Lashawn Bourne, Brianna Tyler, and Jacqueline Attia

Lashawn, Brianna, and Jacqueline, from the St. John’s Recreation Center in Crown Heights, were part of the “What the Cell?” crew.

Helki Frantzen

Helki Frantzen received her BFA and MFA degrees from Bard College. For the last five years, she has worked as a teaching artist and filmmaker, creating educational and collaborative new media projects with teens in Brooklyn, working with organizations such as the NYC Parks and Recreation department, Adobe Youth Voices and the Center for Urban Pedagogy.  She worked as a teaching artist with CUP to produce “The Internet is Serious Business” and “What the Cell?”

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.

Kelvin Lockett and Leon Richardson

Kelvin and Leon, from the St. John’s Recreation Center in Crown Heights, were part of the “What the Cell?” crew.

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.

Clair Beltran

Clair Beltran is CUP’s Program Coordinator and is also a former intern. She is a recent graduate of Middlebury College where she studied Architecture and Geography. She is interested in the intersections between sociology and design and how different people experience space. Having spent the past 5 years in Vermont, she is excited and overwhelmed at being back in her hometown of New York City and relearning what it has to offer. 

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.

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.

Damascus Citizens for Sustainability

In February 2008, concerned residents formed Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) to protect this invaluable water resource which has been targeted by the gas extraction industry. The Delaware River Watershed provides drinking water for some 20 million people from four states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.  Drilling into the shale rock that lies below this watershed to extract the natural gas would introduce a long list of toxic chemicals into the environment, thus putting drinking water at risk. DCS has helped to lead the charge to stop the drilling through public education, legal action and grass-roots organizing. DCS is currently working with CUP to produce the Fracking in the Delaware River Watershed MPP.

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.

Papercut

Minh Anh Vo & Victor Schuft are two French graphic designers, though their names may sound either Vietnamese or German. Minh Anh was born in Annecy and grew up in Paris. Victor comes from Troyes. They met in Brussels, where they studied Graphic Design and Typography at La Cambre School of Arts. After graduating in 2006, they decided to move to Los Angeles and eventually got married at LAX. They are now living and working in Brooklyn. Papercut  worked with CUP to design What’s In The Water?

Hatuey Ramos Fermín

Hatuey Ramos Fermín is an educator and multimedia artist who uses photography, video, installation, graphics, performance, intervention, maps, sounds, and social and curatorial practices to creatively investigate issues related to urban space. His work is informed by the documentary and the fine arts.

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.

Prudence Katze

Prudence Katze arrived in New York from Memphis, TN in 2004. Since then, she has graduated from the Cooper Union, and has been working with projects that examine our urban ecology. She started working with CUP as an Education Intern in 2009 and has assisted Hatuey Ramos-Fermin with both the “I Heart East New York” and “Who Benefits from Community Benefits Agreements at the Kingsbridge Armory” Urban Investigations. Prudence also taught a workshop with students from the Resilience Advocacy Project, and produced the resulting book “The Road to Cash Assistance.”

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.

Zach Postone

Zach Postone is interested in neighborhood planning, community gardens, climate change politics, and technologies of the future.  He’s originally from Berkeley, CA, and studied Political Science and Art at Swarthmore College. As an intern at CUP, Zach was involved with several CUP projects, including “What the Cell?”, the Soda Census, and the Zoning Toolkit.