Lyndon Valicenti Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Working with changemakers to amplify their power to drive systems change by shifting the conditions that hold the status quo in place. Serving the social impact sector with impact strategy and systemic design to realize greater equity, justice, resilience, and quality of life in our communities.

Chicago, Il

Built the capacity of partners to collaborate across sectors and drive systems change on complex challenges. Supported 8 regional collaboratives to better align, strategize, and act: including Elevated Chicago; Calumet Stormwater Collaborative; and Healing Our Waters.Leveraging systems thinking and people-centered design, I guided partners through strategic processes that understand root causes, align stakeholders, forge collaboration, and build capacity for implementing impactful interventions. Recent highlights include:+ In collaboration with coalition members, I researched and wrote Elevated Chicago's Community Engagement Principles & Recommendations, which went on to be adopted by the City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Engagement. + In collaboration with a cross-department internal team, I facilitated the strategy development for The Chicago Community Trust as they seek to bolster the social impact sector in closing the racial wealth gap. + In collaboration with the coalition's steering committee, I facilitated an inclusive strategic planning effort that leverages Healing Our Waters' past success for even greater impact over the next three years.+ Working with a Board of Directors sub-committee, I facilitated the Community Foundation of McHenry County's strategic pivot from charitable giving to transformative grantmaking in order to improve economic opportunity and capital building across the county.

Chicago, Il

Led the research, framing, and insight reporting of a 3-year, $6M grantmaking program on Cities, Information, and Governance. This program advanced the emerging field of urban science by funding New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, University of Chicago’s Urban Center for Computation and Data, and the MetroLab Network, among others.+ Built the initial framing and communication strategy to achieve Board approval.+ Conducted urban science and governance research identifying thought leaders and new approaches to improve planning, management, and governance of cities.+ As funding came to a close, reviewed key insights and lessons learned from grant portfolio revealing its timely and pivotal field-building importance.

Chicago, Il

Designed and instructed the Sustainability Leadership & Change Management course as part of the Leadership in Sustainability Management Certificate Program. The course syllabus covered the hard and soft skills required for leading transformative organizational change.

Chicago, Il

Built capacity of SOM’s urban designers — from Partners to Interns across 8 international offices — to better advocate for and integrate sustainability strategy into urban planning. Directly influenced 6 international city masterplans to be increasingly climate resilient, resource responsible, and resident centered.+ Led an inclusive co-creation process — with designers, engineers, and project managers, called High Performance Urban Design methodology — to embed measurable sustainability strategies into all urban design projects. This methodology was early inspiration for USGBC's LEED for Cities. + Led SOM’s organizational change initiative to integrate this methodology into design, organizational, and client decision-making processes.+ Conducted urban ecological research to set sustainability principles at each site.+ Engaged designers in continuing education on building climate resilient cities.

Chicago, Il

Managed planning, program, and policy initiatives that engaged diverse stakeholders and leveraged the best available science to improve quality of life for all Chicagoans. Advanced Mayor Daley’s agenda to be the greenest City in the nation, setting the bar internationally for progressive and innovative sustainability planning, programming, and policymaking.+ Was awarded $500K in federal grants to create an innovative residential program that transformed the market for rain barrels and compost bins.+ Authored the Chicago Urban Forest Agenda, to expand the region’s tree canopy and help meet greenhouse gas emissions target of Chicago Climate Action Plan.+ Led stakeholder engagement and policy research to inform the City’s efforts to promote and expand community gardens and commercial urban farming, leading to one of the nation's first urban agriculture zoning policy.+ Updated Chicago’s Invasive Species Ordinance to reduce the spread of invasive species in Chicago, and managed outreach and enforcement.

New York City, Ny

Organized 2 Global Roundtable on Climate Change meetings convening over 150 distinguished corporate, academic, and non-profit participants to build consensus on international climate policy that informed the Paris Climate Accord. Developed successful strategic plan for garnering 240 endorsements for the Roundtable's Joint Statement on a post-Kyoto framework, which was presented at the UNFCCC's Nairobi Climate Change Conference (COP12).

R/V Gould & Palmer Station

As part of the Antarctic Long Term Ecological Research, supervised 12-hour shift of Dr. R. Ross’s lab aboard the R/V L.M. Gould. Instructed and managed the successful collection of data on the community composition of plankton along the Antarctic Peninsula in effort to document changes associated with earlier ice melt in the spring.

Mpa, Environmental Science And Policy

Bs, Aquatic Biology