Mpls Downtown Improvement District

Lisa Middag is an urban planner who collaborates with communities to support sustainable, vibrant, and walkable public spaces through creative placemaking and community development. Lisa works for the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District as Director of Nicollet Activation, where she is responsible for developing, directing and implementing an activation framework along the city’s historic pedestrian/transit mall, assuring an inclusive range of cultural experiences for daily users and visitors. She previously worked for Hennepin County Community Works, leading an effort to connect the Midtown Greenway bicycle trail to nearby cultural and commercial destinations through wayfinding and placemaking. She recently served as Treasurer for Springboard for the Arts, is a member of PPS’ placemaking leadership council, is Vice Chair of the Minneapolis arts commission, and is a Creative Community Leadership Institute fellow. She has an M.P.A. in urban and regional planning from the Humphrey School and spent 10 years as the publications director and design studio manager at the Walker Art Center. Lisa, her photographer husband Tony and their two cats (Ziggy and Max) live in a small but sweet 1915 bungalow in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. They enjoy gardening (food and flowers), long walks and the arts (movies, books and original music played by bands in bars). In her previous life, Lisa was a production accountant for film companies (11 feature films—most of them bad ;-).