National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership hosts annual meeting in Charlotte

October 21, 2025
Categories: Asha Ellison, General News
A group of women standing in from of a conference stage smiling.

By Asha Ellison

More than 100 community-minded data nerds gathered at the Grand Bohemian Charlotte on September 10 for the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) annual meeting. The network, composed of more than 30 local organizations in 31 U.S. cities, convenes once a year to mix, mingle, and share data insights and strategies to improve the quality of life for people across the nation. The three-day September event was hosted by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute (Institute), the City of Charlotte, and Mecklenburg County. Collectively, the trio represents Charlotte in the network as a member of the NNIP through its collaboration to provide the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer. This year’s meeting was particularly special because Institute staff had the opportunity to share the beauty, history, culture – and challenges – of the Queen City while learning and having fun along the way.

Those attending the event were able to participate in or observe engaging showcases, presentations, powerful panel discussions, and small group sessions that covered a range of topics, including the challenges and successes of local data use, governance. 

Notable highlights from the event included:

  • The rich panel discussion on Charlotte’s economic mobility journey, led by Lori Thomas of the Charlotte Urban Institute, Sherri Chisholm and Tonya Jameson, both of Leading on Opportunity, and Laura Yates Clark, of the Foundation for the Carolinas;
  • A rapid-paced visual storytelling presentation where Asha Ellison, Liz Morrell and Sydney Idzikowski, all of the Charlotte Urban Institute + Regional Data Trust shared fun cultural and historical tidbits about the Queen City, next to applied resource insights from attendees representing the Cape Fear Collective, University of Southern California, and Jake Cowans Consulting;
  • An important plenary panel on climate change and housing featuring panelists from the University of Southern California, The Data Center, and Katherine Idziorek, community-engaged faculty researcher and leader of the Charlotte Heat Mappers at UNC Charlotte;
  • Timely panel discussions that explored how to navigate the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in datawork, strategies to build community data capacity (featuring Alicia Dahl, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Health at UNC Charlotte) and Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (featuring their director of training and technical assistance and former Charlotte Regional Data Trust director, Amy Hawn Nelson).

The Institute, City and County were proud to host an opening reception at the Mint Museum Uptown on the first night of the event, as well as lead attendees on second-day tours of the city that included:

  • An uptown mural tour led by Tim Miner and Makayla Binter of Charlotte is Creative. During this walking tour, participants discovered the stories behind some of the city’s most striking Center-City murals.
  • The Charlotte Trail of History greenway tour led by Brandon Lunsford and John Howard of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. This tour invited participants to step into the past and explore the stories of the visionaries who shaped Mecklenburg County, while strolling along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway.
  • The “What’s in the Ground?” bus tour led by Annetta Board of the Community Building Initiative and local historian, Dr. Tom Hanchett. This tour offered a unique, engaging and interactive experience designed to bring the history of Charlotte to life. Participants viewed the city’s neighborhoods, uncovering the stories embedded in the landscape that continue to shape Charlotte’s present-day realities and future possibilities. 
  • And the Our Trespasses & Charlotte’s Haunted Future tour led by author and community organizer Greg Jarrell. This walking tour allowed participants to explore uptown Charlotte in search of stories of “exclusions and invisibilities,” also known as ghost stories. Participants looked for the untold and disappeared stories of Charlotte’s built environment that determine the city’s future.

Institute staff were excited to attend the NNIP annual meeting and shared some of their key takeaways:

“My favorite session was either the AI or Dashboard camp session,” said Liz Morrell, director of public policy research. “The unstructured agenda and open-sharing approach was great because it really allowed the ideas to flow. I also got some great ideas for ethical use of large language models (LLMs) and taking dashboards to the community.”

“The climate and housing session taught me that, with more extreme heat days, who has access to air conditioning is a high-priority data need, and also the importance of measuring processes regularly during disaster recovery so people can see progress, even if it’s small,” said Sydney Idzikowski, associate director of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust.

“What I always take away from NNIP’s annual meeting is a new lesson on how to collaborate effectively,” said Lori Thomas, executive director of the Charlotte Urban Institute + Regional Data Trust. “I appreciate the network’s willingness to share insights – from useful code to lessons learned from projects or processes that were less than successful –  as well as tackle questions. There is always something to bring home and I was really pleased that more of our staff and faculty were able to participate this year.” 

We look forward to joining our partners next year to continue the work of catalyzing better neighborhoods – and a futures – for all.

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