communications, now AT&T, and NiSource, before launching her own consulting firm, I&D Squared, in 2018, focused on workforce development, expanding childcare capacity, and supporting high school graduates as they transitioned into careers and higher education. She serves on the boards of Indiana United Way, the Unity Foundation, and the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, The Links, and the Greater Michigan City Drifters.
Mayor Mike Pavey
Rushville, Indiana
Mike Pavey has served as mayor of Rushville since January 2012, following twelve years on the city council, eight of them as its president. Trained in architectural technology and engineering at Purdue University, he spent eighteen years as a project engineer before taking office. As mayor he has overseen the largest set of infrastructure projects in the city's history and helped three of Rushville's four largest employers expand. He revived Heart of Rushville, the city's Indiana Main Street program, and helped build the Riverside Park Amphitheater and its free summer concert series, which Ball State University's Building Better Communities recognized with a Primacy of Place award in 2014. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute.
Mayor Dan Ridenour
Muncie, Indiana
Dan Ridenour is mayor of Muncie, elected after four years on the Muncie City Council. He came to public office from thirty years in banking and finance, where he served as a regional manager for three banks, and he is the author of three books on credit scoring. A longtime community volunteer, he has worked on programs ranging from home repair for low-income seniors to kindergarten readiness in Muncie Community Schools. He and his wife Sherry have four children and four grandchildren.
Mayor Brandon Sakbun
Terre Haute, Indiana
Brandon Sakbun is a lifelong Terre Haute native and serves as the forty-third mayor of the city, making history as its youngest mayor. He graduated from Terre Haute South Vigo High School and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance from Indiana University. During his time at IU, he was a distinguished graduate of the Army ROTC program. He also holds a master’s degree in public affairs from IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He and his wife, Paiton Roshel Sakbun, have two daughters, Scarlett and Elle. In 2018, Sakbun joined the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant and eventually rose to the rank of captain in the Army Rangers. He continues to serve as a member of the Indiana National Guard. As mayor, Sakbun focuses on growth, economic development, and improving the quality of life in Terre Haute. His leadership reflects a commitment to moving the city forward while honoring its history.
Prove It Summit Keynote
5:30 pm Thursday, October 8, at The Commons
Join two national design leaders whose work reaches from some of America’s largest cities to its smallest towns and Tribal communities for a conversation about the places we build, the people they serve, and what it takes to create lasting value.
The program begins with a welcome from Mayor Mary Ferdon and Tracy Haddad, Board Chair of Landmark Columbus Foundation, with remarks from U.S. Senator Todd Young. Courtney Spearman and Maurice Cox will deliver keynote presentations, followed by a conversation moderated by Daniel Luis Martinez.
The Prove It Summit Keynote is free and open to the public → Register now!
The Prove It Summit keynote will take place at The Commons, Columbus’s downtown community and event space. Designed by Koetter Kim with CSO Architects and completed in 2011, the building preserves the steel superstructure of César Pelli’s original 1973 design and is home to Jean Tinguely’s kinetic sculpture Chaos I.
Keynote Speaker
Maurice Cox
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Urban Planner
Maurice D. Cox is the Emma Bloomberg Professor in Residence of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where his work merges architecture, design, and politics in pursuit of equitable urban development. He served as Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, where he co-authored neighborhood framework plans credited with helping reverse a 70-year population decline, and later as Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, where he led the INVEST South/West initiative to revitalize ten neighborhoods. His earlier public service includes terms as Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Design Director at the National Endowment for the Arts under two presidents. He has taught at Syracuse, the University of Virginia, Tulane, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Keynote Speaker
Courtney Spearman
Washington, D.C.
Design and Cultural Advocate
Courtney Spearman is program manager for Building Common Ground: Fieldwork, a new national program giving rural and Tribal cultural organizations customized design and project development support, after more than a decade representing the design field at the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work brings a multidisciplinary approach to rural revitalization, collaborating across arts and design nonprofits, landscape architecture firms, and community organizations. Spearman earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Arts in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Art History from Rice University.
Keynote Remarks
Todd Young
Indianapolis, Indiana
U.S. Senator
Todd Young is the senior United States Senator from Indiana, serving since 2017. Before the Senate, he represented Indiana's 9th congressional district in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2017, and he has since built a reputation as a bipartisan problem-solver, playing a key role in passing the CHIPS and Science Act to expand domestic semiconductor production, alongside work on veterans' affairs and affordable housing. Earlier in his career, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, leaving the service as a captain. Young graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy, and also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the School of Advanced Study in London, and a law degree from Indiana University.
Keynote Moderator
Daniel Luis Martinez
Columbus, Indiana
Educator
Daniel Luis Martinez is Program Director, Director of Graduate Studies, and tenured Associate Professor at Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Rural Engagement. Daniel is an architectural designer, educator, and co-founder of LAA Office: a multidisciplinary design studio that explores the intersection of landscape, art, and architecture. His research and creative work investigate the transformation of undervalued sites through a synthesis of public art and public space design. He was a 2022 resident in Art Omi's Architecture Residency in New York, was named an Exhibit Columbus University Design Research Fellow in 2019 and received an AIA Henry Adams Medal in 2012. Daniel has worked at leading architectural firms, including Allied Works and Weiss/Manfredi, and his writing has been published in notable architectural journals, including MAS Context, San Rocco, Clog, and Drawing Matter.
Prove It Summit Working Sessions
Friday, October 9, at The Commons
Mayor-led delegations from Michigan City, Muncie, Rushville, and Terre Haute join Columbus to work on active civic projects with a national design faculty in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public land, and rural design. Columbus is the shared reference: a city that has been asking the design excellence question of itself for more than eighty years, and is still learning.
What each city brings: On Friday, each mayor-led delegation presents an active civic project, followed by a discussion with the design faculty and other delegations in the room.
Morning Session One: Design Faculty Gerardo Garcia and Jamie Simone, then Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch and the Michigan City delegation
Morning Session Two: Design Faculty Eric Lucas, then Mayor Brandon Sakbun and the Terre Haute delegation
Lunch with remarks from Heidi Young of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation
Afternoon Session One: Design Faculty Courtney Spearman, then Mayor Mike Pavey and the Rushville delegation
Afternoon Session Two: Design Faculty David Dowell, then Mayor Dan Ridenour and the Muncie delegation
The Prove It Summit launches the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership, led by Civic Design Institute with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Arts Commission.
Design Faculty
Gerardo Garcia
Chicago, Illinois
Gerardo Garcia is a licensed architect and urban designer who leads The Urbanism Bureau, a Chicago planning, urban design, and development advisory practice built on the premise that design excellence is for all. He led Chicago's planning and urban design initiatives in city government with an emphasis on public-interest design work that supported more than $14 billion in economic development through community engagement and design excellence. He received the Chicago Mayor's Medal of Honor for INVEST South/West, the APA Illinois Strategic Plan Award for the Soul City Corridor framework, and was named to Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40.
Design Faculty
David Dowell
Manhattan, Kansas
David Dowell is Professor of Practice at Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design and a former partner at El Dorado, the integrated architecture, urban design, curatorial, education, and fabrication practice in Kansas City. He brings more than thirty years of practice working with small towns and rural communities, spanning from Volland and Matfield Green, both in Kansas, and from Hardeman County, Tennessee, to Wabaunsee County, Kansas. He has taught graduate studios at the Technische Universität Dresden, the University of Kansas, Washington University in St. Louis, and Kansas State University, where he founded the Design+Make Studio in 2011. His teaching and practice share one premise: architects must fully engage the craft of building for the work to carry meaning.
Design Faculty
Eric Lucas
Indianapolis, Indiana
Eric Lucas is CEO and Principal of MKSK, a planning, urban design, and landscape architecture practice with studios across the Midwest and South. A landscape architect by training and raised in Indiana, he has directed landscape and planning projects in more than twenty states and on three continents over thirty years. Since returning to the Midwest in 2007 after a decade on the East Coast, he has concentrated on revitalizing communities through public space design, walkable urbanism, and strategic reinvestment, working closely with residents, institutions, and public-private partners. He champions MKSK's Community Impact Studio, which provides pro bono design services to under-resourced communities.
Design Faculty
Jamie Simone
Chicago, Illinois
Jamie Simone is Chicago and Illinois Program Director for Trust for Public Land, the national nonprofit that creates parks and protects land for people. She played a central role in delivering The 606, the elevated park and 2.7-mile Bloomingdale Trail built on a former Chicago rail line that opened in 2015, and has led TPL's Chicago work on neighborhood parks and on parks that manage stormwater. Before joining TPL she worked in urban design at Farr Associates and as program manager for the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. She holds a master's in urban policy and planning from the University of Illinois Chicago and an undergraduate degree in social work.
Design Faculty
Courtney Spearman
Washington, D.C.
Courtney Spearman is program manager for Building Common Ground: Fieldwork, a new national program giving rural and Tribal cultural organizations customized design and project development support, after more than a decade representing the design field at the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work brings a multidisciplinary approach to rural revitalization, collaborating across arts and design nonprofits, landscape architecture firms, and community organizations. Spearman earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Arts in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Art History from Rice University.
Representatives from all fifteen of Indiana's READI regions are invited to participate in the Prove It Summit and learn alongside the five cities. Civic Design Institute will publish the outcomes and share them widely.
Columbus South Central
Michigan City Northwest
Muncie East Central
Rushville Accelerate Rural Indiana
Terre Haute Wabash River
What We Learned and What Comes Next
Saturday, October 10, at The Commons
The final morning begins at Ellipsis, the Exhibit Columbus installation by AD—WO on Fifth Street, before returning to The Commons for breakfast with Eric Ashby of the Indiana Arts Commission and remarks from partner organizations.
The morning looks back at ten years of Exhibit Columbus and ahead to the civic questions shaping its next cycle, with conversations alongside the design faculty, resource presentations, and a closing session with Trinity Simons Wagner of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design.
The Prove It Summit concludes at midday, with an optional lunch at Luciana’s Mexican Restaurant at The Commons.
→ Attendance is by invitation only
Interested in participating in the Summit? Reach out to Beth Hughes, Director of Civic Connections.
Ellipsis by AD—WO was created for the 2024–25 Exhibit Columbus cycle, Yes And, as a J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize installation. Located on the former Irwin Block site, the project transforms a vacant downtown lot into a gathering space while exploring omitted Black and Indigenous histories.
Resource Presenter
Bridget Anderson
Bloomington, Indiana
Bridget Anderson is Indiana Director at Patronicity, the civic crowdfunding platform that pairs community donations with matching grants for placemaking projects in cities and towns across the country. Since joining in 2018 she has led CreatINg Places, Indiana's crowdgranting program with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and supported programs that stabilize small businesses. She brings more than six years with statewide and national nonprofits and six years serving elected officials, and holds a degree in political science from Indiana University.
Partner
Eric Ashby
Indianapolis, Indiana
Eric Ashby is Director of Programs at the Indiana Arts Commission, where he sets the strategic direction of the agency's programs, grants, and services and works to make the arts relevant and accessible across Indiana, with particular attention to rural communities. He holds a bachelor's degree in arts management, a Master of Public Affairs, and a master's in arts administration, all from Indiana University, and supported development of the Community Arts and Culture Guide with IU's Center for Rural Engagement. The Indiana Arts Commission is a partner in the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership.
Resource Presenter
Brian Blackford
Indianapolis, Indiana
Brian Blackford has served as Executive Director of the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University's Miller College of Business since 2014. Based in Indianapolis, he works with Indiana communities on community engagement, civic design, arts and culture development, tourism, and action-based planning. His earlier roles include Indiana Landmarks, the Indiana Office of Tourism Development, and the Indiana State Fair Commission. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Ball State and has taught heritage tourism at IUPUI.
Resource Presenter
Polina Osherov
Indianapolis, Indiana
Polina Osherov co-founded PATTERN in 2010 and leads the Indianapolis nonprofit that publishes PATTERN magazine, produces the annual Indiana Creative Economy Summit, and researches the creative economy across the state. A commercial photographer and creative entrepreneur, she edited the magazine for twelve years and has become one of Indiana's most visible advocates for creative work as economic strategy.
Resource Presenter
Jon Racek
Bloomington, Indiana
Jon Racek is a multidisciplinary designer and teaching professor at the Indiana University Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, where he directs the Comprehensive Design program and ServeDesign Center. His work spans architecture, landscape, and industrial design, with a focus on human-centered design, placemaking, public space, and social impact. Racek co-leads the Rural Placemaking Studio, which brings IU faculty and students together with rural Indiana communities to develop public art, wayfinding, parks, gathering spaces, and other community-driven design projects.
Resource Presenter
Trinity Simons Wagner
Washington, D.C.
Trinity Simons Wagner has served as Executive Director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design since 2012. MICD, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, has since 1986 taught mayors to act as the chief urban designers of their cities. In her tenure she has worked directly with more than five hundred mayors and led more than seventy-five Institute sessions connecting mayors with design leaders on their cities' most pressing planning and design challenges. She holds a Master in City Planning from MIT.
Resource Presenter
Nicole Vasconi
Bloomington, Indiana
Nicole Vasconi is Quality of Place Liaison at the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, where she works with communities to develop sustainable strategies for growth that build on local arts, culture, history, and quality of place. With a background in the arts, nonprofit, and higher education sectors, she focuses on community-led placemaking and cultural development. Vasconi co-leads the Rural Placemaking Studio, connecting rural Indiana communities with IU faculty and students to identify local assets and translate community ideas into actionable design projects.
Partner
Heidi Young
Indianapolis, Indiana
Heidi Young represents the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the state's lead economic development agency and a partner in the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership. Her work at IEDC centers on regional development and redevelopment, including the READI program that is driving Indiana's investment in quality of place.
Civic Design Institute
Prove It: A National Summit on Design Excellence as Civic Practice launches the Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership in Columbus, led by the Civic Design Institute. → Learn more about the Prove It Summit.
Partners
The Indiana Quality of Place Learning Partnership is led by Civic Design Institute in partnership with the State of Indiana through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Arts Commission. → Learn more about the Learning Partnership.
Support
The Prove It Summit Keynote, a free public event, is produced with support from Visit Columbus, Indiana and the City of Columbus. → Register for free for the Prove It Summit Keynote.
What the Prove It Summit will produce
Three days of work leave three things behind.
A first draft of the indicators. The five cities and the design faculty test ways of measuring quality of place against real projects rather than arguing them in the abstract. We will publish a summary memo shortly after the Summit, followed by a draft framework and starter set of indicators in November 2026.
A record of five active projects. Each delegation presents one project with its actual constraints and trade-offs. We document the discussion, including what the room could not resolve.
A starting point for the rest of Indiana. Representatives from all fifteen READI regions are invited, so what the five cities learn is available statewide.