Tishman Center Co-Director Announcement
The Tishman Environment and Design Center is pleased to announce a new Co-Director structure. Professors Ana Baptista and Joel Towers will now be sharing leadership of the Center. Ana Baptista and Joel Towers have both been instrumental in the founding and shaping of the center over the last fifteen years. Joel’s background in sustainable design and Ana’s longstanding involvement in the Environmental Justice Movement make for a deeply complementary partnership as the TIshman Center’s co-directors. This leadership approach embodies the Tishman Center’s commitment to shared leadership grounded in interdisciplinary, diversity and social justice principles.
Ana Baptista's fierce commitment to supporting frontline environmental justice communities and shaping the center into a safe space within academia for movement support has operationalized our mission through the development of collaborative, action-based research projects and public programming. Ana’s leadership throughout the years has enabled the Center to build trusted relationships and connections with the environmental justice movement, something that we will continue to cultivate through our work.
Joel Towers was the founding director of TEDC in 2006 and his experience in design pedagogy and research has catalyzed the Center to engage critically in how we operationalize our mission, and innovate processes at the center. His expertise has also guided the Center’s focus on effective climate communication, disseminating and amplifying our work through the center’s various projects. His leadership has enabled us to expand the reach and impact of the Center’s environmental justice and climate curriculum, programming and research across the university.
We, as a center, are proud to have leadership that is not afraid to engage with issues of equity, justice and community collaboration and we will continue our mission of advancing bold policy, design, and social justice approaches to advance climate and environmental justice at The New School and in the world at large.