Growing up in Denver, Hannah Mae Merten watched her hometown boom and redefine itself, for better and worse. Wanting to better understand how cities transform, Hannah Mae moved to Detroit to join a team leading catalytic investments in Detroit at a scale that the New York Times has called "one of the most ambitious privately financed urban reclamation projects in American history.” Hannah Mae’s career has been focused on driving equitable economic opportunity using the tools of real estate development, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy, and in 2020 she was recognized for her leadership as one of Crain’s Detroit Twenty in their Twenties. Working alongside public and private sector leaders, she observed that the most capable “citybuilders” are those who can lead across varied disciplines such as policy, business, land use, community, and more. In the spirit of advancing her cross-disciplinary urban leadership, Hannah Mae is pursuing a joint MPP and MBA at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, where her interests include economic opportunity, climate, urban development, and land use.