Lonni Tanner

Full time 2007-2008

Photo by Doug Cogger

Lonni Tanner consults for nonprofits, using design to draw public attention to the squalid conditions of inner-city poor families and to energize donors to contribute stunning amounts of cash and in-kind. For 11 years, she served as Director of Special Projects for the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City, where she amassed donations of more than $50 million in cash, goods and services on behalf of innovative poverty-fighting projects.   She convinced some of the nation’s leading architects to design 31 award-winning libraries in public elementary schools. She re-imagined the design of soup kitchens, science labs, childcare centers and playgrounds.  She found innovative ways to affordably furnish apartments for formerly homeless families and inspired the use of “emergency culture vehicles” to break the monotony of gloom among refugees living in trailer camps in the aftermath of Katrina.  As a fellow, Lonni will study design, urban planning and real-estate development, in the service of future projects.