Staff Directory

Architect and Associate Professor at Federal University in Rio de Janeiro (FAU-UFRJ) in Brazil. Graduated in Architecture (Instituto Bennett de Ensino, 1981), with a Master of Science Degree on Urban Planning (The University of Michigan, 1983), and a Doctoral Degree in Urban Environmental Structures (University of São Paulo, 2000). She is a researcher at the Graduate Program in Architecture (PROARQ-UFRJ), advisor of doctoral and master thesis and dissertations, coordinator of the research group SEL-RJ (Open spaces systems in Rio de Janeiro) and vice-coordinator of the research group Prolugar (Quality of Place and Landscape). Main research fields include urban landscape morphology, urban design and architectural design, and interests comprise peripheral neighborhoods, urban expansion regions and low income settings, social housing design and architecture education. Vera is also a member of the directory board of the Brazilian Association of Landscape Architects and associated to the Brazilian Architects Institute. Vera is a partner in CSUD’s project Accelerating the SDGs.

Silvia Vercher is an architect, urban designer, and adjunct professor with interest in the convergence of private sector, academia, and institutions to design contextual, cultural, and programmed projects that focus on sustainability and technology. Currently she is working as a Senior Associate at Perkins Eastman in New York, specializing in large-scale and cultural projects. Simultaneously she teaches at the New York Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute, utilizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to foster critical thinking in designers' projects.

She is actively involved in prominent organizations, including a fellowship in Consortium of Sustainable Urbanization and Urban Design Forum. Her research on the future of cities takes center stage at global summits such as Habitat III in Quito, WUF9 in Kuala Lumpur, and the UN Business Dialogue in Nairobi. Additionally, she serves as the US Representative of the NYC Architecture Biennial. She holds a Master of Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University in New York, as well as degrees from the University of South Australia, the Politecnico of Valencia, and Aarhus Arkitektskolen in Denmark.

Sean is a researcher and PhD candidate in the Centre for Transport Studies and the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. His focus is on the evolution of transport planning as a practice, in African cities, and he is working on the transitions to access-based planning and transport justice planning approaches. He also works on ways to institutionalise innovation and knowledge co-production in the transport planning process to grapple with the uncertainty that these transitions, and others like digitalisation and climate change, will bring in the future. He has been embedded within the Cape Town city government for six years and been a research partner to the UNEP Sustainable Mobility Unit over the past eight years, working on walking, cycling, and the just transition in African countries.

Sean will be working on three projects with CSUD, related to complex risk and deep uncertainty in planning African mobility systems. The first will be developing a set of recommendations for transport decision-makers on the climate risk and adaptation potential of African transport systems, in time for COP27, based on his and other colleagues’ work on the IPCC AR6 reports. The second will be distilling learnings from his use of Decision-Making under Deep Uncertainty techniques with his colleagues at the local government to develop the City of Cape Town’s long term transport plan. And finally, he will be working with us on the development of a collaborative research agenda and curriculum proposal for Transport Planning under Deep Uncertainty.

Sarah Williams is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning currently Director of the Civic Data Design Project, which is new research lab that is part of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning School. The Civic Data Design Project develops innovative tools and techniques that allow for the visualization, collection and spatial analysis of the vast data sets we now store about the places we live. The lab employs data visualization and mapping techniques to expose and communicate urban patterns and policy issues to broader audiences. Williams is also currently faculty of MIT’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning.

Robert is a Research Associate with the Resilient Coastal Communities Project. He holds a Masters of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He received a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Economics from the College of Charleston and has worked across various areas advocating for more sustainable practices. At Columbia, he has primarily focused on urban sustainability and issues around adaptation and resilience in his research. 

Robbie Parks is an environmental epidemiologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Earth Institute, Columbia University who is primarily interested in understanding the impact that climate, weather, and air pollution has on mortality, nutrition and disease outcomes, and how these impacts may be different in sub- groups of a population. He is also working  on developing new statistical methods relevant to these concerns and aims to use his research capacity to pursue linked goals of social and climate justice. Robbie is leading the Earth Institute Frontiers project with CSUD on "“Climate resilience, Extreme Heat and Green Infrastructure in Harlem and the South Bronx: Collaborative” and is the author of numerous articles including the recent widely read Nature piece on Anomalously warm temperatures are associated with increased injury deaths . He holds a PhD from Imperial College London.

Pavi Selvakumar is an environmental social scientist interested in how communities navigate sustainability, environmental justice, and resilience in the face of today’s climate challenges. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Oklahoma State University. Her dissertation investigated how institutional structures, campus culture, state politics, and leadership priorities influence the development of sustainability initiatives at U.S. land-grant universities. During her Ph.D., she also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant with the Social Dynamics team of the NSF EPSCoR S3OK project, collaborating with an interdisciplinary group of researchers to address wicked environmental problems facing the state.

Pavi holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from India and a master’s degree in Environmental Assessment and Management from the United Kingdom. Her interdisciplinary background drives a research approach that combines technical fluency with a strong foundation in environmental policy and social inquiry.

As a postdoctoral research scientist at the Columbia Climate School, she contributes to the Resilient Coastal Communities Project (RCCP), exploring how artificial intelligence and climate justice can be integrated to support equitable resilience planning in frontline communities.

Paul Gallay is the Director of the Resilient Coastal Communities Program at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development and an adjunct lecturer with the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development.

An attorney and educator, Paul has worked to promote the sustainability of human and natural communities since 1987, when he left the private practice of law and joined the New York State Attorney General’s environmental protection bureau. 

In 1990, Paul began a ten-year stint at New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, where he brought hundreds of corporate and government polluters to justice. Paul subsequently spent a decade in the land conservation movement before serving as president of Riverkeeper, New York's Clean Water Advocate, from July 2010 to June 2021. 

As Hudson Riverkeeper, Paul supported a staff of 30 and a network of thousands of volunteers who monitor local water quality and fight pollution in their communities. He helped trigger $3.9 billion in state funding for safe drinking water and water pollution control infrastructure; negotiated and signed a landmark agreement to close the aging Indian Point nuclear plant; and, partnered with groups across New York to win a statewide ban on natural gas hydrofracking. 

Paul is a graduate of Williams College and Columbia Law School. He was a visiting professor at Williams College and an adjunct professor at Clarkson University before joining the Earth Institute, where he has taught US Water & Energy Policy [GU4050] since Spring 2018.

Dr. Patrick Kinney is a Research Associate in Environmental Health at Boston University. Dr. Kinney’s teaching and research address issues at the intersection of global environmental change, human health, and policy, with an emphasis on the public health impacts of climate change and air pollution. His work in the 1990s on air quality and environmental justice in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx led to important new insights into the impacts of diesel vehicle emissions on local air quality. Dr. Kinney has carried out numerous studies examining the human health effects of air pollution, including studies of the effects of ozone and/or particulate matter on lung health and on daily mortality in large cities. More recently, he developed a new interdisciplinary research and teaching program at Columbia examining the potential impacts of climate change on human health. Dr. Kinney was the first to show that climate change could worsen urban smog problems in the U.S., with attendent adverse health impacts. He also has projected future health impacts related to heat waves in the NYC metropolitan area. In a new research initiative, Dr. Kinney is working with clinicians at Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital to understand how past and future climate may affect pollen-related allergic airway diseases. Dr. Kinney earned his doctorate at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he studied the effects of air pollution on lung function in children as part of the Harvard Six Cities Air Pollution and Health Study.

Nilda Mesa is the Director of the Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program with Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development in the Earth Institute, as well as an adjunct professor with the School of International and Public Affairs. She has had a long career in environment, energy and sustainability at the city, state, national and global levels, and now writes and presents extensively on the subjects of climate, energy, equity and urban systems relating them. Prior to joining CSUD, she served as NYC Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability under Mayor Bill de Blasio, where she developed and oversaw innovative programs in climate, energy, sustainability, air quality, waste, green buildings, transportation, public education and other initiatives. She directed and was the principal author and editor of OneNYC, the city’s long-term sustainability plan, which for the first time for a major US city tied together environmental initiatives with economic development, equity and resilience. The innovative process brought together over 70 city agencies, elected officials, a distinguished advisory board, and engaged city residents. Reports published under her direction included One City: Built to Last Technical Working Group Report, which was the first study to plot a detailed strategy by building type to reduce substantially building greenhouse gas emissions for new construction and substantial renovation. She worked closely with state and federal energy and sustainability officials on behalf of the City’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Internationally, she represented New York on the U.S. cities delegation to China, as part of the Obama Administration’s U.S.-China Climate Cities Initiative, with C40, and with the Under2 Coalition founded by California Governor Jerry Brown. Under her leadership, New York City received numerous awards for sustainability and climate initiatives.

Previously at Columbia, she founded the University’s environmental stewardship office, one of the first in the U.S. for a university. She pioneered the development of sustainability theory and practice in urban settings. She worked to establish energy reduction and climate goals, green building standards, improve recycling, establish programs that sent used equipment and supplies to nonprofits in the local area as well as abroad, set up food recovery programs for local food banks and shelters, and worked on interdisciplinary initiatives bringing together scientists, researchers, faculty, students and operations teams. She helped establish the first green roofs and promoted research on them, as well as worked with community advocates and the design and construction teams on environmental standards for new construction, including the new Manhattanville campus, which was the first university campus to attain LEED-ND Platinum. Under her leadership, the University began incorporating environmental justice considerations such as air quality into its practices. Columbia was recognized for its sustainability efforts and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Before joining Columbia, Mesa served in other environmental leadership roles at the White House Council of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Attorney General’s office. She led an interagency task force on the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as was responsible for the assessment and recommendation report of NEPA’s effectiveness, and authored the history of NEPA chapter in the 25^th anniversary report. At the Air Force, she brokered negotiations on airspace and range expansions with tribal nations, state and federal resource agencies, local business communities, and environmental advocates. At EPA, she was Counsel to the NAFTA Task Force, serving as lead U.S. attorney in the implementation negotiations for the environmental side agreements, and on the U.S. NAFTA delegation. She also developed policy on international environmental negotiations. At the California Attorney General’s office, she handled civil side environmental enforcement on toxics, air quality and endangered species issues, particularly in urban settings, and wrote amicus briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Northwestern University. She also studied painting and sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Art Students League. Her art may be found in the permanent collection of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, and she has exhibited in New York, Canada and France. She was born in Cuba.

She teaches at SIPA on sustainability planning and content at the urban scale, incorporating design and creative techniques with policy planning and research on urban systems, public health and economic inclusion. Her forthcoming book on climate resilience and cooperation is under contract with Routledge for 2019, and her chapter on innovation at the city scale on sustainability planning will appear in July 2018 in the book, Smart(er) Cities, with Columbia University Press.

Nicole Ngo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management at the University of Oregon.  She earned her Ph.D. in Sustainable Development at Columbia University in 2013 and her research interests include health economics, environmental policy, and urban sustainability.  Her current research focuses on health and urban air pollution in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa.  Please visit her website for more information: http://pppm.uoregon.edu/nicole-ngo.  Nicole has also conducted research focused on conditions in Nairobi along with CSUD’s Jacqueline Klopp and Patrick Kinney.  Nicole holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of California, Irvine.

Nicholas Hamilton is a Senior Planner Good City Company and an urban policy consultant for the Lincoln Land Institute. Nick directed the urban policy work of The American Assembly where he led the Legacy Cities Partnership, a national coalition of practitioners, researchers and leaders working to revitalize America’s legacy cities. His work focuses on economic development, urban governance, and civic engagement. Nick has worked at the Earth Institute Center for Sustainable Urban Development. He served as project manager for the SIPA team receiving the 2009 Leous-Parry Award for Progressive Sustainability for work relating to inclusive urbanization in Cairo, Egypt and joined the Next City Vanguard in 2013. His architectural and urban design work for the firm Davis Brody Bond included the master planning and architectural design of US diplomatic facilities abroad to the design and construction management of research laboratories at Columbia University. Mr. Hamilton holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and BA in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mike Petriello is an interdisciplinary conservation social scientist interested in the many connections and feedbacks between human cultures and the environment. In particular, his work centers on the recognition, inclusion, and maintenance of Indigenous and local knowledge in conservation and natural resource management, empowerment, and transdisciplinary approaches to collaborations such as knowledge co-production. He received his PhD in Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences and Applied Biodiversity Science in 2020 from Texas A&M University, where he worked with small-scale farmers (campesinos) in Nicaragua to explore the cultural significance and boundaries of local knowledge tied to wildlife hunting. Mike continues to work with many past and present research partners, including collaborators from his previous participatory work as a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University with the Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures Project. As a postdoctoral research scholar in the Columbia Center for Science and Society and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Mike built on these experiences to explore good relational practices for the ethical co-production of knowledge in climate change research while co-developing research with diverse groups at Columbia University and beyond.  He is working with the Resilient Coastal Communities Project as a Fellow.

Lucía received a Bechelor’s degree in Architecture at Universidad de Granada and a Master’s degree in Architecture, Graduate Program in Collective Housing at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid associated with ETH Zurich. She is currently a PhD student in architecture at Universidad de Granada and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University. She has collaborated as a Professor of Architecture during her affiliation at the TU Berlin as Visiting Scholar, as well as at Universidad de Sevilla and Universidad Católica de Quito, in Ecuador. She has participated in numerous international architecture seminars and published diverse papers about sustainable and resilient collaborative architecture. She has also worked in international projects alongside Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and currently, with her architecture office.

Her Research Project “Collaborative architectures in the global city: sustainability and management systems in New York”, as a part of her doctoral thesis, has been awarded by the IX Research Scholarship in New York by RABASF and The Arquia Foundation. The aim of this research is to study how the implementation of technology in the use and control of space gives rise to new management systems, bottom-up, top-down and middle-out, that directly affect the sustainability of collaborative architecture such as coworking, cohousing and coliving.

Laila Abed is a Research Assistant supporting the “Building Back Better in Hatay, Turkey” project. She is a junior at Columbia College majoring in Urban Studies with a specialization in Public Health. As a Palestinian-American, her research focuses on disaster risk reduction, equitable urban planning, and the role of public health in humanitarian response—particularly in contexts shaped by occupation, displacement, and systemic crisis.

Laila is especially interested in how co-design and risk-informed planning can support infrastructure restoration, strengthen cultural connections, and expand access to inclusive public space. This past summer, she worked with WeCanMake in Bristol, England, on neighborhood suitability analysis and participatory planning for community-led housing and testing sites. She has also contributed to Columbia’s Mapping Historical New York project at the Center for Spatial Research and explored maternal health and environmental vulnerability in urban settings.

A former Vice President of Columbia’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Hub, Laila is committed to community-led approaches. At CSUD, she hopes to contribute to recovery strategies that center equity, cultural resilience, and long-term sustainability in the Building Back Better in Hatay project.

Kyle Wire is an Urban Planner with a Master of Design in Sustainable Urban Environments from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His professional journey encompasses a strong focus on Natural and Nature-Based Solutions, particularly within coastal resiliency. Driven by a philosophy of harmonizing human development with the natural world, Kyle's work emphasizes the importance of living in tandem with nature. His approach combines sustainable urban planning practices with insights on coastal ecosystems, striving for a more resilient urban-nature coexistence. Kyle is part of the Resilient Coastal Communities Project.

Kayleigh Campbell is a doctoral student in sustainable development at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In her dissertation research she is analyzing the impact that bike sharing has had on subway, bus, and taxi ridership and efficiency in New York City using a differences-in-differences research design. The goal is to learn more about how bike sharing interacts with other modes of transportation.  She is also studying transportation access in Nairobi. Using data from the Digital Matatus Project, she and her collaborators are trying to understand where and to whom transportation access is provided and how to appropriately measure access in a developing country context. Finally, in her master’s research she found that U.S. cities that had urban rail transit before the automobile age, have lower per capita carbon dioxide emissions today than cities built entirely around the automobile.  She loves exploring new ideas and playing with data. Her biggest research challenge has been tracking down the data she needs for those ideas!

Jennifer van den Bussche, Master of International and Community Development and Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (Deakin University), is the founder and director of Sticky Situations  in Johannesburg. She is a Project Manager who brings strong facilitation skills to her work, complimented by her experience in community development, as well as her background in construction and training in architecture. Jennifer has used these skills to bring together talented teams in disadvantaged communities in Johannesburg to create successful outcomes in a range of projects including public art, sanitation upgrades and multi-media exhibitions and events. As Global Studio Johannesburg project manager, Jennifer contributed to the success of Global Studio 2007-09.  She founded Sticky Situations in 2010. Her 2019 WASSUP Report documents a decade of progress by community based sanitation organization, WASSUP, Sticky Situations and international organizations Healthabitat and IAPMO. She has participated in CSUD World Urban Forum events  is a contributor to CSUD’s Accelerating the SDGs project team, and co-ordinates the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation’s (GSAPP) Studio X projects and activities in South Africa.

Jeffrey Paller is an Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco. His research examines the practice of democracy and accountability in urban African slums. He has conducted fieldwork in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. He was an Earth Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow and  a visiting lecturer of politics at Bates College where he taught courses on cities, slums and democracy; African politics and development; and democratization in the world. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the department of political science in 2014. His research interests include African politics, sustainable urban development, democratic theory, and field research methods. His scholarship has been published by Polity and African Studies Review. He served as a Research Associate at the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana, and has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin. Prior to graduate school, he received his B.A. from Northwestern University and served as a Program Coordinator for the Illinois Education Foundation.

Javier De Andrés holds a Ph.D. in Architecture with the highest distinction (summa cum laude, 2024), a Master in Advanced Architectural Design (2020), and a degree in Architecture (2013) from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (UPM). Since 2017, he has been a co-founding partner of the architecture firm AYLLÓN. PARADELA. DE ANDRÉS Arquitectos (https://www.ayllonparadeladeandres.com/).

In the academic field, he is currently based in New York as a Visiting Scholar at the Columbia Climate School – Center for Urban Sustainable Development (Columbia University). He is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural Design at ETSAM (UPM) and has been a member of the Collective Housing Research Group (GIVCO) at the same university since 2019.

His work has received numerous awards, both for built projects—including the COAM Award (2017, 2020), MATCOAM Award (2022), BigMat International Architecture Award Finalist (2023), XV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Finalist (2021), FAD Awards Selection (2020), Arquia Próxima Selection (2020), and First Work Bauwelt Award (2017), among others—and in public competitions, where he has won eight first prizes.

Likewise, in the research field, his doctoral dissertation, Thermodynamic Recharges, was awarded the 2024 Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain Award in the Humanities and Arts category. He has also received the XVI Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Award (2023) and an honorable mention at the COAM Award (2022) for other works. Additionally, he had won the 10th New York Research Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Spain and Arquia Foundation (2024).

His professional work has been published in various national and international media outlets. Furthermore, his research articles and academic contributions have been featured in several specialized journals.

Jason Wong is LSE Fellow in Environmental Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and an incoming Assistant Professor of Economics at Occidental College.

Jason is an applied microeconomist interested in the impact of technology and infrastructure in regional socioeconomic outcomes and environmental decision making. His research focuses on the impact of aviation connectivity on regional economies and innovation, climate change impacts on aviation, and improving international agreements on sectoral emissions reductions. He is also actively involved in research on electricity infrastructure and energy poverty in India. In 2016-2017, Jason was a Transportation Research Board Graduate Research Awardee. In 2018, he served as one of eight International Parliamentary Fellows from the U.S. at the German Parliament (Bundestag), where he worked on economic, energy, and transport policy. 
 

Jae Kim graduated with a master's in Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, studying urban planning with a concentration on urban analytics and built environment. With a deep-rooted interest in sustainable transportation, Jae's focus lies in the data-driven analysis and its application to foster inclusivity and sustainable urban mobility. By emphasizing the importance of diverse community benefits, he's working on research on the role of mobility technology/public transit in shaping age-friendly and sustainable urban futures. Throughout his academic journey, Jae has been involved in a multitude of research projects concerning sustainability and mobility, with his work spanning cities like Barcelona, Honolulu, New York, and Seoul. Before his time at Columbia, Jae earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, complemented by minors in City and Regional Planning and Data Science. At CSUD, Jae has worked as a research associate on the Partnership for Research on Informal and Shared Mobility and remains a student affiliate while working on his PhD at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  

Jacqueline Klopp is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD), and a social scientist whose research focuses on sustainable transport, land use, technology and climate issues in cities. Her work explores key urban policy and governance questions at the intersection of transport, land-use, air pollution and climate, with an emphasis on accountability and justice. She is the author of numerous articles on the politics of land-use and transportation in an age of rapid climate, urbanization and technological change.

A leading voice in open transport data initiatives, Jacqueline is a founding member of the award-winning DigitalMatatus consortium, which created the first open transit data and public map for Nairobi's minibus system. She also helped found Digital Cairo and DigitalTransport4Africa, a collaborative platform to foster better research and planning across the African continent. 

Jacqueline also leads the Partnership for Research on Informal and Shared Mobility and is a core member of the Clean Air Toolbox for Cities, an interdisciplinary network supporting cities in Africa and Asia with data to address air pollution and climate change. In 2021, she was honored as one of the "Remarkable Women in Transport" by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Prior to joining CSUD, she was an Assistant Professor and Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. from Harvard University. Jacqueline currently teaches in Columbia University's Sustainable Development undergraduate program.

Councillor HY William Chan, an architect and civic leader in Sydney's Lord Mayoral administration, is driving impactful change in citymaking and policymaking. Overseeing crucial portfolios such as urban planning, active transport, heritage, environment and sustainability, William is dedicated to steering Australia’s global city towards a more inclusive and sustainable future. As an executive of Climate Emergency Australia, he contributes significantly to the acceleration of a zero-carbon economy across more than 100 cities. 

William was appointed UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Fellow in 2019 and the World Economic Forum’s Global Public Leadership Fellow in 2021. In 2009 he contributed to Global Studio in South Africa, an action-research program to improve the lives of the urban poor, and returned in 2012 as a project associate in India. He assisted the 2013-2015 CSUD-Global Studio People Building Better Cities: Participation and Inclusive Urbanization traveling exhibition, and is contributing to the CSUD project Accelerating the SDGs. As a TED-featured speaker, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and GreenBiz Young Global Sustainability Leader with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), William is a driving force in the global action on urban innovation and sustainable cities. 

Husen Kharodawala is a second-year MS Urban Planning student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). Specializing in Built Environment, Community and Economic Development, and International Planning, his academic and professional pursuits center on climate adaptation strategies and resilient infrastructure. By emphasizing the integration of technological advancements with policy frameworks, he aims to address urban challenges and improve the quality of life for all city dwellers, especially vulnerable communities, through inclusive and sustainable practices. Throughout his academic journey, Husen has been involved in diverse research projects on integrated public transit and micromobility, as well as climate resilience, across cities such as Ahmedabad, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester, Amsterdam, and New York. Before his time at Columbia, Husen earned a Master’s degree in Architecture with a major in Urban Design and a minor in Urban Conservation from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad, India. At CSUD, Husen works as a research affiliate, where he is part of a global consortium project focusing on Popular Transport and Shared Mobility.

Heshan Chen is an M.P.A. candidate in Environmental Science & Policy at Columbia University’s Climate School and SIPA (’26). He serves as a research assistant with the Climate School’s Building Back Better in Hatay, Türkiye project and collaborates with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory on AI-enabled environmental sensing. His work focuses on “AI-run cities” and multi-agent frameworks that fuse geospatial sensing, graph-based models, and policy analysis to improve urban climate adaptation and risk management. Before Columbia, Heshan earned dual B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering (AI/ML concentration) and Film & Television Production from Boston University

Hellas is a Research Associate with the Resilient Coastal Communities Project. She holds a Master of Arts in Climate and Society from the Columbia Climate School and received her B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. With an interdisciplinary background revolving around climate adaptation and resilience, her experience ranges from climate modeling and transportation resilience to adaptation policy and equitable planning. At Columbia, she focuses on bridging climate science with sustainable adaptation planning processes, working at this intersection to inform local and regional strategy.

Dr. Geeta Mehta is an adjunct professor of architecture and urban design at Columbia University (profile of Dr. Mehta) and the founder/president of Asia Initiatives (AI), a non-profit organization with a mission to help communities help themselves. Geeta is the innovator of Social Capital Credits (SoCCs), a community currency for social good that is being used in USA, India, Ghana, Kenya to incentivize communities to improve their neighborhoods and wellbeing. She was recognized as one of the 21 Leaders of the 21st Century by Women’s eNews in 2015, and by HSBC Bank as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017. She serves on New York Mayor De Blasio’s Advisory Board for Waterfront Development.

Geeta is also the co-founder of URBZ: User Generated Cities that works with underserved communities to help improve neighborhoods through advocacy and better public spaces and homes. A board member for The Center for Living Cities, and Women Strong International, she also serves on the advisory boards of Friends of University of Tokyo. Mehta is a frequent speaker at international forums related to urban design and social justice, and is also the author/co-author of six books. She was an advisor to CSUD’s traveling exhibition, People Building Better Cities, and is collaborating with CSUD on the Accelerating the SDGs and associated activities.

Festival Godwin Boateng is a Senior Researcher in Mobility Governance at the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), a research institute within the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, UK. His research interests are diverse and focus on engaged scholarship at the intersection of transport, housing, land use, pollution, climate, technology, urban governance, and policy. Festival is one of the editors of Nature: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, formerly Palgrave Communications and a Board Member of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization.

Festival obtained his PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne-Australia. He also holds degrees from Roskilde University, Copenhagen-Denmark and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana. Before joining TSU, Festival was a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Climate School of Columbia University, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College, New York. 

Erica Avrami PhD, is the James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Dr. Avrami’s research and teaching focus on the intersection of heritage and sustainability, aligning goals of cultural and natural resource planning and management, promoting values-based and participatory approaches to conservation, and ensuring just outcomes of historic preservation policy. Stressing the importance of maintaining a dynamic exchange between practice and scholarship, Avrami sees important horizons to explore in the field as climate change compels fundamental shifts in the way we design, construct, and management the built environment, and in how communities play a role in decision-making about their shared past and future. Dr. Avrami’s current work with CSUD focuses on the collaborative research project, Urban Heritage, Sustainability, and Social Inclusion: A Preservation Policy Initiative, which examines preservation as an integral aspect of evolving municipal-level urban policy. Dr. Avrami earned her B.A. in Architecture and M.S. in Historic Preservation, both at Columbia, and completed her Ph.D. in planning and public policy at Rutgers University.

Eric Goldywn is a program director at the Marron Institute of Urban Management and an Assistant Professor in the Transportation and Land-Use program at the NYU Marron Institute. Eric Goldwyn holds a PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University. His dissertation examines non-traditional forms of transit, such as jitneys and unlicensed taxis in New York. Thanks to the generosity of the Volvo Research and Education Foundations (VREF) and the Earth Institute’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University, he will study transit networks in Cape Town, South Africa this Winter. He has a B.A in history from Bowdoin College, an M.U.P. from New York University, and an M.Phil from Columbia University

Elliott Sclar is the Director Emeritus of CSUD and Professor emeritus of Urban Planning at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is a member of the senior faculty of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He was the founding director of CSUD.

An economist and urban planner Professor Sclar has written extensively about the strengths and limitations of markets as mechanisms for effective public policy implementation. His latest volume (2020), Zoning: A Guide for 21st Century Planning is a co-edited textbook that locates zoning in the larger political economy of urban development. His 2000 volume, You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization is a definitive critique of the limitations of privatization to supply public goods. It won two major academic prizes: the Louis Brownlow Award for the Best Book of 2000 from the National Academy of Public Administration and the 2001 Charles Levine Prize from the International Political Science Association for a major contribution to public policy literature. An earlier book, Access for All: Transportation and Urban Growth, (1980) co-authored with K.H. Schaeffer is considered seminal in transforming the discussion of urban transport from a discussion about mobility to one about access. 

Sclar was co-coordinator of the UN Millennium Project Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers. It was one of the ten taskforces set up guide the implementation of the United Nation’s 2000 Millennium Development Goals. The Taskforce Report, A Home in the City (2005, Earthscan), of which he was one of the three lead authors, is now a standard reference on the challenge of transforming the informal urban settlements of the rapidly urbanizing world into healthy and vibrant homes. 

In November 2007 he received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the International Society for Urban Health in recognition of his taskforce work. Dr. Sclar was a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Research Network on Human Settlements (HS-NET), UN-HABITAT and of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Urban Management. In 2018 Dr. Sclar was named one of 2018’s Responsible 100 by the media company City and State NY. The company “honors New York’s most outstanding responsible executives, thought leaders, visionaries and influencers who are setting new standards of excellence, dedication and leadership in improving their communities and making transformative change.” 

Elliott Sclar has been a leading figure in a scholarly movement to reconnect the work of population health experts and urban planners in creating healthier cities. One of the main challenges he sees is the need to begin to develop more precise measurements of built environment impacts on population health. 

Sclar is presently writing a history of race, urban planning and neighborhood change in metropolitan New York over the last 100 years.

Elif is a senior at Columbia University, studying Information Science and History, following two years at Trinity College Dublin, where she studied Middle Eastern and European Languages and Cultures. Having lived in Turkey, Ireland, and now New York, she brings a multicultural perspective to her work, speaking Turkish, English, and German, and currently learning Arabic. Her experiences have strengthened her understanding of cultural patterns and social structures, increasing her interest in how these dynamics influence human behavior, decision-making, and power relationships. She is working with the Building Back Better in Hatay project.

Academically, Elif focuses on product development, user research, and innovation, along with the modern history of the Middle East, particularly around themes of uncertainty and technological change. Originally from Adana, Turkey, and having spent her childhood in Hatay, she has seen the severe impact of the February 6 earthquake on her family, friends, and community. This experience led her to this project, where she is committed to helping build resilience in her region and contribute to effective disaster planning.

Elif also serves as Events Coordinator for the Columbia Turkish Students Association, where she helps the Turkish community at Columbia feel at home while far from home by organizing events throughout the year. She is interested in human-centered design and innovative solutions, aiming to create resilient, sustainable approaches to support communities.

Ejiro Matilda Ikoko is a visiting PhD student from the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, England. Her research focuses on “Can MaaS be a solution to the mobility needs and challenges of women in low- and middle-income urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa". Ejiro is also a commonwealth scholar and a Next Generation Scholar with the Partnership for Research on Informal and Shared Mobility.

Ece is a graduate student in the M.S. in Enterprise Risk Management program at Columbia University. Originally from Hatay, she graduated from Boğaziçi University with a B.A. in Economics. After graduation, Ece worked in finance in Istanbul and Copenhagen, where she gained a global perspective and honed her skills in strategic planning and project management. Having witnessed the destructive impact of the earthquake in Hatay, Ece brings a personal connection to her role as a Student Project Associate for the project “Building Back Better in Hatay.” She is dedicated to applying her academic knowledge in risk management to this multi-stakeholder, multi-risk-informed project, aiming to support rebuilding efforts in Hatay.

Ece Doğramacı is currently serving as a Student Project Associate at The Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) for the project “Building Back Better in Hatay, Turkey”. Originally from Istanbul, Ece is a senior at Barnard College, majoring in Urban Studies with a minor in Economics. Her research interests cover urbanization and economic development in middle-income countries. Currently, she is in the process of writing her undergraduate thesis on the relationship between women’s workforce participation and early childhood education availability in urban Turkey.

Over the summer, Ece was a Development Intern at Columbia Global, where she researched the global fundraising landscape for national foundations interested in international causes. Previously, Ece served as a Finance Intern at Kolay, a SaaS B2B scale-up in Istanbul, where she conducted market research on the pricing strategies of the company’s newly-acquired Applicant Tracking System.

On campus, Ece is highly active in student leadership and advocacy. She serves as the President of the Columbia Turkish Students Association and the Vice Chair of the Governing Board at Barnard. Ece is an avid film enthusiast, and has two beloved cats back home in Istanbul.

As she continues to explore her professional interests, Ece is excited about her role as a Student Project Associate, and hopes to bring her knowledge of urban studies and economic development to bear in creating sustainable, community-focused solutions for post-earthquake rebuilding efforts in Hatay.

Dr. Ebru Gencer is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. She is also the Founding Director of the Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CUDRR+R) in New York City, a Senior Urban Resilience Adviser at the World Bank, and an Associate Editor of the Progress in Disaster Science Journal.

Ebru Gencer’s teaching, research, and practice addresses issues related with disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, particularly in the international urban contexts. Her doctoral dissertation (Columbia University, 2007) examined “The Interplays between Natural Disasters, Vulnerability and Sustainable Development” and received a World Bank Young Scientist Applied Research Grant. From 2015 to 2020, Ebru Gencer was the Chair of the Urban Planning Advisory Group to UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction. She was also a Steering Committee member of the Making Cities Resilient Campaign (UNDRR) and the Global Alliance for Urban Crises (UN-Habitat). Ebru Gencer has worked on projects in South-Eastern Europe, Turkey, Latin America and the Caribbean regions including with positions at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the Euro-Mediterranean Climate Change Center in Venice, Italy, as well as consultancies for the United Nations system. At CUDRR+R, she undertook a climate resilient and inclusive development project in Colombia, El Salvador, and Argentina. 

Ebru Gencer is the author of several books and articles on the nexus between urban risk, climate change, and sustainable development, among others: Learning Modules on Resilient Cities and Territories (UCLG, UN-Habitat and UNDRR 2020), The Handbook for Local Government Leaders: How to Make Cities More Resilient (UNISDR 2017), The Interplay Between Urban Development, Vulnerability and Risk Management(Springer 2013), (as a coordinating lead author) the Urban Climate Change Research Network’s Second Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and (as a contributing author) Words into Action Guide: Using Traditional and Indigenous Knowledges for Disaster Risk Reduction (ICCROM and UNDRR, 2022).

Architect-urban designer Devangi Ramakrishnan’s work focuses on the realization of inclusive and equitable cities through multidisciplinary, place-based, participatory, community-driven, action research, planning, and design.  A graduate from Leuven in Human Settlements, and the University of Mumbai, her professional experience includes design and construction management of urban riverfronts, parks, streetscapes, and community engagement projects in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Chennai, and Pondicherry . She is a trustee of the Urban Design Collective (UDC), a platform for architects, urban designers and planners to create livable cities through participatory planning. Currently she manages UDC’s strategic initiatives in Pondicherry, providing project-based consultancy to several local, community organizations, and city and state-level government departments. In 2005, Devangi joined Global Studio Istanbul as a student, returning as a Project Associate to Global Studio Bhopal in 2012. She assisted in the 2013-15 CSUD-Global Studio People Building Better Cities: Participation and Inclusive Urbanization traveling exhibition, anchoring PBBC’s India program, and is contributing to the CSUD project, Accelerating the SDGs.

Daniel received a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urbanism(FAU/UFRJ) and a Master's degree in Architecture - Graduate Program in Design and Heritage - PPGP-FAU/UFRJ and is currently a PhD student in Architecture (CAPES scholarship) - PROARQ-FAU/UFRJ and Visiting scholar at Columbia University (CAPES scholarship ). He has worked as a Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Anhanguera University in Niterói-RJ, where he coordinated courses related to final graduation projects, as well as coordinated the college's architecture office. He also worked as a Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Uniredentor in Paraíba do Sul-RJ. Also worked as coordinator of Cultural Heritage in the city of Magé.

His work in the field of Cultural Heritage in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro focuses on established routes and counter-hegemonic discourses as a way of stitching together a new historical, cultural, and territorial understanding. He currently works as a researcher in the SEL/PROARQ-UFRJ Group and in the Heritopolis Society, an international institutional consortium linked to UN-Habitat.

Aya Morris is a Master’s candidate in Sustainable Development Goals at Massey University in New Zealand, and is currently working with the Columbia Climate School as a Visiting Student Researcher for the RCCP through a Fulbright Science and Innovation Award.

Aya received her B.A. in Psychology, her graduate diploma in Educational Psychology, and her minor in English from Massey University. She has worked in a variety of fields including community development, youth development, education, mental health, health and safety, and emergency management.

She has focused her graduate work exploring themes of community participation in environmental sustainability, biodiversity and freshwater management alongside her coastal resiliency research.

Avantika Goswami is a graduate student in the M.S. Sustainability Management program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She has a background in Economics and has worked in management consulting in Mumbai, prior to pursuing her graduate studies in New York City. Her research is focused on mobility and sustainable transportation, resiliency of critical urban infrastructure to climate change effects, and the factors influencing public sector efficacy in furthering a city’s sustainability goals. She has worked with the Chief Economist of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey researching sustainability metrics for large multi-modal transportation agencies. She is interested in examining best practices in sustainability planning by agencies in urban centers in the developed world and exploring their adoption in the context of emerging economies in Asia and beyond. She has a B.A. in Economics (with Honours) from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Ariana Salas-Castillo holds a PhD candidate from the Political Science department at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.A. on Sustainable Territorial Development from a joint program between the University of Padova, KU Leuven, and Paris-Sorbonne 1, as well as a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Costa Rica.

She worked for several years at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE, after its Spanish acronym) in her native Costa Rica. While there, she developed a deep interest in the intersection between inequality and environment.

Ariana has found that one of the areas where this intersection is most palpable is precisely in transportation, particularly public transportation. Actions towards a sustainable and attractive public transportation system transcend climate action as they have also to do with social justice and public health. Her dissertation research tackles on this issue in the Latin American region.

In Fall 2024, Ariana Salas-Castillo joined the Columbia Climate School Postdoctoral Research Program, where she will continue her research, as well as be part of the Partnership for Research on Informal and Shared Mobility (PRISM), a Global Research Consortium around An Equity, Ecosystems and Engaged Approach to Informal Transport and Shared Mobility.

Annel Hernandez works on the Resilient Coastal Communities Project, and teaches environmental justice and climate resiliency at SIPA. Annel is currently the Director of Climate and Environmental Policy at the New York City Council representing District 37 and focusing on sanitation policy. Previously, Annel was the Associate Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. She worked on city and statewide climate policy issues, focusing on local advocacy and research that further equitable investments in coastal resiliency, green infrastructure, renewable energy, and resilient energy systems. Annel also worked on various coalition campaigns to push for more aggressive climate legislation with equity as a central focus. She conducts research on the benefits of an integrated climate resiliency approach and developing pathways to implementation in frontline communities. Annel also worked with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and the Urban Climate Change Research Network at the Earth Institute. A lifelong New Yorker and current resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn, she serves on the Board of Newtown Creek Alliance and previously with BK Rot. Annel received her BA in Political Science and Latino Studies from Fordham University, and her MPA in Energy and Environment from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Anna Rubbo is an architect, educator, and urbanist recognized for creating collaborations that connect universities, professionals, communities, and wider publics in pursuit of more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities. Her research and practice span architecture, urbanism, collaborative learning, and the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a particular focus on participatory approaches to housing, informal settlements, and community development.

Rubbo holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and a Doctor of Architecture from the University of Michigan. She joined CSUD in 2012 after a career as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney.

A member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, Rubbo went on to found and lead Global Studio (2005–2012), an international action research initiative that developed more equitable collaborations between universities, professionals, and residents of informal settlements. The program engaged more than 600 students, academics, and practitioners from 66 universities in over 30 countries through conferences and field programs in Istanbul, Vancouver, Johannesburg, and Bhopal. Global Studio’s work was exhibited at the UN General Assembly, Customs House Sydney, and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Sanitation improvements developed by WASSUP, a Global Studio initiated community organization, were featured in Design with the Other 90% at the Smithsonian Institution.

Building on this work, Rubbo led People Building Better Cities, a traveling exhibition presented in 18 cities across 10 countries, including the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Medellín and the Union of International Architects (UIA) Congress in Durban. She later launched the Local Project Challenge (LPC) at the CSUD Accelerating the SDGs in Cities Urban Thinkers Campus. Featuring 110 innovative community-based projects that advance local SDG implementation, LPC attracted more than 7,000 votes for its People’s Choice Award, presented at WUF10 in Abu Dhabi.

Rubbo’s engagement with the UIA has continued through a range of initiatives. She co-chaired the Resilient Communities track for the 2023 UIA World Congress in Copenhagen, where 65 peer-reviewed papers explored the theme Leave No One Behind: Sustainable Futures. Since 2022, she has served as a judge for the UIA–UN-Habitat 2030 Award, recognizing built projects that advance the SDGs. 

In 2025, she spearheaded the Local Learning Studio (LLS), an initiative showcasing 60+ teaching, learning, and research projects from 20+ countries that, through text and short films, localize the SDGs. Recognizing the importance of inclusive knowledge exchange and multilingual access, LLS asked Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic-speaking contributors to provide dual language submissions. An online Resource Hub supporting knowledge sharing across the built environment completes the project. In 2026, LLS was presented at the World Urban Forum 13 in Baku and the UIA Congress in Barcelona.

Rubbo’s publications, exhibitions, and films explore resilient communities, collaborative learning,  housing in developing countries, and women in architecture. Co-editor of Design for Resilient Communities and author of “They Don’t Listen: Urban Education, the Professions and the Urban Poor”, Rubbo has written extensively on architect Marion Mahony Griffin, curating the exhibition Marion Mahony Griffin: In Her Own Right at the Elmhurst History Museum in Chicago and authoring the 2025 Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Mahony Griffin. A co-founder of Architectural Theory Review with Adrian Snodgrass, she serves on its Advisory Board and co-edited Volume 30, Issue 1 (2026).

A Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, Rubbo has received numerous honors, including the UIA Vassilis Sgoutas Prize Mention for humanitarian work in architectural education, the Neville Quarry Education Award, the US Skandalaris Award for Entrepreneurship in Design, and the Marion Mahony Griffin Prize. She serves on the boards of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU) and Asia Initiatives (AI) and is a member of the Public Space Academy (PSA) Steering Committee.

Through her research, educational leadership, exhibitions, films, publications and international collaborations, Rubbo continues to foster community-centred approaches to architecture and urban development, creating partnerships and knowledge networks that connect diverse audiences and contribute to more resilient, equitable and sustainable cities.

Andrew Kruczkiewicz has more than 10 years of experience working with the humanitarian, development and disaster management sectors, including Red Cross, World Food Programme and World Bank, designing early warning systems, impact-based forecasting standard operating procedures and contributing to the design of global climate policy. Andrew conducts research on extreme weather and climate events focusing on both individual hazards, such as cyclones, floods and other hydrometeorological hazards, as well as compound events. He is involved in the application of climate and weather data including forecasting, risk assessment and integration within policy and decision making. Andrew is Principal Investigator of NASA funded research project: Towards A Global Flood & Flash Flood Early Warning Early Action System Driven by NASA Earth Observations, which seeks to increase the ability to forecast various types of floods, including flash floods, and inform early warning and early action standard operating procedures.He is faculty lecturer in the Columbia Climate School’s Climate and Society graduate program and is Co-Director of the Climate School Network: Sustainable and Resilient Living in an Era of Increasing Disasters.

Anar Amarjargal is from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and is a recent graduate of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, where she majored in Environment and Development. Anar is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Climate and Society at Columbia University, focusing on renewable energy and sustainable investment. Passionate about sustainable urban development, food security, and clean energy transitions, she aims to craft climate policies, lead green infrastructure projects, and bridge Mongolia to global climate action, ensuring no community is left behind.

Anar is working with CSUD's Building Back Better in Hatay project.

Ana is a Brazilian researcher and economist with experience in management in public affairs at Natura&Co –Brazil's leading beauty developer and one of the world's largest B-Corporations. She holds an MSc in Urban Ecologies from Parsons School of Design, where she developed her MS thesis on alternative water supply systems that emerged in São Paulo, Brazil, following the drought and water accessibility crisis of 2015. Now, as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, she explore in her dissertation the implementation of household energy retrofits in Madrid, where, despite policy efforts to speed up decarbonization initiatives, progress is falling short of meeting the European Union’s 2030 climate-neutral targets.

See her 2021 Essay Following the Footsteps of the Caretakers: Parquo Do Flamengo

Amelia Ding, an undergraduate student attending Barnard College at Columbia University, is majoring in Environment and Sustainability with a minor in Science and Public Policy. Passionate about exploring intersectional approaches to climate change, environmental justice, and policy, Amelia has interned at The Office of Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand as well as The Resilient Coastal Communities Project. As part of her work with the RCCP team, Amelia has focused on the Fair and Accountable Spaces Research Project as well as contributing to RCCP's chapter titled "Transparency, accountability and justice: why governments must share flood protection planning leadership with frontline communities" in the Urban20 Book titled Urban Sustainable Development: governance, finance, and politics. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in law to further her impact in this field.

Allison Iris Arlotta is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s MS in Historic Preservation program and currently works with CSUD on the collaborative research project, Urban Heritage, Sustainability, and Social Inclusion: A Preservation Policy Initiative. As a Data Fellow for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, she contributed to the agency’s Discover New York City Landmarks project, a publicly accessible interactive online map of the city’s 36,000 buildings with historic designation. She wrote her award-winning master’s thesis on the reciprocal relationship, and areas of potential collaboration, between historic preservation and waste management.

Alison Chetty is a PhD Candidate in Transportation Engineering at the University of Pretoria, South
Africa. She is assessing the implications of incremental bus rapid transit system design approaches in
Sub-Saharan African cities.

Alison worked in Traffic and Transportation Planning at SMEC South Africa, before joining academia.
She completed a Master of Science in Engineering (Civil Engineering) at the University of KwaZulu
Natal, focusing on operational greenhouse gas emissions of public transportation. Her research
interests include social equity, sustainability, transport planning and policy.

Akil Amiraly investigates the diffusion and adoption of innovative technologies within urban infrastructure systems in developing countries. His research explores how innovations in basic service (water, electricity and mobility systems) interact with  local managerial practices and consumption behaviors. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in Indian cities and in East Africa, he examines the complex interactions between public and private service provision, technological systems, social contexts, and human behavior. His qualitative research emphasizes the sociotechnical dynamics of infrastructure projects, with a particular focus on technologies such as water metering, solar photovoltaic systems, and electric mobility. Akil’s work delves into how these technologies are introduced, adopted, and integrated into everyday life, considering both managerial aspects and the lived experiences of users.

He is a recipient of the Alliance Program grant for two research projects developed at Ecole polytechnique (i3-CRG) in collaboration with the Columbia Climate School. One ongoing project examines the expansion of electric mobility systems and the provision of doorstep water delivery in Indian cities, in partnership with the Center for Urban Sustainable Development (J. Klopp). The other, now completed, focused on the reform of tariffs of water kiosks, in collaboration with the Columbia Water Center (V. Modi, U. Lall) and the Indian Institute of Science.

He holds a Ph.D. in Management from the École Polytechnique and a Master's degree in Development Studies from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, reflecting his multidisciplinary academic background.

Recent Publications: 

The hybrid domain for energy in India: A case study exploring the diffusion of off-grid solar power
Amiraly A., Sawamura H., & Williams C. (2025)

The difficult reappropriation of an ancient technical knowledge: Rainwater harvesting in Ahmedabad (India)
Amiraly A. (2025)

Diffusing water management know-how between a French MNE and an Indian utilities company in Chennai, India: La mayonnaise n’a pas pris
Amiraly A. (2025) 

Electric moto-taxis innovation in low income countries: A rider’s perspective in Kampala. 
Prime N., Amiraly A., Hasannia Kolaee M., Kasaija P. (2023)

Sushmita Shekar is an Urban design professional at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and holds a Master's degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, New York. Trained in Architecture, Urban Design, and Urban Strategy, she has worked on professional urban projects in six-plus countries with a consistent focus on sustainability, carbon reduction, and livability. As a licensed Architect in India, she worked on complex master planning projects, notably with Pritzker Prize Laureate Balkrishna Doshi.

Sushmita is a Consultative Delegate for Asia Initiatives at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), where she delivers both written and oral statements at various UN convenings, including UN-Habitat and UNDP. She participated in the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum 2023 held at the UN Headquarters in New York, which aimed to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In 2022, she was a Fellow at the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, where she researched on localization and implementation of UN SDGs. She is also a Junior Board Member of Asia Initiatives, a non-profit organization that works with global communities to improve their neighborhoods and well-being. In 2021, Sushmita Shekar was nominated by Metropolis magazine as Future 100 designers in the US and Canada region.