Thea Crum, Senior Fellow

UIC Great Cities Institute | Chicago, United States

Thea is lead editor of the participatory budgeting content of the Participation Playbook and a member of the Global Participatory Budgeting Practitioner Board.

An associate director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute of the University of Illinois-Chicago, Thea designs programs, raises funds, leads projects and coordinates with community partners. Leader of the Participatory Budgeting Chicago Initiative since 2012, she has worked to implement and expand the practice with elected officials and in public schools.

Thea has over 15 years of experience in community development, capacity building and civic engagement. She regularly gives presentations, teaches graduate courses and publishes research  on participatory budgeting (PB) and community development. In 2016, she presented at the Second White House convening on PB in the United States. She co-authored “Youth Citizenship in Action: Evaluation of PB in Schools Pilot” (2018), “Democratizing Tax Increment Financing Funds through PB” (2016) and “The Civics of Community Development: PB in Chicago” (2015), among other reports. She is a member of the North American Participatory Budgeting Research Board (2014-present) and holds a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois-Chicago.