Nell Bang-Jensen '11

Nell has served as the CEO & Producing Director of FringeArts since September 2024, and has been a participating artist in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival for over fifteen years.  She is a nationally-recognized arts leader and Theater Director, whose career has included leadership roles at Pig Iron Theatre Company, and the Wilma Theater, among others.  Previously, as Executive Artistic Director of Theatre Horizon, Nell’s community-centered approach, theater directing, and creative risk-taking have been spotlighted by The New York Times, American Theatre Magazine, and The Kelly Clarkson Show, among others. Her honors include fellowships from the Theatre Communications Group, the Drama League, and Watson. Nell is especially interested in how arts organizations can move in better alignment with community-held values and how theater can be a tool for civic engagement. She lives in the Mt Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, with her husband and two young daughters. 

Patrick Christmas '08

Pat Christmas joined the Parker Administration in January 2024 as a deputy in the Office of Policy Planning and Delivery, a unit charged with advancing the Mayor’s top priorities by facilitating the implementation of key initiatives and by improving city services.

Prior to entering government, Pat served as a policy advisor with the 2023 Parker Transition Team and for 10 years as the policy director for the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan civic organization that advocates for representative, ethical and effective government. During his time at Seventy, Pat developed the Democracy Agenda for Philadelphia and led efforts around redistricting and election reform in Pennsylvania.

Pat began his career as a science teacher at Fels High School in Northeast Philadelphia from 2008 to 2013 after having studied biology and education at Swarthmore. His core motivation is still to create better opportunities for every student to chart their own course. 

James Johnson-Piett '03

As founding Principal and CEO of Urbane Development, James Johnson-Piett is an evangelist for a new kind of community development that emphasizes community anchor businesses and institutions as agents of change — catalyzing responsible innovation, economic mobility, and shared ownership.

With over two decades of experience in various facets of economic and community development, James is responsible for the overall management, operations, and strategic vision for Urbane, which works with historically disinvested communities through an integrated approach that includes research, consulting, and place-based investing. James has worked in 100+ communities across North America and the Caribbean, with over 1,500 small businesses, representing over 1.5 million square feet of commercial and community facility space. James has marshaled over $225 million for small business and asset building initiatives with the goal of promoting community wealth generation. During his tenure, Urbane has co-developed over $800M in mixed-use, impact real estate, including over 2000 units of affordable housing.

James spearheads Urbane’s signature community wealth building initiatives, including the establishment of Brick and Bond, Urbane's capital management platform that marshals institutional and community capital to neighborhood assets; and the Urbane CARE Fund, a pilot Community Investment Vehicle and Neighborhood REIT — which is a member of the Boston Impact Initiative’s Emerging Fund Manager Cohort, a national network of emerging fund managers working to develop blended capital, place-based investment vehicles explicitly focused on racial and economic justice. James is also the chief organizer of the Centers of Excellence Federation, which is a collective of social impact and systems change organizations in 10 cities in the US building a collective investment model centered around neighborhood innovation hub and district development in Black diaspora communities.

Within Urbane's mixed-use development portfolio James led the redevelopment Flatbush Central, the preservation of a historic Caribbean multi-vendor marketplace as part of a $134M new construction 14-story mixed-use development featuring 255 units of affordable housing. The project successfully transitioned 29 of the original legacy vendors to the new facility, as well as established new culinary, body care, and design/textile production labs in partnership with Mangrove FC's non-profit business incubator, along with a Caribbean themed food hall.

In addition, James catalyzed the creation of a neighborhood-based market intelligence practice — piloted in low- and moderate-income communities in Brooklyn — focused on Alternative Credit and Credit Proxies, Neighborhood Financial Health Impact Metrics, Micro-Entrepreneurship, and Criminal Justice Fines/Fees research and insights. James and his team have provided feasibility and market intelligence for light manufacturing-, arts/culture anchored-, and mixed- use real estate concepts for government, non-profit, for-profit economic development and real estate development clients across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. 

Earlier in his tenure at Urbane, James designed the Green Grocer Project, a $55M revolving loan fund and comprehensive technical assistance program accelerating grocery development in Detroit; the program attracted the first chain supermarkets — Whole Foods and Meijer — to Detroit in over 15 years, and was awarded the Bronze Star Award from the International Economic Development Council as one of the top economic development programs in the US in 2015.

Currently, James serves as board chairman of Mangrove Community Wealth, Inc., a newly formed non-profit organization seeking to advance community wealth building through field building and prototyping best practices from across the globe. He is currently a board director of The Merchants Fund in Philadelphia, The Criterion Institute based in Connecticut, and the National Conference on Citizenship based in Washington, D.C.

James was named one of the Notable Leaders in Real Estate by Crain's New York in 2022, an Aspen Ideas Festival Fellow in 2019, 40 under 40 Rising Star by Hunter College Food Policy Center in 2017, one of the 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture by Brooklyn Magazine in Spring 2016, and recipient of the 2016 Reginald Butts Social Responsibility Award at the Brooklyn Honors sponsored by the YMCA. James is an alumnus of Swarthmore College and MIT’s Center for Real Estate, Professional Development Institute.

Jane Grabias '94

Jane Grabias is a civic leader with 20+ years’ experience in nonprofit leadership and social impact. Her expertise encompasses strategy and program development, fundraising and partnerships, and external affairs. She currently serves as Director of Program Development at Philadelphia250, a program of the Philadelphia Visitor Center, to help execute a partnership with the City of Philadelphia that ensured that the celebrations of 2026 spilled out into every neighborhood of Philadelphia. Previously, Jane served as Director of Corporate Partnerships at United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, leading a team that generated nearly $11 million annually through corporate grants, campaigns, and individual giving. Her career also includes leadership roles at Eisenhower Fellowships and the National Strategy Information Center, where she designed and managed programs focused on international exchange, civic engagement, and justice reform. Jane holds an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from Swarthmore College. She serves on the board of the League of Women Voters of Philadelphia and the One Book One Philadelphia Selection Committee.