About the symposium

The annual Imagining Community Symposium brings together community members, nonprofit organizations, university faculty, staff and students to engage in robust dialogue, presentations, artistic representations and workshops around an annual topic that is identified by community members as in need of engagement. 

Each year, the Imagining Community Symposium draws over 500 attendees and features over 80 presenters. The symposium has featured nationally recognized speakers, such as Dr. Lawrence Brown, author of The Black Butterfly and director of the Center for Urban Health Equity at Morgan State University, and Dr. Tim Thomas, director of the Urban Displacement Project at University of California, Berkeley. The symposium has also featured early career faculty who are doing impactful work and who are rising to national prominence, such as Dr. Aaliyah Baker at the University of Dayton in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Dr. ShaDawn Battler at Xavier University in the Race, Intersectionality, Gender, Sexuality and Sociology Department.

Importantly, the Imagining Community Symposium has built a reputation for highlighting regional community and nonprofit experts by strategically forming panels and roundtables to move forward shared goals in vital topics. These panels have resulted in significant outcomes, such as the Health Equity Activation Think Tank that is working to impact Black infant and maternal mortality, and housing coalitions around home environmental toxins and tenants’ rights. 

The 2025 Imagining Community Symposium's theme is creating brave spaces for civic engagement and will be held April 3-4, 2025, at the Arcade Innovation Hub in downtown Dayton. the 2025 Symposium is being sponsored by all of the regional universities, including the University of Dayton, Sinclair, Wright State, Central State and Wilberforce. Additionally, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation is co-sponsoring the Symposium.