Hrudaya Yanamandala

Hrudaya is an Engineer turned Designer from India. She is currently working as a Design Strategist at the Design and Innovation Group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (MSKCC). Her work at MSKCC primarily consists of using Human Centered Design methodologies to improve patients, caregivers and clinicians experience in Cancer Care. Some of her other work consists of creating communication strategies for organizations like Going to School, India and United Nations Foundation.  She has also been awarded the Public Access Design Fellowship at the Center for Urban Pedagogy in 2018. She holds a Masters degree in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Hrudaya has a passion to work in the International Development sector. During her free time she enjoys painting, cooking and travelling with her family. To see her work, visit hrudayaveena.com.

Amber Yared

Amber Yared is an artist and educator. She received a BFA in Studio Art and Art History from Concordia University in Montreal, a BEd from OISE/UT in Toronto, and an MAAE from SAIC in Chicago. She has experience in museum education, community arts, and high schools. In 2006 she interned with CUP and worked on The Water Underground and What’s Poppin’ at Fulton Mall.

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre is a Puerto Rican civil rights attorney of African and Indigenous ancestry born and raised in New York City. She is Executive Director ofUPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community based organization. Her vision for an inter-generational, multi-cultural and community led organization is the driving force behind UPROSE; she is a long-time advocate and trailblazer for community organizing around sustainable just development in Sunset Park. She holds a BA from Fordham University and a law degree from Northeastern University.

Marisa Yiu

Marisa Yiu is an architect and founding partner of ESKYIU a multi-disciplinary architecture, design and research studio actively integrating culture, community, art and technology. Yiu served as the Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\ Architecture. She has published in LOG, DomusChina, Metropolis, JAE, Routledge, and Architectural Record. She is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her B.A from Columbia and M.Arch from Princeton and involved in New York’s Chinatown Design Lab. With CUP she led and taught workshops at the summer design institute with the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and created with Eric Schuldenfrei the Urban Renewal animation and activity tables for CUP’s exhibition “City Without a Ghetto”.

Kaz Yoneda

Kaz is an architect based in Tokyo, Japan. He participated in “Detroit Do Your Thing!” 2007, graduated with Bachelor in Architecture from the Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning with three concentrations in theory, history and technology. 2007-2009, worked for Sou Fujimoto Architects. 2011, received Master in Architecture II with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 2011, appointed the Coordinator and Teaching Associate for Harvard GSD abroad studio taught in Tokyo by Toyo Ito on “Home for All” projects in Tohoku region. 2012, began collaboration with takram design engineering. While investigating new architectural theory and design process that fuses research, design and praxis, Kaz is also active in wide range of activities from education to product design.

Sondra Youdelman

Sondra has been at CVH since 2000 and was named the organization’s Executive Director in March 2007; she was previously CVH’s Director of Public Policy and Research. Sondra has worked both in the United States and abroad to achieve social and economic justice through organizing. She has over 15 years experience as an organizer and activist with grassroots groups including farm workers, Native Americans, public housing residents, and low-income workers in the United States, and abroad for various populations throughout Latin America and in several African countries. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School in order to gain policy analysis tools to bring back to the grassroots. She also has a BA in American Studies focusing on Oppression and Revolution from Wesleyan University.

Sondra was a MPP juror.

Youth Justice Board

The Youth Justice Board is a leadership program that gives young people a voice in policies that affect their lives, and provides policymakers access to the insights of informed young people. Each year, a team of high-school-age youth from across New York City investigates a juvenile justice or public safety issue, formulates policy recommendations and works to implement its recommendations. The current Youth Justice Board seeks to expand and improve the City’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs for young people charged with delinquencies. The Youth Justice Board is a project of the Center for Court Innovation and the Center for Courts and the Community. The Youth Justice Board was the advocate for the MPP I Got Arrested! Now What?

Kristen Zeiber

Kristen has been a CUP fan for a few years, and was thrilled to get to intern at CUP during a gap between semesters at MIT, where she is studying architecture and urbanism. Before MIT she worked in Mississippi for over 4 years at the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, and has dabbled here and there in woodworking and design/build projects. She has an undergraduate degree in architecture, and probably too many crafty hobbies.

Ping Zhu

Ping Zhu is a Brooklyn-based illustrator. She received the ADC Young Gun in 2013 and has been recognized by American Illustration and Communication Arts. Her clients include the New York Times, Pentagram, New Yorker, Coach, GOOD Magazine, The Independent, Sunday Times, Pushkin Press, Hèlium, and Nobrow Press. She is a visiting instructor at Pratt Institute and a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.