meet the Team

We're a small core team, but we pack a pretty big punch. One client calls us, "the little company that could" and we love it. In addition to the core of us, we work with a bunch of really great artists, designers, freelancers and other creative shops on a regular basis. You can read more about each of us, and see some of the folks we partner with, below.

MEREDITH POWELL
FOUNDER + CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Fascinated by the rapid urbanization of our cities and its effect on the human experience, Meredith has spent her career working to enhance cultural and economic vibrancy through integrating art and creativity in the urban environment. Driven by her passion for people, places and the community fabric connecting them, Meredith's work focuses on human-centered, solutions-based strategies, programs and experiences that enhance quality of place and the human connection to it.

Before co-founding Public City, Meredith led Art Alliance Austin for nearly a decade launching award-winning programs and initiatives, including large-scale multi-site cultural events, temporary public art and design projects, and consulting on culture-led economic and community development strategies.

As an artistic director, Meredith has collaborated with and commissioned acclaimed Austin-based and international curators, artists, and designers, earning numerous awards and recognition for artistic excellence including multiple projects selected for the American Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Austin Chronicle’s Best Public Art, AIA Design Awards Special Recognition and the Austin Critics Table Best Independent Project. Her work has been featured on the cover of Urban Land Magazine, Austin American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle and she’s received impact awards from the City of Austin and the Downtown Austin Alliance.

Starting her career at Visit Austin, she's rooted in a deep understanding of the direct relationship between a vibrant creative economy and quality of place. Powell is a graduate of the University of Texas Moody College of Communications and Leadership Austin. She serves on multiple boards including Community Powered Workshop (formerly Austin Community Design and Development Center), CNU-CTX, Evolve Austin and is on the curatorial team for Pecha Kucha Night Austin.

Born in Galveston, TX (a proud BOI!) and raised never too far from the Gulf Coast (Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Houston), Powell moved to Austin in 1995. A lover of Gulf Coast grit and Hill Country charm, Powell spends free time with her family in Galveston (5 generations!), at Bull Creek in Austin with her dog Charlie, and traveling the country and world experiencing great art and running iconic bridges whenever possible. She’s always excited about what’s next for Public City, the communities it impacts and the incredible city she calls home.

MELISSA WOLF
DIRECTOR

Melissa has a professional background across varied industries that have all come together to make her an experienced organizer/bossy pants. After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in advertising, she began work as a catering director facilitating both large and small events in and around the Austin area.

Following that, she worked as an account executive for a local television station utilizing her advertising skills and eventually connecting with her next path of managing a small, startup medical practice. Subsequently, combining her newly acquired medical knowledge with her management skills, she moved into the non-profit health sector working for both the LIVESTRONG Foundation and The United Way for Greater Austin in management roles within the Navigation Departments.

As Operations Director, her goal with Public City is to make the day to day business run smoothly for both the team and our clients.

Megan Weiler
Public Art Strategy Director + Project Administration

Megan Weiler has been an active leader in cultural administration, public policy, and the creative economy at the local, state, and national levels for over 20 years. Her passion is in connecting people to places in a meaningful and authentic way and reducing geographic, demographic, and wealth barriers through a racial equity lens that improves the cultural, social, and economic lives of every individual.

She led the creation of the first cultural office for the City of Kansas City, MO, leveraging public/private partnerships to activate the arts as a strategy for economic and community development and neighborhood revitalization. She worked with Bloomberg What Works Cities to build cultural tourism strategies and boost organizational capacities, produced the City’s inaugural Open Spaces triennial, established two micro-loan programs for artists; and pioneered the City’s first Film Incentive Program to increase local creative jobs in film production.

As Cultural Arts Division Manager for the City of Austin, TX, Economic Development Department, she led an inclusive process in the City’s first cultural tourism plan, launched the cultural expansion program in grantmaking, and was the first to pilot Artist Inc., a business development seminar for artists, in Texas. She was the City’s lead in bringing the Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child initiative with MINDPOP that continues to bring equity of arts learning to every child.

She began her career in public art, overseeing a $1 million annual public art program and devising a funding strategy for the City’s public art collection. She introduced innovative engagement strategies for Austin’s largest public art project, Sunflowers, A Garden of Energy to align with the goals of Mueller, a mixed-use redevelopment of a former 700-acre airport; negotiated 100% of the project budget for design and construction of the Seaholm power substation wall as a public art project, and implemented the first streetscape projects along the 2 nd Street Corridor.

Ms. Weiler holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Art History, and a Master of Arts in arts education, from the University of Texas at Austin.

She will soon complete a post-graduate certification in Methods and Statistics in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam.