With an applied social and racial equity lens, Ishmael seeks to cultivate relationships and environments—physically, professionally, and interpersonally—for stakeholders with diverse backgrounds to connect and learn from one another. His work on Black-affirming and culturally responsive placemaking has been featured in workshops, panel discussions, and trainings for urbanist networks across the country. Ishmael specializes in facilitating large and intimate-scale community planning efforts that require strategic development, consensus building, placemaking, economic development, and citizen advocacy for government, nonprofits, and communities. He is on the Board of the International Downtown Association. Born in Colombia and raised in Canada, Ishmael is proud to call Seattle home and holds a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Washington.