Heidi Schmalbach is a Ph.D. candidate in urban studies: city, culture, and community at Tulane University and executive advisor to the Arts Council New Orleans, where she previously served as executive director. She has over thirteen years of experience imagining and implementing projects at the intersection of the arts, urban planning, and community development. In her current role, she advises the Arts Council's executive team and board on programmatic development, fundraising, advocacy and policy initiatives. Her academic research focuses on arts-based community development, arts policy, spatial justice and land use, and emergent social imaginaries. Heidi has worked in a diversity of contexts and communities, from New Orleans and Austin, to rural Texas and Southern Appalachia. She holds a master's degree in community and regional planning from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture.