ANA ISABEL BAPTISTA, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center

Dr. Ana Isabel Baptista is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management graduate program at The New School University. Dr. Baptista works on environmental justice policies, climate mitigation, renewable energy policies, environmental planning, zero waste systems, cumulative impacts analysis, and goods movement mitigation strategies.

Dr. Baptista was appointed to the Fourth New York City Panel on Climate Change, where she co-chairs the Equity Workgroup. She serves on the Executive Advisory Council of the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH). She is an Associate Editor for the Environmental Justice Journal and the Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice. Dr. Baptista is an active member of the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform and the Moving Forward Network. She is currently the principal investigator for the National Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship program housed at the Tishman Center. Dr. Baptista serves on the Board of Trustees for the Victoria Foundation, GAIA, the Ironbound Community Corp., and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. Dr. Baptista is also an appointed member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) Carbon Management Workgroup. Read the WHEJAC Recommendations: Carbon Management Workgroup, published on November 17, 2023, here.

She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, an M.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

To learn more about Dr. Baptista’s publications, see her faculty profile.

JOEL TOWERS

Co-Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center

University Professor

Former Executive Dean of Parsons School of Design

Joel Towers is a Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Parsons School of Design in The School of Constructed Environments.  He is also a University Professor at The New School.  In 2009 he was appointed Executive Dean of Parsons School of Design.  He finished his second term in that role in 2019 and, after a decade of service, returned to the faculty.  

Towers joined Parsons in January of 2004 as a member of the full-time faculty and the first Director of Sustainable Design and Urban Ecology.  In 2006 he was named Associate Provost for Environmental Studies and founded The Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. The Tishman Center fosters the integration of bold design, policy, and social justice approaches to environmental issues to advance just and sustainable outcomes in collaboration with communities.  From 2007-2009 he was the founding Dean of The School of Design Strategies and Associate Dean of Parsons.  In 2019 Towers was named to the leadership group of the NPCC (The New York City Panel on Climate Change) which reports to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Resilience and is charged with providing authoritative, actionable information on future climate change and its potential impacts to support City decision-making.

Towers received a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Michigan School of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. In 1992, after working with William McDonough Architects where he directed projects including The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability that helped codify that firm’s environmental thinking, Towers co-founded Sislian Rothstein and Towers Architects. For eighteen years SR+T completed award-winning projects and was a testing ground for the integration of research, scholarship and creative practice.

MICHELLE J. DEPASS

Senior Advisor, Tishman Environment and Design Center

Michelle J. DePass is the President of DePass Paulson Advisors and the Immediate Past President of Meyer Memorial Trust. From 2013 to 2018, Michelle served as Dean of the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy and Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center, which she re-launched in 2015, reinvigorating The New School’s commitment to sustainability rooted in social justice and community collaboration.

Throughout her career, Michelle has been a champion of social, economic, and environmental justice for people of color, women, indigenous peoples, and low-income communities, as she served as a civil rights lawyer; a senate-confirmed presidential appointee in the Obama Administration; a program officer at the Ford Foundation; and the founding Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.

ADRIENNE PEROVICH

Managing Director

Adrienne Perovich provides strategic leadership around the Center’s mission, strategies and operational functions. She oversees staff development, operations and administrative processes, financial management, and funder organizing - aligning our operations with our values and ensuring objectives are met effectively. Adrienne collaborates closely with departments across the university and with our grassroots, community-based partners.

She works to ensure staff and Center initiatives are aligned with the Jemez and Environmental Justice Principles. Before coming to the Tishman Center, Adrienne served as Program Manager at Seedco, overseeing their housing counseling program and assisting with their work supports initiative. Prior to Seedco, she worked at The Posse Foundation. Adrienne has an MPA from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a BA from SUNY at New Paltz.

ANGÉLICA SALAZAR

Communications Lead

Angélica (she/her/ella) leads our work to develop visionary communication strategies across the Tishman Center’s initiatives, including campus engagement and events and external research and advocacy projects co-produced with partners in the environmental and climate justice movement.

Angélica brings over 15 years of experience as a strategic communications and public relations specialist to organizations, elected officials, and institutions, including Hispanics in Philanthropy, The New Mexico State Senate, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Washington Office on Latin America, among others. As a cross-cultural facilitator and popular educator, Angélica has directed semester-long study abroad and faculty-led programs in partnership with the University of La Habana, Cuba, primarily for Arcadia University and Brown University.

For two decades, she has worked with frontline, grassroots, and community-based organizations and coalitions. Angélica has co-led several international delegations to movement-building spaces, including the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia, the alternative forum at COP16 in Cancun, the People’s Conference at the Rio +20, and to Standing Rock.

Angélica has a BA in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley and an MPA from CUNY Baruch College, where she was a National Urban Fellow. Angélica resides in the unceded homelands of the Tewa people in O’Ga P’Ogeh Owingeh (Santa Fe), New Mexico— where she grows seeds and community on her ancestral lands.

SUSAN AUSTIN

Project Director

Susan Austin (she/they) is a highly collaborative leader with a focus on radical care. She brings expertise in narrative storytelling, competency in climate and the environment and progressive administrative success in higher education. Susan recently completed an MS in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at the New School, exploring radical care as a foundation for addressing the climate crisis.

She previously worked in higher education, supporting students in adult development and holistic health. Prior to higher education, Susan worked in script development, screenwriting and documentary production. As a young adult, she was deeply impacted by volunteering for hospice and her feature-length documentary This American Death took a personal look at the challenges of achieving a so-called good death. Stories, relationships and care are at the heart of Susan’s work and life—which are centered in the Hudson Valley and begin and end with her partner and their child.

ANGELA MAHECHA

Director, Ripe for Creative Disruption: Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship

Angela Mahecha is a Climate Justice leader originally from Colombia. She was previously the Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, where she centered the national influence of 74 frontline urban and rural alliances, movement-support organizations, and base-building grassroots groups to move forward a Just Transition and Just Recovery. She has served as a leader of multiple organizations including: It Takes Roots, the Rising Majority, La Via Campesina North America, US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the Rural Coalition, Friends of People Affected by Dams from Brazil, and the Green New Deal National Network. As a natural weaver, she facilitates relationships between sectors such as greens, philanthropy, and now academia, with those on the frontlines. In her advisory roles with partners like the Mosaic Fund and others, she has been able to move millions to the grassroots. Angela splits her time between New Jersey and Florida with her two kids, partner, and the occasional manatee.

MAROUH HUSSEIN

Director of Impact and Learning

Marouh leads organizational and programmatic monitoring, innovation, evaluation, and learning (MIEL) activities for the Fellowship and spearheads sharing progress with key partners, including the fellows, alumni, movement leaders, and funders.

Prior, she was a Community Coaching Manager at Partnerships for Parks, where she provided tailored organizational development support to green space community organizations across NYC.

Marouh got her start in the environmental and food justice movement as an intern with Project Harmony, Inc., and also previously held a position with Global Cities, Inc., a program of Bloomberg Philanthropies, promoting global sustainability education. She has an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in Environmental Studies from SUNY Stony Brook. Marouh is a native New Yorker with no shortage of Uptown pride. During her time off can be found volunteering at a beautiful community garden in Harlem.

TAYLOR GRIGGS

Operations and Events Manager, Ripe for Creative Disruption: Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship

Taylor Griggs (she/her) manages the day-to-day operations of the EJ Movement Fellowship. Taylor comes to The New School with nearly a decade of experience implementing administrative systems for mission-aligned nonprofit and philanthropic organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In her most recent roles, she served as the Administrative Coordinator for Mosaic, a participatory grantmaking initiative investing in movement infrastructure for environmental justice groups. She also served as Executive Assistant to the President at the Akonadi Foundation in Oakland, CA and supported the foundation’s initiatives to invest in racial justice organizing & policy advocacy 

Taylor is a native of Richmond, CA and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Taylor is also an avid theater patron, producer and blogger who reviews culturally competent theatrical productions (Regional, Off-Broadway, Broadway) from coast to coast.

TERI BREZNER

Lead Curriculum Developer & Facilitator, Ripe for Creative Disruption: Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship

Teri is a multicultural facilitator, trainer and curriculum designer with roots in Guyana, Canada and the US. For the last 15 years Teri has designed and facilitated curricula for hundreds of grassroots social movement leaders as a Program Director at the Environmental Leadership Program and 350.org and as a Curriculum consultant with national and international organizations like Democracy Spring, Rare, Peace Corps, 2Seeds and Phelps Stokes. Whether coordinating a week-long webinar training series for over 1000 volunteers to participate in a day of direct action for democracy or building a year long leadership fellowship program for a network of emerging BIPOC leaders to redefine the conservation movement, Teri brings anti-oppressive, participatory and liberation approaches to community development and curricula design. 

Teri has a Master’s in Adult Learning and Global Change from the University of British Columbia and BA in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Richmond. She is a leadership fellow at the Environmental Leadership Program and the Rockwood Institute. 

Teri spends her free time savoring the outdoors with her partner and son, dancing, reading and exploring food, music and culture through local and international travel.

PATRICIA CORATDO

Program and Communications Associate, Ripe for Creative Disruption: Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship

Patricia is the Program and Communications Associate of the EJ Movement Fellowship. She is a queer Filipina immigrant from Newark, NJ. She is also a digital storyteller through Kapwang Tao Media LLC., in collaboration with Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) and New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA). She has led different social media campaigns through the CompassionateNJ Coalition, #StopTheSludge Campaign and Down Bottom Farms covering housing, environmental, social, and food justice initiatives. She is a community organizer through Allies4Justice and focuses her work doing community advocacy in Newark, NJ. Patricia has dedicated her life to art, and organizing with her community.

YUKYAN LAM

Research Director and Senior Scientist

Yukyan Lam is Research Director and Senior Scientist at the Tishman Center, where she helps develop and manage the Center's portfolio of climate and environmental justice research. Her work aims to support environmental justice organizations and coalitions in their advocacy at the local, state and federal levels.

Yukyan’s experience also includes research and advocacy on human rights, health, and environmental challenges in Latin America and Bangladesh. Her expertise draws on public health, spatial analysis, community-based science, and qualitative research methods. She holds a BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

JENNIFER SANTOS RAMIREZ

Senior Research Analyst

Jenn is the Senior Researcher who will lead and contribute to research projects with a wide range of Center partners and help shape and seed a research agenda specifically focused on supporting the work of the climate and environmental justice movements. As a former Research Assistant for the Center, Jenn has contributed to several research projects that intersect with climate justice organizing, disaster management, social justice philanthropy, and participatory processes. Jenn completed her Ph.D. in Public and Urban Policy at The New School’s Milano School for International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy in May 2022. She has also recently taught courses in Introduction to Politics, American Public Policy, Environmental Politics, and Environmental Justice at Fordham University.

Before her work at the Center, she worked for over ten years in non-profit management, including in program and membership development for environmental conservation organizations, such as the National Audubon Society, Wildlife Conservation Society, and The New York Botanical Garden. She has also provided external consulting services for local community-based organizations in New Jersey and New York, including programs as varied as low-income housing development, substance abuse treatment, social services for those with HIV/AIDS, financial literacy, youth education, and workforce development. Jenn loves traveling to new places, reading science fiction and fantasy novels, crocheting, baking, and playing board games with her kids.

ANNA YULSMAN

Research Analyst

Anna collaborates on all aspects of the Tishman Center's community based participatory action research under the direction of EJ leaders and scholars. She contributes to background research, data collection and organization, data visualization, report writing, and relationship building with community partners. She also assists with the design of the methodology for research projects as well as providing technical guidance to project patterns to execute data collection, visualization and mapping for the dissemination and use of research results. Prior to her role as research analyst, Anna was a program coordinator with the center where she also helped run the operations and communications of the center. Anna has a MA from the New School in Theories of Urban Practice. Her passions include trying new foods and dance.

DRAKE REED

Special Project Manager

Drake Reed is responsible for managing projects related to the New York City Panel of Climate Change and other collaborative initiatives relating to environmental justice through the Tishman Center. He collaborates closely with partner universities analyzing climate vulnerability, impact, and adaptation.

Drake contributes to grant reports, logistics, and developing engagement with community-based stakeholders. Prior to his role as a Special Project Manager, Drake was a research assistant with Parsons Housing Justice Lab where he worked in housing advocacy. Drake has a MS from the New School in Design and Urban Ecologies where he was a Creative Fellow for the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence and Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies.

MIKE HARRINGTON

Sustainability Engagement Director

Mike is responsible for supporting the work of the Tishman Center by liaising with offices and departments throughout the university and implementing projects that advance The New School’s commitment to sustainability and environmental justice. Before joining the TEDC team, Mike worked at Elevate Energy, organizing around creating equity in the energy efficiency market.

He obtained his Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from The New School and has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in Psychology, with a specialization in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and was a 2019 Urban Design Forum Forefront Fellow and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Delta Institute, an environmental non-profit. He is currently a Ph.D. student at The New School studying urban design from an environmental justice perspective.

KAMRIN HARBIN

Operations Manager

Kamrin is a social justice advocate originally from Las Vegas, Nevada. She brings over 15 years of social justice programming and operational experience to the team. While her background is rooted in youth, gender and racial justice advocacy, she is looking forward to using her knowledge and experience to further the Tishman Center’s environmental justice mission.

She joined The New School in 2018 as a Program Administrator for the School of Design Strategies and is excited to hone in the operational skills acquired there and take them to the next level with the Tishman Center. Kamrin is an applied theatre practitioner, and co-founder of Mirrors of Blackness an applied theatre company whose artistic lens is currently focused on connecting intergenerational communities within the Black Diaspora. She can often be found dancing, working on her latest DIY project or enjoying a nature walk with her husband and their newborn daughter.

LEONARDO FIGUEROA HELLAND

Associate Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center

Associate Professor and Chair of the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program

Leonardo E Figueroa Helland (PhD) is Chair and Associate Professor of the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management graduate (MS) program at The New School university (Lenapehoking/Manahatta/New York City). He leads the Indigeneity, Decolonization and Just Sustainability Section of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. A decolonizing scholar of mix-blood/mestizo heritage (Indigenous Mesoamerican and Euro-American), his work underlines the centrality of Indigenous resurgence and revitalization in addressing planetary crises, achieving climate justice and materializing systemic change. His writings appear, inter alia, in the Journal of World Systems Research, the journal Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, the volume on Social Movements and World-System Transformation, and the volumes on Anarchist Political Ecology, on Contesting Extinctions: Critical Relationality, Regenerative Futures, as well as the forthcoming NYU Environmental Law Journal (ELJ)--Special Volume on “Free the Land—Land Tenure and Stewardship Reimagined”. His current projects include a manuscript prospectively titled “Anthropocene” Collapse / Indigenous Resurgence: From Planetary Crises to Decolonization.

MIA WHITE

Associate Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Mia Charlene White, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Studies in the Schools for Public Engagement at The New School. Originally from Queens, Mia identifies as a Black woman of African American and Korean descent. She is a proud mother of two creative children and has been recognized for transformation and healing-centered teaching methods with a 2021 university-wide Social Justice Teaching award. Mia did her PhD in urban planning at MIT, her master of international affairs at Columbia, and her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at SUNY Stonybrook.

For the last few years, Mia has been engaged in multiple conversations linking land and housing justice for a new social contract, and is working on her first book manuscript exploring reparations through housing and land decommodification models. She is a 2022-2023 Mellon Faculty Fellow and serves as Associate Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center, and Associate Director of the Housing Justice Lab at Parsons. She co-leads the BIPOC Planners Collective @ Planners Network; is an ongoing member of the Black Geographers Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers (AAG); is a appointed member of the South Orange Village (NJ) Zoning Board of Adjustment, and is an elected member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Mia works with several community-based organizations in NJ and NYC to deliver political education on affordable housing, environmental justice, and racial justice. She was recently a jurist for the inaugural Bandung 2022 Artists Residency recently launched by A4 and MoCADA, a new program to foster solidarity and understanding between Black and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities in NYC. Mia's work is interdisciplinary, situated among radical planners, geographers, urban theorists, sociologists and historians seeking to link social science, humanities, and protest.