Ceasar L. McDowell is a Professor of the Practice of Civic Design at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He is also Associate Director of Civic Design at the Center for Constructive Communication. His current work is on the design of civic infrastructures and processes to connect the increasingly demographically complex public. He co-hosts the WeWhoEngage a podcast series on civic design.

At DUSP, serves as Associate Department Head and teaches on civic and community engagement and the use of social media to enhance both. Ceasar brings his deep commitment to the work of building beloved, just and equitable communities that are able to – as his friend Carl Moore says – ”struggle with traditions that bind and the interests that separate in order to build a future that is an equitable improvement on the past.”

Ceasar is the founder of MIT’s CoLab and Civic Designers consulting. He served as Director of the global civic engagement organization Dropping Knowledge International, President of Interaction Institute for Social Change, co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum on Telecommunications Policy, and founding Board member of The Algebra Project. Ceasar is also a musician, and filmmaker.