Students from Grand Army Plaza

CUP and CUP teaching artist Cassie Thornton worked with students from College Now at Brooklyn College on an Urban Investigation about what it would take to make a big change on Grand Army Plaza. Those students were: Najilah Desravines, Rebecca Leger, Stephanie Camacho, Daniel Linton, Jessie Chen, Iseult Leger, Carolyn Henry-Williams, Khalila Blake, Lynn Dominick.

Leslie McBeth

Leslie McBeth is an educator who doesn’t like classrooms.  She spends most of her time as a high school teacher in Toronto taking students out of the school building and into the community.  Leslie coordinates the school’s Service Learning program, which sees 200 students volunteering in their community every week.  As a member of the Radical Education Research Collective (RERC), Leslie exchanges ideas with educators who believe the future of learning will be radically different.  In her former life in New York City, Leslie was an advocate for improving public space and civic engagement as part of the dynamic team at the Design Trust for Public Space.

Valeria Mogilevich

Valeria is a visual storyteller who creates tools for participation in collaboration with social justice organizations. She also consults with cultural institutions, education non-profits, and others on community engagement and youth education. Valeria was formerly the Deputy Director of CUP, where over the course of eight years she created popular education tools with community-based organizations and developed curricula to help public high school students change the way the see their own neighborhoods. She has shared her thoughts on project-based learning, collaboration, and design for social impact at places like the New Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, and institutions from Indianapolis to Rotterdam. Valeria holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media.

Justin Cassano

Justin Cassano is an animator and designer based in Brooklyn, New York.  With a background in traditional animation and an aesthetic rooted in strong design, Justin aims to create work that satisfies and engages viewers.  Visit justincassano.com to see what he’s been up to lately.

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over fifteen years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she was identified as one of the “Public Interest Design 100.” She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Andy Kennedy

Andy Kennedy is a freelance animator/filmmaker/musician living in Brooklyn. He is a RISD graduate with a BFA in film/video/animation. His most recent stop-motion animated film, Accumulonimbus, has screened at film festivals and on computer screens worldwide. In collaboration with CUP, Andy has animated corn in Bodega Down Bronx, and made sewer sounds for H2 Oh No! His work can be seen at andykennedy.net

Pema Domingo-Barker

Pema was CUP’s Program Assistant for youth education programs. She previously worked at the Queens Museum and was a Public Allies New York fellow. Pema grew up in Bangkok and went on to study art at the University of Washington and the University of the Arts London.

Students from Happy Meals?

A group of students in Sarah Harrington’s ESL class at the Academy of Urban Planning worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and CUP teaching artist Chelsea Wagner to find out about fast food workers’ rights. Those students were Karla Alvarez, Shi-hao Chen, Miguel Collado, Cristofer Crisanto, Karla De la Cruz, Emiliana Diaz, Adonis Diaz Rodriguez, Tenzin Dolma, Maria Duran, Javier Estevez, Roberto Guzman, Arlenis Jiminez Cruz, Christopher Joaquin, Vanessa Juarez, Christian Macas, Crismeldy Maria, Nataly Maria, Javier Mateo, Edward Mejia, Jason Mendez, Angel Miguel Sanchez, Alexis Montenegro, Janet Muñoz, Melissa Ortiz, Jenny Palchizaca, Mayra Perez, Jonathan Perez, Merliny Reyes, Anthony Rodriguez, Wilmer Roman, Nashali Rosario, Freylin Santos, Leonardo Santos, and Cesar Vasquez.

Valeria Mogilevich

Valeria is a visual storyteller who creates tools for participation in collaboration with social justice organizations. She also consults with cultural institutions, education non-profits, and others on community engagement and youth education. Valeria was formerly the Deputy Director of CUP, where over the course of eight years she created popular education tools with community-based organizations and developed curricula to help public high school students change the way the see their own neighborhoods. She has shared her thoughts on project-based learning, collaboration, and design for social impact at places like the New Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, and institutions from Indianapolis to Rotterdam. Valeria holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media.

Fielding Hong

Fielding is a Youth Education Program Manager at CUP. He has over 10 years of experience as a youth educator working at the intersections of history, the arts, and social justice. Fielding has worked as both a high school history teacher in Philadelphia and a museum educator in New York. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, a teaching degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s in Culture and Gender Studies from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Leigh Taylor

Leigh was CUP’s Development & Program Coordinator. She is a recent graduate from Bard College, where she studied Sociology with a focus on Gender & Labor. Following college, Leigh has worked for organizations invested in social justice education for young people, specifically youth from historically marginalized communities. She is involved in movements of justice for domestic workers, incarcerated folks, and young people of color. She is excited to work with CUP to create accessible tools for people from communities like hers.

Adhikaar

Adhikaar, meaning rights in Nepali, is a nonprofit organization working in Nepali-speaking communities to promote human rights and social justice for all. Adhikaar provides a safe space for diverse Nepali-speaking new immigrant communities to gather, develop life skills and leadership, and be a voice for social justice.

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over fifteen years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she was identified as one of the “Public Interest Design 100.” She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Welcome Workshop

Welcome Workshop is a New York-based silk screening, illustration, and design collaborative between Anny Oberlink and Maggie Prendergast. We provide alternatives to large-scale, anonymous production and are driven by our belief that design can engage a broad audience. We’ve concluded that sitting alone at the computer pales in comparison to working together and have made teamwork and collaboration our modus operandi. As designers, we choose to negotiate between digital and analog, creating work through pen and paper as well as the mouse.  Welcome Workshop has collaborated with Victoria Yee Howe at Family Business Gallery, NY, Kiosk, NY, Invisible Export Gallery, NY, Project Space, BC and Neighbour, BC.

Pilar Finuccio

Pilar Finuccio is a Community Education Program Manager at CUP.  She is a visual designer and researcher with a commitment to creative practice and social justice. She spends her time advocating for the creation and preservation of communities, exploring methods of collaboration, and working on her listening skills. Before joining CUP, she was a Design Research Fellow at Public Policy Lab, a Communications Designer for The Department of Small Business Services’ Neighborhood Development Division, and the In-house Graphic Designer for O, Miami Poetry Festival. She received her MFA  in Design for Social Innovation from the School of Visual Arts and her BFA in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University’s  College of Design. When she’s not at CUP, she’s selling vegetables for Conuco Farm at the Ft. Greene Farmers Market or fixing something her dog, Roz, chewed.

Mark Torrey

Mark Torrey was a Community Education Program Manager for CUP, working on Making Policy Public and the Envisioning Development Toolkits. Previously he spent a good long while working as an Information Technology Specialist (computer guy) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, but then decided to firm up his understanding of cities by getting a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. He wears his pants in the Highwater fashion, which most of the CUP staff find to be ridiculous, but it keeps his pants from getting caught in the bike chain.

He was a CUP staff member 2011-2020.

Siyona Ravi

Siyona is CUP’s Program & Communications Coordinator. Before joining CUP, she worked on several creative advocacy projects, including the Fundred Project, a campaign led by artist Mel Chin, and a documentary film for a TGNC branch of a sex workers’ labor union in Kolkata, India. In 2019 she was a Create Change Fellow with the Laundromat Project. She holds a BA in Visual Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She was born in Bangalore, grew up in Chicago, and now lives Crown Heights, where you can find her making a mess in the kitchen. 

Sucharitha Yelimeli

Sucharitha Yelimeli is CUP’s Program Coordinator. She hails from Northern California, and has a background in architecture, art, and teaching. Before coming to CUP she designed single-family homes and before that, was an art teacher. She’s interested in how people respond to design, especially at the city scale, and likes taking seemingly unapproachable ideas and making them friendlier. Some things she enjoys doing on the side are getting lost in a good book, making very intricate coffee cup doodles, and trying to win the affection of street cats.