The Westside Communities Alliance is a network of academic and community partners working collaboratively to tackle local challenges in NPU’s K, L, and T through research, education, and community engagement.
The Alliance is a model for critical engagement of multiple stakeholders connecting various sets of expertise in addressing community needs and aspirations and in developing sustainable vibrant urban communities.
Jacqueline Jones Royster, Executive Director and dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, chairs the Executive Leadership Team comprised of the College of Design and the Office of Government and Community Relations, with sponsorship from the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Haywood Solomon, a Georgia Tech and Booker T. Washington High School alumnus, serves as the board chair for the WCA Campus-Community Advisory Board.
The Alliance draws inspiration from a 1967 speech, “The Other America”, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. states:
“It’s much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee a livable income and a good solid job. It’s much easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in sanitary, decent housing conditions. It is much easier to integrate a public park than it is to make genuine, quality, integrated education a reality. And so today we are struggling for something which says we demand genuine equality.”
Who We Are
Our Staff
Sheri Davis-Faulkner PhD.
DirectorA native Atlantan, Davis-Faulkner completed her doctorate in American Studies at Emory University. She also holds a M.A. in Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science from Spelman College. She has experience working in national and international arenas for social change.
Mackenzie Madden
Associate DirectorMadden received her Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013, and her Bachelor of Arts in Advertising from the University of Georgia in 2010. She has experience working in public relations, public health, event planning, and business sales.
Katie O’Connell
Project Manager, Data DashboardA twenty year resident of Atlanta, O’Connell received her Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Economics and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology and Spanish from the University of Georgia.
Our Board Members
Georgia Tech Representatives
Christopher Burke
Director of Community Relations
Dr. Lizanne Destefano
Executive Director of CEISMC
Michael Dobbins
Professor of Practice, School of City and Regional Planning
Dr. Steven French
Dean of College of Design
Dr. Christian Braneon
Assistant Director, Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain
Dr. Greg Nobles
Professor Emeritus, School of History and Sociology
Sarah Perkins
Assistant Director of Civic Engagement
Campus Partners
Jilo Tisdale
Director of Bonner Office of Community Service and Student Development, Spelman College
Dr. Brian Williams
Director of Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, Georgia State University
Community Partners
Maria Armstrong
Raising Expectations
Tracy Bates
Historic Westside Cultural Arts Council
Cicely Garrett
Atlanta Community Food Bank
Christi Jackson
Conservancy at Historic Washington Park
Charles Moore
HEALing Community Center
Mother Mamie Moore
English Avenue Neighborhood Association
Sister Precious Muhammad
Hagar CTM
Na’Taki Osborne Jelks
West Atlanta Watershed Alliance
Deborah Scott
Georgia STAND-UP
Drewnell Thomas
Historic Westin Heights/Bankhead Neighborhood Association
Tony Torrence
Proctor Creek Stewardship Council
What We Do
Download the WCA Timeline in PDF or View the Interactive Timeline
