Practice-Based Urbanist & Community Co-Design Specialist
RTPI Woman of Influence (2023 & 2025) 
 
I am a practice-based urbanist, educator, and researcher specialising in community co-design and participation within civic and academic contexts. My work bridges the gap between complex structural strategy and real human experience. I design systems, spaces, and collaborative methodologies that connect peoples’ stories and lived experiences to creating regenerative places for long-term community resilience.
 
Recognised as a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Woman of Influence in both 2023 and 2025, my practice is rooted in the belief that sustainable urban development must be built from the ground up. By integrating design thinking with inclusive participation, I transform how local authorities, planners, and people collaborate to build equitable environments. 
 
 
  • Community Co-Design & Participation: Facilitating deep, inclusive community engagement frameworks that ensure local voices shape regeneration policies and masterplans.
  • Systems Thinking for Social Prosperity: Mapping complex socioeconomic and physical variables to generate actionable, human-centered spatial strategies.
  • Academic & Civic Leadership: Delivering cross-disciplinary pedagogy and building research-led collaborations that align academic rigor with real-world municipal planning needs.
  • Strategic Placemaking Consultation: Working closely with local governments, built-environment professionals, and advocacy groups to implement progressive, community-led neighborhood frameworks.

Bio: Jennie Savage is a participatory researcher, community engagement specialist and creative practitioner with over 20 years’ experience working at the intersection of people, place and inclusive design.

Her work focuses on ensuring that communities play a meaningful role in shaping the places they live, work and care about. Through co-design, participatory research, storytelling and creative engagement methods, Jennie helps organisations understand lived experience and translate it into practical strategies, policies and design outcomes. Jennie has worked across local government, higher education, planning and regeneration, including with Westminster City Council, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Queen Mary University of London and Future of London. She led the development of Tower Hamlets’ Gender Inclusive Design evidence base and implementation strategy and has contributed to a range of projects focused on inclusive public spaces, retrofit, biodiversity and community-led regeneration.

Jennie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an RTPI Woman of Influence (2023 & 2025), and an Industry Fellow at Arts University Bournemouth.