Asma Ali is a third year Ph.D. student within the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs , with a concentration in community development. Asma is particularly interested in methods and issues related to community participation. Before coming to UIC, she worked for several non-profit/ university research groups as well as in the field of philanthropy in the Chicago are for several years. She has a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Urban Sociology. With UICNI, she is continuing work on the Pilsen Community Futures project (funded by the Ford Foundation ). As part of this project, she is working on documenting housing conditions and TIF/SSA business district analysis in Pilsen and planning and implementing the second year of the Yollocalli/Placeworx project.