Full Name
Zakcq Lockrem
Job Title
Partner
Company
Mend Collaborative
Speaker Bio
Zakcq Lockrem is a partner at Mend Collaborative, a design and planning firm that values the empowerment of communities to participate in decision-making about investments that impact
them and creates actionable plans that measurably improve a community’s quality of life and access to resources while improving environmental quality.

Zakcq comes from a family with a heritage of working in the building trades. After a winding career path, Zakcq discovered his interest in cities and found a university that offered a degree in planning within a college designed for non-traditional students. After receiving a BS in urban affairs from Boston University’s Metropolitan College at the age of 27, he attended Harvard University where he received a Masters in Urban Planning in 2010.

In his work, he loves the big picture, understanding how complex systems influence people’s lives, and how policy, programs, and physical projects can work together to sustain lasting impact in communities. He most enjoys working with low- and middle-income working-class communities like the one he grew up in as they navigate urban change, seek to build greater access to resources and opportunities for themselves and their children, and have more say in the changes that their community is experiencing.

Zakcq has served as an Adjunct Professor at Texas Southern University, the only Historically Black College or University with an accredited planning program. Zakcq’s projects have received more than 30 state APA and ASLA awards, and 3 national APA awards. He has lived in Berlin, Boston, Houston, Ho Chi Minh City, and Austin but is happy to have returned to his roots in south Minneapolis.
Zakcq Lockrem