Archive

  1. Diana Reyna

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    For over twenty years, Diana Reyna has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to communities across the Greater New York Area through government service and advocacy. She is founding principal at Diana Reyna Strategic Consulting, LLC. At DRS Consulting, clients are able to tap into the extensive and vast network of relationships cultivated in the public and private sectors. At DRS Consulting, success is achieved when conscientious goals, an ethical responsibility to clients, and to the communities impacted are met. Diana Reyna was Senior Partner at Athena Consulting Group Inc., a full-service government relations, public engagement, strategic communications and business development firm. Diana Reyna is the former Deputy Brooklyn Borough President for Brooklyn (2014-2017), and a former New York City Council Member for the 34th Council District (2001-2013). During her tenure, as Deputy Brooklyn Borough President, Reyna advocated for the over 2.6 million residents of New York City’s most diverse borough. Reyna was the first Dominican American woman elected to public office in New York State. As a New York City Council Member representing the 34th Council District, Diana Reyna demonstrated an outstanding commitment to communities across her district in Brooklyn and Queens. She garnered citywide attention for her efforts in championing affordable housing, economic development, improving equity in education, park space, waste and environmental justice as well as expanding youth and senior services.

  2. Carlos Menchaca

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    Former New York City Council Member Carlos Menchaca has more than 18 years of New York City government experience. As an elected official and senior staffer, he developed strong relationships with city agencies, direct service providers, and advocates who continue to shape the life of immigrant New Yorkers; organized successful multi-sector partnerships to tackle endemic issues; grew and trained grassroots community leaders; and engaged immigrant activists to build coalitions and effective advocacy campaigns to win critical budget and legislative victories. He recently taught at Pratt Institute to share his experiences in civic engagement and value-driven placemaking in communities confronting inequality caused by gentrification.

  3. Thomas Yu

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    Thomas Yu is the Executive Director of Asian Americans For Equality (AAFE) a 50-year old NYC-based community development organization serving the 1.3 million New Yorkers of Asian descent, and all those in need regardless of background. Under his helm, AAFE has achieved development of over 1,200 units of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families, provided crucial social services to over 35,000 individuals annually, assisted over 10,000 small business entrepreneurs with over $66 million of direct capital, and aided 5,000 first time homebuyers in achieving their American Dream with counseling and securing of $250 million in sustainable home mortgages. Thomas also leads AAFE’s grassroots policy advocacy, urban planning and infrastructure capital investment in AAPI and other communities, with a goal of advancing community revitalization through local arts and space activation.

    Thomas has served on various mayoral taskforces and had been a long-time member of Manhattan’s Community Board #3, specifically on the Parks, Waterfront Development, Landmarks and Housing committees.  Thomas is a director on the board of Hester Street Collaborative, a NYC non-profit which aims to use architecture and design to help NYC residents become civically engaged in community planning. Thomas also sits on the advisory boards of Low Income Investment Fund’s New Market Tax Credit team and Valley National Bank, and was the past Board Co-Chair of National CAPACD. Thomas received a Bachelor’s Degree in Government from Harvard University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service.

  4. Katie Swenson

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    A nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator, Katie Swenson has served as a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group since 2020. Katie’s work explores how critical design practice can, and should, promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities. Katie has over 20 years of experience in the theoretical and practical application of design thinking and is a talented global public speaker and thought leader. A prolific writer, she authored Design with Love: At Home in America, and In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness, both published in August 2020. She co-authored Growing Urban Habitats: Seeking a Housing Development Model with William Morrish and Susanne Schindler. She is a contributing author to Activist Architecture: Philosophy and Practice of Community Design and Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. Katie was awarded the AIA Award for Excellence in Public Architecture in 2021. Prior to joining MASS, Katie was the vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners. An alumni of the Enterprise Rose Fellowship’s second class, Swenson was tapped to lead and grow the program in 2007. Katie also helped found the Charlottesville Community Design Center in 2004.

  5. Kia Weatherspoon

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    As the design voice of impact and change, Kia Weatherspoon, NCIDQ, ASID, has spent the last 15 years defying every design stereotype. The most damaging: interior design is a luxury reserved for a few. Her voice, advocacy for Design Equity™, and design practice have shifted the narrative, making interior design a standard for all. Kia is challenging the lack of these standards in economically challenged communities. Her presence and leadership have created ripples, prompting housing developers, agencies, and industry partners to not just take notice of her work – but to do better.

    As an advocate and educator in business leadership, equity, and diversity, Kia has been recognized by Interior Design Magazine as a HiP Design for the Greater Good – Small Firm and selected as a GlobeSt.com Real Estate Forum 2020 Woman of Influence. She was honored as part of the 40 under 40 classes for both Washington Business Journal and BD+C Magazine. She also received the International Interior Design Association Luna Textile/ Anna Hernandez Visionary Award and the CREW DC Raise Up Your Voice Award.

    For over a decade Kia has led her firm, Determined by Design, in creating elevated equitable design outcomes for over 3,500 hundred families, 25 communities, and designed over 165,000 sq.ft of interior spaces for affordable and low-income housing. Communities where the average median income was below $35,000/year per family. Communities that mirrored her, with 95% of the residents being black and/or of color. Kia believes Interior Design should be in service to all people, so every person and community is uplifted by the spaces they inhabit. No matter the project type, her focus is elevating communities—a path that requires advocacy and empathy!

  6. Carol E. Rosenthal

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    Carol E. Rosenthal is a partner specializing in land use and development at Fried Frank. She has guided developers, businesses, and nonprofit institutions in some of New York City’s most significant development projects and through numerous discretionary land use approvals. She also advises on city and state public-private initiatives, housing, transportation, and other development, and regularly represents clients in the transfer of development rights, government acquisitions, and turnkey developments. In addition to her legal practice, she is trustee and on the executive committee of the Citizens Budget Commission; a council member of Van Allen Institute; and serves on the Advisory Board for Cityland, a publication of The Center for New York City Law of New York Law School. She is also on the board of the Citizen’s Housing and Planning Committee.

  7. May Lee

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    May Lee is Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Institutional Impact at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she is guiding the development and implementation of the Institute’s next 10-year strategic plan. Prior to joining RPI, she was a partner at The Seelig Group (TSG), a family office, where she focuses on incubating new companies in new media, entertainment, marketing, and technology—combining her background in finance and law (Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Federal Reserve Bank of New York) and as an entrepreneur and educator. May previously spent ten years as a leader in higher education where she led two groundbreaking initiatives: the founding of NYU Shanghai and ShanghaiTech. May began her career in China and has three decades of experience in the private and public sector, amassing a deep understanding of the cross-cultural aspects of innovation ecosystems in China, Europe, and the U.S. She currently serves as a Lifetime Trustee at the NYU School of Law, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Partnership for Women and Families, and Treasurer for the Guild of Future Architects, as well as senior advisor to a number of start-ups in Shanghai. May is recognized as a global leader in innovation and international education, and speaks frequently on these topics.

  8. Allison Freedman Weisberg

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    Allison Freedman Weisberg is the Principal of Round Peg, where she consults and collaborates with colleagues holding one another accountable to change through work and play.  She is the founder of Recess, a nonprofit arts organization that partners with artists to build a more just and equitable creative community.  Allison approaches all of her work through a racial justice lens, working alongside radical thinkers who reimagine an equitable future.  Prior to founding Round Peg and Recess, she worked in the Education Department at the Museum of Modern Art and then at the Whitney Museum of American Art, managing youth and community programs. She has given lectures and presentations at colleges, universities, arts institutions, and museums, and has curated performances for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Museum of Modern Art. She has contributed writing to publications ranging from artist books to Art in America.  She is on the advisory board of Art+Feminism, the Board of Van Alen Institute, and she is a Studio Museum Critical Dialogue Partner.  She holds a BA from Wesleyan University, and an MA in Visual Culture Theory from NYU.  Allison lives in Brooklyn with her husband, her two children, and a disgruntled mutt named Edgar.

  9. Mark Johnson

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    Mark Johnson, FASLA, is a thought leader in the regeneration of inner-city areas. Examples include regeneration of Denver’s Stapleton Airport, since 1988; the Rivers District in Calgary and the South River District in Brno, Czech Republic. Mark is known for the design of complex projects involving green infrastructure as catalyst to economic, environmental and social change. He is a prominent designer of public space, completing the North Embarcadero in San Diego; St. Patrick’s Island in Calgary; and Riverfront Park in Tampa. He has received many awards for planning, design and service. In 2016, Curbed magazine named his Larimer Square “One of the 11 best streets in America” and the Canadian Institute of Planners named his St. Patrick’s Island “Greatest Public Space 2016” in Canada. Mark is a frequent lecturer at universities, ASLA, ULI, and other institutes on the role of design for public health. He is also a board member of the Van Alen Institute.

  10. Claire Weisz

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    Claire Weisz, FAIA, Hon. FRAIC, Hon FASLA, is the founding partner of WXY, the New York City-based architecture, urban design, and planning firm that is globally recognized for its community-centered approach. WXY acts at every scale: from the intimacy of an interior to the complexity of a city, from the scale of a conversation to the scale of a generation, with memorable structures such as SeaGlass at The Battery, the Spring Street Salt Shed and Sanitation Garage, and the Rockaway Boardwalk to precedent-setting planning and urban design work. Claire’s belief in the importance of public space and dialogue in creating a regenerative, equitable and inclusive world is the driving force behind everything WXY does.