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Jocelyn Hare
Assistant Director, Harris Policy Labs - Urban Policy - Community Mapping - Strategy
Professional Background
Jocelyn Chou Hare is a dedicated and passionate professional currently serving as the Assistant Director of Harris Policy Labs at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. In this prominent role, she collaborates closely with students and clients to research, analyze, and implement effective urban policies aimed at benefiting local organizations and governmental institutions across various cities. Her commitment to improving urban environments is evident in her belief that the transformative potential of technology can empower communities that have traditionally been underserved by political and business ecosystems.
In her capacity at the Harris School, Jocelyn leverages new technologies and data analysis to drive significant projects that uplift cities. Her dynamic work has led to substantial funding opportunities for various initiatives in Gary, Indiana, including the demolition of vacant buildings, the establishment of ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen—a culinary arts incubator—and a pioneering building material reuse project known as Steel City Savage. These innovative efforts highlight her strategic approach to urban policy and her ability to create impactful changes for communities in need.
Jocelyn's experience extends beyond policy implementation; she has dedicated her career to advocating for social justice. Her passion for activism has fostered connections with colleagues who similarly strive for equity, working closely with youth, people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, workers, and other underrepresented groups. As a strong advocate for inclusive policies, Jocelyn remains committed to ensuring that these communities are prioritized in decision-making processes.
Throughout her career, Jocelyn has held several key positions. She is also a former board member of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance and currently contributes her expertise as a board member of Chicago’s Pride Action Tank. Through her various roles, Jocelyn emphasizes the importance of community involvement in shaping the future of urban areas. Her belief is that engaging community members in policy development is crucial for creating sustainable and equitable solutions.
Her deep engagement with local governance was further demonstrated during her run for Chicago’s City Council in 2015, where she developed a passion for politics and the intricate processes involved in civic engagement. This experience not only enriched her understanding of local politics but also paved the way for her continuous involvement in public policy advocacy.
Education and Achievements
Jocelyn's educational background is a testament to her commitment to understanding the complexities of urban policy. She holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the prestigious Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she focused on Urban Policy, Political Feasibility, Communications, and Policy Analysis. Her education provided her with a robust foundation for her career in public policy, enabling her to critically analyze issues facing urban environments and to propose data-driven solutions.
Before pursuing her Master's degree, Jocelyn earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology and Cinema Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her studies in sociology have undoubtedly enriched her understanding of societal structures and the importance of representing diverse voices in policy formulation. This knowledge continues to guide her work today as she strives to advance policies that reflect the needs and desires of various communities.
Notable Contributions
Jocelyn's career is marked by numerous achievements that speak to her skill in urban policy and her dedication to social justice. Notably, her work in securing funding for critical projects in Gary, Indiana, showcases her ability to navigate complex challenges and deliver tangible results. Her initiatives, such as the demolition of vacant buildings, not only rejuvenate neighborhoods but also create opportunities for economic growth and community development.
ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen stands out as a key achievement, representing a significant step in the culinary arts sector by providing resources, training, and support for aspiring chefs, particularly those from underrepresented communities. By fostering a space for culinary innovation, Jocelyn's efforts contribute to economic empowerment and enhance the cultural fabric of the city.
Additionally, the Steel City Savage project emphasizes sustainability and resourcefulness by focusing on the reuse of building materials. This pilot program not only addresses environmental concerns but also showcases innovative strategies for urban redevelopment, aligning with Jocelyn's vision for resilient and empowered communities.
In summary, Jocelyn Chou Hare exemplifies a modern policymaker dedicated to enhancing urban environments through technology, advocacy, and community engagement. Her educational background and professional journey have equipped her with the knowledge and experience necessary to tackle the challenges facing cities today. With her innovative strategies and commitment to equity, Jocelyn continues to inspire change within her community and beyond.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
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Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.