Dr. Ceasar McDowell is past President of the Interaction Institute for Social Change. In addition, he is also Professor of the Practice of Community Development at MIT where his focus is on building the capacity of people and organizations to use reflection to “know what they know.” His current work is on citizen engagement and democracy in the emerging intelligent city, wherein he is pioneering civic engagement tools that bring people at the margins of society into the center of framing a public agenda. Ceasar holds an Ed.D. and M.Ed. from Harvard. In addition to the areas mentioned, his research and teaching interests include the use of mass media and technology in promoting democracy and community-building, and the development and use of empathy in community work, civil rights history, peacemaking and conflict resolution. Ceasar is also founder of MIT’s Co-Lab (previously named Center for Reflective Community Practice) and co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum on Telecommunications Policy. He is a founding board member of The Algebra Project, and also serves on the boards of Center for Neighborhood Technology, Cambridge Community Television, the Full Frame Initiative, and MassImpact.