Kauser Razvi

Kauser Razvi is the founder of Literary Lots, a Cleveland project that brings children's books to life in vacant spaces, and works at College Now Greater Cleveland, the college access nonprofit. Raised in the Chicago suburbs and educated in Boston, she has been a city dweller ever since, and her love of cities and their complex problems led her to study sociology, journalism and urban planning.

She has spent her career untangling complicated systems, processes and projects in the public and nonprofit sectors, and speaks Spanish and Urdu as well as "bureaucracy." She developed the City of Chicago's first enterprise geographic information system, working with all 42 city departments, and led a three-year effort to improve Chicago's out-of-school-time programs. In Cleveland she has worked with the Cleveland Municipal School District on operations, supported the Cleveland Transformation Alliance, and was director of community and developer relations at DigitalC, a nonprofit using technology for community impact.

Literary Lots grew from the idea of "walking into a book," using the space and power of story to bring a community together to read and create.