Winners jury

Executive Director at 8 80 Cities Amanda O’Rourke is the Executive Director of 880 Cities, a non-profit organization with a mission to create healthy, equitable, and sustainable cities. She has over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector leading strategic planning, partnership development, and managing high impact teams. She has led diverse equitable mobility and public space projects in cities and towns in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Program Executive Director of WRI India Ross Center Madhav spearheads a large urbanization policy research and prototyping support program that informs key areas of India’s urban growth story. For the last two decades, Madhav has led, designed, and implemented urban programs and projects, across continents, in over a dozen countries.

Co-Founder of MACIA Studio Leticia is an architect and a play-researcher with a passion for public space, human behaviour and spatial justice. Her hybrid profile has led her to collaborate with international organisations and governments designing public spaces, urban strategies and public policy recommendations to position play and urban childhoods at the centre of cities’ transformation. MACIA Estudio’s project Tamaulipas was a winner in the first Real Play City Challenge.

Managing Director at Play Africa Rongedzayi is a children’s rights lawyer by training with over 10 years of progressive experience leading multi-country and multi-donor projects. He has a global outlook having previously worked with leading international and pan-African child rights organisations. Rongedzayi currently serves as an independent External Expert of the African Union's Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

Executive Director at Resilient Cities Network As Executive Director, Lauren oversees global efforts to strengthen cities in the face of the complex and interconnected challenges they face. Leading a team of professionals in London, Mexico City, New York, and Singapore in collaboration with Chief Resilience Officers in over 40 countries, she drove the co-design process to launch the Resilient Cities Network as an independent city-led network organization.

Independent scholar, consultant, writer Timis a global advocate for children’s outdoor play and mobility, and an independent scholar, writer and consultant based in London. He is the author of 'Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities' and 'No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society'. Tim is a Design Council Ambassador and Churchill Fellow, and former director of the Children’s Play Council (now Play England).

Member at the Refugee Education Council, Global Affairs  Nhial Deng is a 23-year-old South Sudanese refugee, writer, youth advocate, community activist and organizer. He spent 11 years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and now attends Huron University in Canada. As a youth leader and community activist in Kakuma, Nhial initiated a number of projects in the camp to help young people build better futures such as the Refugee Youth Peace Ambassadors and SheLeads Kakuma.

Vice-President and Chair of Learning through Play at the LEGO Foundation Bo Stjerne Thomsen is an expert on how children and adults learn through play, he provides consultation at a bilateral, regional and multilateral level to international partners and leaders. He represents the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Brand Group at international forums, and advises leadership teams across the LEGO entities, to attain the overall LEGO Brand Vision of becoming a global force for Learning Through Play.