PILOT PROJECTS - Key Persons
Abigail is an architect with a deep interest in the relationship between buildings, culture and sustainability. She has experience in both residential and commercial projects.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Architect in New York City
Amanda is an architect in New York City with extensive residential and corporate experience. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2005.
Andrew graduated from University College London with a Master's Degree in Urban Studies, with a concentration in place-shaping political economy. Andrew's thoughtful approach to research, GIS and data visualization help inform our urban design work.
Job Titles:
- Brooklyn Bridge Forest Advisor
- Planner
Antonina is a planner with experience in strategic consulting, public policy, and environmental review. She is committed to projects that support sustainable development in New York City. Antonina is focused on creating small-scale, place-based interventions in line with the city's broader policy goals.
April has covered environmental, cultural, and nonprofit news and stories for a variety of organizations and publications since the year 2000.
Arianne is a Montreal-based architecture graduate with working experience on three continents, whose research in flood mitigation design has received recognition from federal programs and private endowments
Job Titles:
- Brooklyn Bridge Forest Advisor
Ben is a conservation practitioner with a focus on working lands. His experience includes forestry, agriculture, and community development projects in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as several years in legal practice in the area of land transactions and finance. Ben holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a masters degree in forestry from Yale School of the Environment, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Job Titles:
- Brooklyn Bridge Forest Advisor
Ben is a conservation practitioner with a focus on working lands. His experience includes forestry, agriculture, and community development projects in the U.S. and Latin America, as well as several years in legal practice in the area of land transactions and finance. Ben holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a masters degree in forestry from Yale School of the Environment, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Camille is a geographer and environmentalist with experience in the Transition Towns and urban gardening movements, in New York City and in her native Ireland.
Job Titles:
- Graphic Designer
- Landscape Architect
Christine is a landscape architect, product designer, an adjunct faculty member of Parsons School of Design and City College, and founder of recently launched ‘Modest' - a design and education entity that provides skills-building to global artisans, specifically promoting the use of native plant-based resources that have been cultivated locally in restoration scenarios and that help rebuild natural systems.
Job Titles:
- Director of Nature - Based Projects
Sarah is a forest geographer with a background in ecology (MSc, BSc), human geography and tropical forests (PhD). Her research and practice connect culture and ecology in landscapes urban and rural, including conservation and restoration strategies, education, and community engagement. She has worked with community-based forest restoration and conservation enterprises in montane cloud forests in Andean Ecuador and the Nepalese Himalaya, and in lowland jungle in Guatemala's Peten. Recent postdoc work with the University of Michigan and with the PARTNERS reforestation network focused on understanding the social and ecological drivers and outcomes of community forestry and restoration - and on crafting action-oriented research for the field. She has also served as a consultant and reviewer for many organizations, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, International Tropical Timber Organization, The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and Conservation International, and multiple academic publications. A recipient of the prestigious L'Oreal Women in Science Mentorship Award, she is dedicated to teaching and developing communities of practice around pressing social and environmental challenges.
Drew is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he received a Masters of Architecture in 2011. His work focuses on urban public spaces and their influence on social interaction within the city.
Hannah is a community engagement and sustainability advisor. She recently graduated from Parsons The New School for Design.
Jamie is an architect and geographer who recently received a Masters of Architecture from the University of Michigan. He's interested in new methods of material manipulation from atomic to urban scales, as well as urban intersections of architecture, public space, music, and food.
Jarrett graduated from the College of William & Mary with a B.A. in Art & Art History and is currently pursuing a Master of Architecture at Columbia University. He is interested in the social agency of the built environment, specifically how architecture can be used to overcome social injustice and inequality.
Jason is an architecture graduate from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, specializing in transient architectures and event production. He was a project coordinator for the Orchard Streetscape revitalization project
Jeffrey has extensive management experience in the architecture and interiors industry. Jeffrey specializes in strategic thinking and leading interdisciplinary teams. He holds a B.Arch. from Philadelphia's University of the Arts, is a graduate of the DMBA Leading by Design Fellows program from California College of the Arts, and an Adjunct Professor, College of Architecture and the Built Environment, at Philadelphia University.
Job Titles:
- Sustainable Systems Consultant
Karmen is an urbanist, civil engineer and passionate climate advocate. She holds a Master's degree in Urbanism, Landscape, and Planning from KU Leuven in Belgium, a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University in Montreal and a Minor in Environmental Engineering from the Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados. She is interested in sustainable landscape development, urban/rural co-existence, biodiversity conservation, food security, and environmental stewardship. Karmen is also an outdoor enthusiast and has practiced sustainable agriculture working on small-scale organic farms. She hopes to inspire sustainable and inclusive development and connect society to nature through her work.
Laura moved from Kansas to Boston's Northeastern University School of Architecture before arriving in New York City. She brings precision to model making, corporate interiors, and custom furniture design, balanced by midwestern authenticity and empathy.
Liz blurs the line between indoors and outdoors, hardscape and softscape, in both her art and architectural work. She has a studio practice in Brooklyn and teaches at the Parsons School of Design.
Mack is a strategist focusing on the design and implementation of innovative connections between urban, exurban and rural issues. With Pilot Projects he has helped lead the development of the Forest Footprint for Cities, the Partner Forest Program, and the Sustainable Wood for Cities guide. Mack's research work centres around urban, exurban and rural intersections of architecture, sustainable development, land use, and resource theory. His prior research has been supported by SSHRC and MITACS and has covered topics such as optimal urbanization in suburban Montréal, the development of transit-oriented landscape amenities in exurban Sweden, and now focuses on the impact of urban consumption - including construction - on tropical forests and the global south. Prior to Pilot Projects, Mack has worked in various architecture offices in Canada and the Netherlands since 2014.
Maini is originally from Shanghai, China and recently graduated from Columbia University GSAPP with a Master in Architecture degree. She has working experience in China, Japan and the US.
Marny moved to Brooklyn from Miami, Florida to study architecture at Pratt Institute. She is motivated by art, nature, graphic design, soulful music, and ongoing learning.
Mary graduated from the Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy with a Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning, concentrating on urban design and transportation. Much of her planning project experience is in bike and pedestrian projects, innovative multimodal transportation systems, and (re)development projects. She is a cycling enthusiast, founding a bike recycling program in New Brunswick, and enjoys the outdoors.
Job Titles:
- Editor
- Writer and Consultant
Megan is a writer and consultant. In 2005 she founded Wherewithal Press, a developmental editing shop based in New York's Lower East Side. She is also the author of How to Be Useful (2008) and More Than Conquerors: A Memoir of Lost Arguments
Michael develops, plans and delivers strategic projects that strengthen the ties between urban environments and sustainable landscapes. Michael holds a M.Plan. Planning and Sustainable Development from University College Cork, Ireland, and a B.A Urban Planning from Concordia University, Montreal. He has worked as a planner in both Ireland and Canada. His academic interests are also shaped by a childhood spent in post-apartheid South Africa, a country he deeply loves. An outdoors enthusiast, Michael enjoys woodworking, drawing, and growing his own food. Ask him about growing gourmet mushrooms-a passion he is keen to share.
Job Titles:
- Sustainable Development Consultant
Mikayla holds a bachelor's degree in International Development with an emphasis in Latin American studies from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Development Practice from the University of Waterloo. She has extensive experience working with minority youth and has conducted gender-based research on youth education in Africa and Latin America. Mikayla is passionate about the interconnected environmental and social impacts of sustainability and is working on the knowledge mobilization of data from The Future of Forest Work and Communities program and implementation of the Partner Forest program. Mikayla loves storytelling through music and poetry and being outside - whether it's in a faraway forest climbing a mountain or an urban forest reading a book in her hammock.
Job Titles:
- Architect
- Registered Architect
Noah is a registered architect, multi-disciplinary researcher and designer with over 10 years of experience working across scales from the body to the city with a focus on data technology and the environment.
Salome is an architect with an interest in urban social and economic systems.
Sariel is from Washington, DC, and a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. His conversation around the office covers urban foraging, wild plants and mushrooms, social justice and how "natural" systems can inform innovative solutions to human problems.
Scott is a designer and systems thinker with a focus on infrastructure that supports long term cultural goals in cities, organizations and ecosystems. Scott's background in architecture, urbanism, construction, and consulting inform the high value he places on engaging stakeholders directly in the design process-particularly in the midst of today's overemphasis on efficiency and quantification. Scott has taught at the McGill School of Architecture, Michael Graves College, Parsons The New School for Design, Stanford in New York, and The University of Kentucky School of Architecture. He speaks regularly on systems thinking, wood and forests, workplace design, organizational culture, and sustainability. He holds architecture degrees from the University of Toronto and MIT.
Job Titles:
- Sustainable Systems Intern
Sophie holds a Honours Bachelor of Arts at McGill's Bieler School of Environment and is passionate about advancing research and policy that create resilient and sustainable cities for the benefit of citizens.
Job Titles:
- Sustainable Development Consultant
Valeria graduated from The London School of Economics and Political Science with a Master's Degree in Development and Anthropology. She has worked on many projects both in the private and public sector, focusing on design, management, and evaluation. She has also experience in building strategic partnerships for project development. Currently, she directs a social outreach project at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where she is a course leader.
Job Titles:
- Social Responsibility Advisor
Vicente returned from the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan to do graduate work in Urban Policy Analysis. He has worked on numerous organizational development projects, primarily focusing on AIDS prevention and youth empowerment. He has a Master's in Urban Policy Analysis from Milano, The New School and a Bachelor's in Economics from SUNY Purchase.
Job Titles:
- Journalist
- Strategic Communications Lead
Whitney is an experienced journalist with a focus on environmental systems and narratives. She holds Masters degrees in History, Journalism and Environmental Assessment and has been the editor of an international newspaper in Rangon, Myanmar. To recharge, she enjoys drawing, painting, and cooking, as well as getting out into nature on foot or cross-country skis.
Job Titles:
- Founder of BYO
- Strategy Advisor
Yasmin is the founder of BYO consulting. She has worked on strategy with numerous government agencies, including the NYC Department of Education, NASA, and Chicago Public Libraries. Yasmin holds degrees in government and public policy.