Join us for a cross-sector convening on waterfront access and equity, grounded in shared insight and designed to spark collective action.

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About the Summit

For five years, a coalition of community groups, public agencies, and advocates has worked to make the waterfront open to everyone. The Waterfront for All Summit marks that milestone and sets the course for what comes next.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront and Boston Harbor Now will co-host a free, one-day gathering at Boston Children's Museum. This summit is an opportunity to join other broad cross-section of partners, practitioners, and stakeholders around a shared mission: advancing a waterfront that is more accessible, welcoming, and equitable for all.

Grounded in data and insights from multiple organizations and perspectives, the summit's sessions are designed to help participants move beyond information-sharing alone toward a deeper shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. From there, our goal is to create meaning collectively and build momentum for action across sectors, communities, and institutions.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Nishant Kishore, PhD

Computational Epidemiologist

Nishant Kishore, PhD, is a computational epidemiologist working at the intersection of environmental risk, public health, and equity. His research includes the New England Journal of Medicine study that reshaped how deaths after Hurricane Maria were counted, widely cited work on human mobility during COVID-19, and new tools for climate and heat-risk assessment.

He is an epidemiologist with the Carter Center's Hispaniola Initiative and a data scientist at CrisisReady, a Harvard-affiliated disaster-preparedness initiative. He earned his doctorate at Harvard, lived in Boston through those years, and has kept close ties to the city since. His work turns data into the kind of understanding that helps communities respond to a changing environment: the challenge at the heart of a waterfront for all.

Data Sessions

  • WAVES

    Moderator: Christian Merfeld, Boston Harbor Now

    Boston Harbor Now’s Waterfront Visitation & Equity Study (WaVES) offers a new look at who is using Greater Boston’s waterfront and who may still face barriers to accessing it. Drawing on regional visitation data, community research, and lived experience, the study reveals both the tremendous value of the waterfront as a public resource and persistent gaps in who benefits from it. This session will explore key findings and their implications, and how Boston Harbor Now is using these insights to shape future priorities, partnerships, investments, and strategies for creating a more accessible and welcoming waterfront for all.

    Read Bio Here

  • Road to Wellness

    Moderator: Ian Karby, Boston Waterfront Coalition (CRIW)

    Panelists: Thaddeus Miles, HoodFit | Suzanne Walmsley, Boston Athletics Association (BAA)

    Thaddeus and Suzanne will share how they took the troubling data related to health disparities between neighborhoods in Boston and created the Road to Wellness as a response. The Road to Wellness is a 5k run/2 mile walk and also includes a training series leading up to the event itself. 

    Read Bios Here

  • River Groups

    Moderator: John Dello Russo, Barr Foundation

    Panelists: Scott McCue, Charles River Conservancy | Karina Ramos, Mystic River Watershed Association | Karen Groce-Horan, Neponset River Watershed Association

    Members of the river groups will share the work they are doing to increase inclusivity amongst folks at riverfront space. We’ll learn from each panelist about what they’re hearing on the ground from folks in the community and what is working and what strategies have been challenging in the current climate. They’ll also discuss how their organization defines and measures success.

    Read Bios Here

Strategy Sessions

  • Strategic Communications: Cutting Through the Noise

    Moderator: Jesse Mermell, DeWit Impact Group/CRIW

    How can organizations cut through the noise and make their work resonate, especially with limited time, budgets, and resources? This workshop will cover the fundamentals of strategic communications, creative ways to amplify your work, navigating the social media landscape, and how to make the greatest impact with what you have. Participants will also explore how to use communal and creative resources thoughtfully to build communications that are effective, authentic, and aligned with our shared environmental values.

    Read Bio Here

  • Legislative Affairs

    Moderator: Marty Walsh, Gateway Public Solutions/CRIW

    This workshop will be centered around how to develop an effective advocacy strategy at the municipal and state level. The speakers (more info coming soon) have been staff at many different levels within government and have years of experience dealing with non-profits.  This workshop will be a great opportunity for activists, non-profit staff to learn how to create and implement a successful strategy.  

    Read Bio Here

  • Blue & Green Spaces: A Pathway to Wellness

    Moderator: Saloni Doshi, Viri Health Coaching/CRIW

    In this interactive workshop, participants will discover practical ways to turn everyday access to blue and green spaces into opportunities for healthier living and community connection. From taking a walk along the waterfront or moving in a park to practicing mindfulness or gathering with others, even simple interactions with nature can contribute to well-being. Together, we will explore how safe, inclusive, and accessible natural spaces can help foster healthier, more connected, and more resilient communities.

    Read Bio Here
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Frequently Asked Questions: General

  • Because the people shaping the waterfront's next chapter will be under one roof, and decisions are better with you in it. In a single day you'll get three things that usually take months to find: new data on who uses the waterfront and who's being left out, practical skills you can use immediately, and direct connections to the community leaders, agencies, and funders working on the same issues you are. You'll leave knowing where the work is headed and how you fit in it.

  • Concretely: new insights and data about how the region’s public open spaces are being utilized, hands-on training from afternoon workshops (think communications, advocacy, and organizational skills that small teams rarely get resourced for), and a set of new relationships you can call on long after the summit ends. Less concretely, but just as real: the reminder that you're not carrying this work alone and a community to connect with.

  • Yes. The data presentations are short and built for everyone, not for specialists. The heart of the day is conversation: facilitated small-group discussions where your experience of the waterfront counts as evidence. If you've ever felt welcome along the waterfront, or felt like it wasn't built for you, you have something this summit needs.

  • Absolutely. This summit is about who the waterfront serves, and that's you. You'll hear what the data says about your neighborhood, add your perspective in discussions where community voices lead, and meet the organizations working near you. Many attendees will represent institutions. Plenty will simply represent themselves.

  • A rare cross-sector table. The challenges in this data don't sit within any one agency's jurisdiction, and this is the day the public, nonprofit, community, and private sectors sit down together. You'll see how residents actually experience the spaces you manage, compare notes with peer agencies including DCR, and build the relationships that make future coordination easier.

  • The afternoon was designed for you. The strategy sessions teach practical skills that small teams rarely have the budget to develop, and the room will be full of potential collaborators, funders, and peers who've solved problems you're facing now. One day here can save you months of cold outreach.

  • Most conferences hand you information and a lanyard. This one is built as a guided day: data first, then conversation about what it means, then skills and strategies to act on it. No competing session grids, no talking heads for eight hours. And it's at the Children's Museum on purpose. The space is built for curiosity and play, and we intend to use that.

  • Two reasons. First, the region finally has new data and insights: WaVES gives us a shared benchmark for waterfront access and equity that didn't exist before. Second, the Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront is completing its five-year chapter this year. This summit is where that network's momentum gets handed forward, and where the next chapter starts. The people in the room will help shape it.

  • The summit is a starting line, not a finish line. Takeaways, materials, and connections from the day will be shared across the network, and the conversations begun here are meant to continue in the collaborations, campaigns, and partnerships that follow.

Frequently Asked Questions: Logistics

  • Tuesday, September 22, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Boston Children's Museum, 308 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210. Check-in opens at 8:30 AM. Optional Boston Harbor Cruise follows the closing session.

  • The summit is free to attend and breakfast and lunch are included. Reservation is required in advance. 

  • Anyone who cares about the future of the region's waterfront. That includes community organizations, nonprofits, public agencies, researchers, students, and residents. You don't need to be a waterfront expert or belong to a member organization. If these places matter to you, you belong in this room.

  • The summit is co-hosted by the Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront (CRIW), a network of more than 60 organizations that has spent five years working toward a waterfront that is open to everyone, and Boston Harbor Now, the nonprofit focused on the whole Harbor, connecting communities, waterfront, and islands to advance a shared vision–safer from rising seas, more welcoming to everyone, and a driver of our region’s health, economy, and quality of life.

  • The day is designed to move from understanding to action. The morning opens with breakfast and a welcome, followed by short data presentations, including findings from WaVES (the Waterfront Visitation and Equity Study), and community organizations sharing what's happening in their neighborhoods. Small facilitated discussions follow, where your experience and perspective are part of the conversation. After the keynote and lunch, afternoon strategy sessions offer practical workshops and skill-building you can put to work right away. We close together at 3:00 PM, with an optional Boston Harbor Cruise afterward for those who want to keep the conversation going and experience the waterfront from a different perspective.

  • Nishant Kishore, PhD, is a computational epidemiologist leading strategies of environmental risk, public health, and equity. His research ranges from the New England Journal of Medicine study that revealed the true death toll of Hurricane Maria and reshaped how disaster deaths are counted, to widely cited COVID-19 mobility research, to new tools for climate and heat-risk assessment. He serves as epidemiologist for the Carter Center's Hispaniola Initiative and is a data scientist at CrisisReady, a Harvard-affiliated disaster-preparedness initiative. Trained in Boston, where he earned his doctorate at Harvard, his work turns data into understanding that helps communities respond to a changing environment: the challenge at the heart of a waterfront for all."

  • The Boston Children's Museum is in the Fort Point neighborhood located at 308 Congress Street, Boston MA 02210, about a five-minute walk from South Station (Red Line, Silver Line, Commuter Rail, and bus connections). We encourage attendees to take public transit, walk, or bike. Paid parking is available at nearby garages, but spots in the area are limited.

  • Boston Children’s Museum, the summit’s venue, welcomes visitors of all abilities and needs, and offers resources to enhance accessibility and inclusion. Learn more about the museum’s accessibility features here. If you have an accessibility need or accommodation request, including interpretation, contact us at cmerfeld@bostonharbornow.org by September 1st and we will do our best to meet it.

  • We hope you will, since the day builds from data to discussion to action. But you're welcome to join for the portions your schedule allows.

  • After the closing session, we'll offer a fun way to experience the waterfront firsthand -a sunset Boston Harbor cruise. The cruise is free with registration. More information about accessing the cruise will be provided at the summit.

  • Dress is business casual. If you plan to come onboard the optional cruise, wear comfortable shoes and check the weather - it’s always about 10º cooler on the water. Bring business cards if you have them; making connections is half the point of the day.

  • The summit is designed as a working session for adults, though the museum setting keeps the spirit of play close by. We're not able to offer childcare this year.

  • Portions of the day, including the keynote, may be photographed and recorded. By attending, you consent to appearing in event photography.

  • We'd love to hear from you. Reach out to cmerfeld@bostonharbornow.org and we'll follow up.

  • Sign up for updates from Boston Harbor Now at bostonharbornow.org and the Coalition for a Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront at bostonwaterfrontcoalition.org. Materials and takeaways from the summit will be shared with the network after the event.

REGISTER HERE