Partner Spotlight: Lisa Benjamin Recognized as Community Builder

Lisa Benjamin, partner at Lexicon Strategies

Text from Urban Land Institute's article, “Community Builders Profile: Lisa Benjamin”

As Atlanta speeds through one of the largest redevelopment cycles in its history, few figures can claim to have shaped more directly the way that growth translates into public value than Lisa Benjamin can. Now a partner at Lexicon Strategies, Benjamin (née Lisa Gordon) has spent more than two decades operating at the intersection of land use policy, infrastructure delivery, affordable housing, and large-scale redevelopment—helping to align public objectives with private investment citywide.

Her leadership has influenced some of Atlanta’s most consequential initiatives. As former vice president and chief operating officer of the Atlanta Beltline, former president and chief executive officer of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, and former chief operating officer for the city of Atlanta, Benjamin has worked across public, nonprofit, and private sectors to navigate how development serves communities, and hw it serves capital.

That experience looms large as Atlanta continues to attract new residents and investment at an unprecedented pace. Throughout the metropolitan region, formerly industrial corridors are being reshaped into mixed-use districts with housing, retail, and trail networks. In downtown Atlanta alone, more than $8 billion in public and private investment is planned—intensifying long-standing questions about who benefits from growth and how public priorities are reflected in the built environment.

“The built environment is a people conversation—people want to live, work, and thrive,” Benjamin says. “There are many things that separate us from each other, but we all have those shared goals in common.”