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.

Manuel Miranda

Manuel Miranda is designer and owner at MMP manuelmiranda.info, a critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art, and an AIGA New York board member. MMP’s current work includes identities, exhibitions, websites, and publications for the Center for Architecture, City of New York, Metropolis Magazine, the Nike Foundation, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at The New School, and Van Alen Institute. Prior to establishing his own practice, Manuel was an art director at 2×4, Inc. and a designer at Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy and Mather. He earned his M.F.A. in graphic design from the Yale School of art and B.A. from The Evergreen State College. Manuel is working with CUP on the upcoming Banks on the Fringe MPP.

Ingrid Haftel

Ingrid was the Community Education Program Director for CUP. Before CUP, she was Curator of Exhibitions at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), Chicago’s leading forum for the exchange of ideas on urban design. While at CAF, Ingrid developed major exhibitions that helped public audiences think critically about complex issues related to urban planning and architecture. Ingrid received her B.A. in English and Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington, and her M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago.

Pratima Mani

• Pratima Mani is a graphic designer with roots in print and illustration and a focus on information design. She is a proponent of thoughtful, user-based work that helps deliver visibility to important social issues, and believes that successful design is less about pixel perfection, and more about exploration and prototyping in service of creating an engaging experience, facilitating an interaction or telling a compelling story.

The New York Immigration Coalition

• The New York Immigrant Coalition (NYIC) aims to achieve a fairer and more just society that values the contributions of immigrants and extends opportunity to all. NYIC is made up of more than 150 member organizations serving New York’s low-income immigrant communities. Their work includes advancing more equitable policies, building immigrants’ political power, empowering immigrants through community education, and providing training and technical assistance to other community groups and advocates.

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.

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.

Oscar Nuñez

Oscar was a Community Education Program Manager at CUP. He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning Master’s Program at Pratt Institute with a concentration on Community Development. While completing his studies at Pratt, Oscar worked and interned in various local community organizations and groups, including CUP, on issues dealing with planning, design, and community education and engagement. Previously, he received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he moved to Washington, D.C. at a young age. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French and can give pretty good directions in Portuguese.

Glen Cummings

Glen Cummings is a graphic designer, design critic and the principal of MTWTF – a graphic design studio specializing in publications, environmental graphics and identity systems. MTWTF engages in collaborative projects with partners in other disciplines, such as architecture, industrial design, and urban planning. They believe that conversation and negotiation are essential to the design process. MTWTF was founded in 2008 and is located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Glen has worked with CUP on a number of projects including Predatory Equity, Participatory Budgeting, and What is Affordable Housing?

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.

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.”

Jeff Lai

Jeff Lai is a creative director and graphic designer. He started his studio, Office of Jeff in 2004 and works with clients in every industry across a broad range of media including print, motion, and digital. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and Pratt Institute. Office of Jeff worked on What is Affordable Housing?, Bodega Down Bronx, Making Policy Public, and the Zoning toolkit with CUP.

John Mangin

John Mangin is a construction manager and housing litigator at Fair Share Housing, an affordable housing developer that grew out of the Mount Laurel exclusionary housing cases in the 70’s and 80’s. He was formerly a homebuilder and continues to take building and furniture-making jobs out of his Philadelphia studio. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2008. He was one of three staff members at CUP from 2008 to 2010.  

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.

Damaris Reyes

Damaris Reyes is the Executive Director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES). A lifelong resident of the Lower East Side, she has been involved in community organizing and housing issues both locally and nationally for more than a decade. Under Reyes’ leadership, GOLES expanded the scope of its work to include, land use, environmental public health, and economic justice. Her commitment to working collectively to organize and to build power for low-income communities of color in the decision-making that shapes the future of their lives and the Lower East Side neighborhood brought the organization into a pivotal role on a range of key issues including the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, Living Wage, and the redevelopment of the East River Waterfront. Reyes currently sits on the board of the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development, the advisory board for the Center for Neighborhood Leadership, and the Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee of Manhattan Community Board 3. She is the recipient of the 2006 New York Women’s Foundation’s Helen La Kelly Hunt Neighborhood Leadership Award, the 2008 Urban Agenda Visionary Award, and the proud winner of the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Municipal Arts Society.

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.

Rosten Woo

Rosten Woo is a cultural producer living in Los Angeles. He makes work that helps people understand complex systems and participate in group decision-making. He produces that work in partnership with local and national groups ranging from the American Human Development Project to the East Los Angeles Community Corporation. His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, the New Museum, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Netherlands Architectural Institute, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, on the internet, and in various public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks in New York City and Los Angeles. His first book, “Street Value,” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. He is co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). His website: www.wehavenoart.net