Ligia Guallpa

Ligia Guallpa is Executive Director of Worker’s Justice Project (WJP), a New York-based immigrant workers’ rights organization that is winning better working conditions for low-wage immigrant workers. At WJP, Ligia has spearheaded efforts to ensure safe and dignified jobs for NYC’s 2,000 day laborers, construction workers, and domestic workers. Through her leadership, WJP played a key role in building alternative economic and organizing models to transform the conditions for female day laborers in the house cleaning industry and enforce higher wages and safety standards in the post Hurricane Sandy reconstruction. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, and The New York Daily News.

Tamara Gubernat

is a documentary filmmaker, multi-media artist, educator, and native Brooklynite. Through her work, she sets out to demystify urban planning and policy issues using the creative process to empower individuals to take a proactive role in shaping their communities. Tamara’s first documentary, "Rezoning Harlem: The battle over Harlem’s future” continues to be used as a community organizing tool to engage viewers in meaningful discussion about complex land use issues both locally in NYC and beyond. In her upcoming documentary, “Open Process: local democracy in one corner of Brooklyn” she turns the lens on her own community of Greenpoint/Williamsburg, taking a closer look at Brooklyn Community Board 1 as the existing, though imperfect, forum for local citizen participation. Tamara also teaches Video Production and Media Studies in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College. 

Tia Guerrier

Tia was CUP’s Spring and Summer 2020 intern. A recent graduate of Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School where she completed her BA in Literary Studies with a concentration in Poetry. Her work focuses on how language can cast new meaning, translate the invisible, and illustrate the importance of connection and community. She is a current graduate student at The New School for Public Engagement MFA in Creative Writing, Publishing & Design, and will continue to center community and civic engagement in her professional and academic pursuits.

Codi Haigney

Codi was CUP’s 2018-2019 Public Ally. She holds a BA in Feminist & Gender Studies from Colorado College. She is excited to learn more about design as a tool for social change and community development. Codi interned and continues to work with the Parole Preparation Project, an organization that provides advocacy and direct support to currently and formerly incarcerated people and seeks to transform the parole release process in New York State. 

Sabrina Hall

Sabrina Hall is a Senior Product Design Manager at Etsy. With a career spanning over fourteen years, she currently teaches at City Tech, and was co-chair of AIGA NY’s Mentoring program. Sabrina is passionate about writing and speaking on accessibility in design, creating opportunities for emerging designers and advocating for equity within the field of design.

Anthony Hamboussi

Anthony Hamboussi is a photographer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Hamboussi published his first monograph, “Newtown Creek: a Photographic Survey of New York’s Industrial Waterway,” with Princeton Architectural Press in 2010 and is completing work on his forthcoming book, “La Petite Ceinture.” Hamboussi is the recipient of the 2008 Graham Foundation grant for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts; the 2007 and 2003 New York State Council on the Arts Independent Project Grant in Architecture, Planning & Design; the 2009 Camera Club of New York Darkroom Residency; and the 2007-2008 Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Studio Residency, and has exhibited his work internationally. Hamboussi is currently working on “Ashwai’yyat: A Photographic Archive of Cairo’s Informal Settlements.”

Laura Hansen

Laura Hansen is the Executive Director of Neighborhood Plaza Partnership, a new initiative of the Horticultural Society of New York, providing resources and assistance to  neighborhood plaza managers across New York City.  From 2003 to 2013, Ms. Hansen served as Director of the City Life Program for The J. M. Kaplan Fund where she was responsible for awarding grants to non-profit organizations working to improve the common infrastructure of public life:  the parks, waterfronts, plazas, and streets of New York City.  As a co-founder of Place Matters (a project of the Municipal Art Society and City Lore), Ms. Hansen helped pioneer a multi-disciplinary approach to documenting and preserving the city’s cultural landscape.

Tomer Hanuka

Tomer Hanuka is an illustrator and a cartoonist based in New York City. He works on a range of projects for magazines, book publishers, ad agencies and film studios. His Clients include The New Yorker, D.C comics, Nike and Microsoft. He has won multiple gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication designers, and was showcased in Print magazine and American Illustration. In 2008 a book cover he created won the British Design Museum award as part of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary for which Tomer contributed art, was nominated for an Oscar in 2009, and won the Golden Globe that same year. He is currently developing an animated series for Canal Plus and working on a graphic novel for First Second.

Tomer was a MPP juror.

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.

Lindsay Harris

Lindsay is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, cultural worker, and educator based in Brooklyn. She loves teaching outside of the classroom and her work engages cross-media explorations of identity and community. She was the teaching artist for Lotto Zone, an urban investigation that explores how the lottery really works. Check out her most recent project here

Aisha Haynes

Ms. Haynes is an English Language Arts teacher at the Academy of Urban Planning and has worked on several City Studies projects with CUP. 

Luisa Henao

Hola, I’m Luisa, a graphic designer from Colombia currently based in Brooklyn. I believe in the power of design as a tool to start conversations, make complex topics more accessible, and mobilize people towards a common goal. I received my MFA in Design Authorship and Entrepreneurship from the School of Visual Arts in 2015, and have experience working on printed matter, editorial, branding, and motion graphic projects for diverse clients such as UN Women, the Knight Foundation, the Parkinsons Foundation, the International Book Fair of Bogotá, and a number of independent visual artists.

When I am not designing, I can be found exploring new neighborhoods on my bike, cooking for friends and friends of friends, or in nature. Always in the company of a good book and a cup of tea.

Jacob Hernandez

Jacob is a native Texan and recent graduate of the Parsons The New School for Design BFA Communication Design program. During his time at Parsons, his interest for design and social justice within urban and social landscapes was shaped through collaborative-based classes, community-driven projects, and internship opportunities with local non-profit organizations. His senior thesis project focused on responding to the needs of LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness by designing participatory tools that worked to affirm and empower LGBT young people. He plans to continue to explore his passion for advocacy through his design practice and volunteer opportunities. 

You can also find Jacob playing ultimate frisbee in Prospect Park, embarking on cityscape photo adventures, or eating tasty veggie burgers at his favorite vegan restaurant in Greenwich Village. 

Gisselle Hernández

Gisselle Hernández is a 21-year-old who is a proud queer Chicana that was born and raised in Little Village, Chicago. She is currently studying at the Trinity/ La MaMa Program in NYC and is focusing on visual arts and social justice. Within her artistic work, themes of healing and growth are always prominent. As a daughter of immigrants, Gisselle’s goal in life is to give back to her communities by opening her own art programs that will provide resources for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and migrant youth to uplift them and give them the artistic means to heal. When searching for an internship, she found that CUP was the perfect fit for her as we use design and art to contribute to meaningful social change within marginalized by meeting their needs.

Julie Hertzog

Julie Hertzog is Executive Director of the Affordable Housing Investors Council, an association of companies that invest in the US housing tax credit.  Prior to joining AHIC, she was Chief Operating Officer for Seedco; Amnesty International of the USA; and The After-School Corporation.  She also served as Program Director for the New York City office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, overseeing $100 million in annual investments in community development projects and the asset management of over $850 million in investments in affordable housing.  Julie joined the Board of CUP in 2010 and became Treasurer in 2011.