Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch joined the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in April, 2022, following over a decade of experience transforming government agencies to work more efficiently and effectively for New Yorkers. As Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology at the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Tisch led the department into the 21st century — modernizing systems to strengthen public safety and improve communications.

She also served as Commissioner for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), where she launched the modernization of the City’s information technology infrastructure and managed critical COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

As DSNY Commissioner, Tisch has prioritized street cleanliness, helping our City recover from the worst of the pandemic. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School, and is a lifelong New Yorker.

Claire Weisz, FAIA, RAIC, Hon FASLA, is the founding partner of WXY, the New York City-based architecture, urban design, and planning firm that is globally recognized for its community-centered approach. WXY acts at every scale: from the intimacy of an interior to the complexity of a city, from the scale of a conversation to the scale of a generation, with memorable structures such as SeaGlass at The Battery, the Spring Street Salt Shed and Sanitation Garage, and the Rockaway Boardwalk to precedent-setting planning and urban design work. Claire’s belief in the importance of public space and dialogue in creating a regenerative, equitable and inclusive world is the driving force behind everything WXY does.

Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown, 2018), Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (The Penguin Press, 2012), Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media (Metropolitan Books, 2007), and Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002), as well as the editor of Cultural Production in a Digital Age, co-editor of Antidemocracy in America (Columbia University Press, 2019), and co-author, with Aziz Ansari, of the New York Times #1 bestseller Modern Romance (The Penguin Press, 2015). His scholarly work has been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, and Ethnography, and he has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and This American Life.

Katie Honan is an award-winning reporter who has covered New York City for THE CITY since August 2021. Before joining THE CITY, she spent three years covering City Hall for The Wall Street Journal.

She previously covered neighborhoods in Queens for the late DNAinfo New York, breaking news locally and throughout New York City. She joined DNAinfo.com from WNBC/Channel 4, where she was the station’s first social media editor and also worked as a web editor at NBCNewYork.com. Before journalism she worked in film and television production, holding nearly every job with the word “assistant” in the title. Her first job out of college was at the “Late Show with David Letterman,” and she worked on movie and TV sets throughout the city.

She has a B.S. in film and television production from St. John’s University, and a master’s degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.