Carl Hooks

China coordinator

Carl Hooks is a 2017 Yenching Scholar and an MA candidate in Economics at Peking University. Having grown up or studied in 11 cities across the US, Middle East, and China, he is interested in many facets of urban planning and design. He researches investment in Chinese "eco-cities" at the International Institute of Green Finance, a Beijing think tank, and was recently named a 2018 Local Pathways Fellow by the United Nations. Carl holds a BA in International & Area Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, where he focused on sustainable development and sociopolitical issues in both the US and China. 

Guilherme Scardini da Silva

Latin America Coordinator

Guilherme Scardini is an architect and urbanist (Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil) and Masters student in Landscape Architecture (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Former research has focused on analysing urban mobility using transportation modals, focusing on new guidelines for a new development plan, and also on the therapeutical impact of gardens focused on healing stress and mental fatigue.

Prior to Oxford Urbanists, Guilherme was a Science Without Borders scholar, having attended a year at Szent István University (Budapest, Hungary - 2015/2016), under the Bachelors Course of Landscape Architecture. Also collaborated with the internal development sectors of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, as an intern for the Landscape Design sector, and the Internal Infrastructure sector (respectively on 2015 and 2017).

Juan Sebastián Benítez Bustamante

Latin America Coordinator

Juan Sebastian holds a MSc in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He is also a Civil Engineer from Los Andes University, Colombia. Through his academic and professional career, he has channeled his efforts and capabilities towards more just and livable cities. 

His main interests focus on the design of sustainable and integrated planning strategies to address complex urban issues like poverty, informality, natural hazards, lack of social cohesion, urban and ecological degradation and lack of empowerment. He has addressed these topics through integrating participatory planning methods, placemaking strategies, urban experiments, urban agriculture or different mapping and data collection techniques, as main tools for development and triggering change. His additional 3-year-experience in the field of consulting for infrastructure projects in his country, has led him to build up very strong analytical and result-oriented skills.

Andrés Melendro Blanco

Latin America & China Coordinator

Andrés Melendro Blanco is currently studying mandarin and environmental policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. His main interest is the spatial analysis of public policies. He is currently conducting research on China’s climate change adaptation strategies in light of its accelerated urbanization process. He is looking forward to contrasting them with Latin American experiences through Oxford Urbanists. 

He previously worked as an editor for The Business Year, an international media group, as a consultant for UN-Habitat and as an urban development analyst at ProBogotá, a think-tank dedicated to fostering Bogotá’s sustainability. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude in Political Science and a master’s degree in Urban Policy, both from Sciences Po Paris.

Carol M. Guerra

Latin America Coordinator

Carol holds a specialization in Managing and Financing Urban Infrastructure from the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. She also holds a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in law and social sciences from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala. She has ten years of experience in researching legal and institutional frameworks to understand their impact on urban development. Working as a consultant for multilateral organizations, national and local governments, she has contributed in the formulation of policies, laws and regulations for integral urban development and affordable housing in Guatemala and The Caribbean.

She believes in the multidisciplinary approach to urban planning as a means to fully seize its opportunities for economic development and achieve urban inclusivity.

Alexia Faus Onbargi

Europe and MENA Coordinator

Alexia is an MPhil in Development Studies student at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the Spanish ’La Caixa’ Foundation to undertake her research. Over the past year she has been living in Beirut, working at both Amel Association International, and at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). At Amel she was a journalist and an adviser within the communications department, traveling frequently to Syrian refugee camps in South Lebanon and in the Beqaa to report on the humanitarian situation. At the UN she produced original research on multidimensional inequality in the Arab region. She graduated from Durham University in 2016 in History, Politics and Anthropology.

Her main interests lie in the intersect between media, communication and development, the power of words and story-telling in shaping narratives on poverty, social justice and inequality and the effects of migration crises on urban development in refugee host countries, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Born and raised in Barcelona, Alexia speaks native Spanish and Catalan, as well as French and Arabic.

Dexter Docherty

Urban futures coordinator

Dexter Docherty is an MSc student in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the University of Oxford, working on surveillance, digital governance, and smart-cities. His interest in urban futures stems from prisoners’ rights work in Montreal and Ottawa that made him want to build more compassionate communities.

He was formerly a strategic foresight analyst at Policy Horizons Canada where he worked on the potential social implications of technological innovation and climate change. Before that he did research on access to justice and legal aid for the Department of Justice Canada, cannabis legalization for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, the relationship between social workers and Indigenous communities with Dr. Cindy Blackstock, and the history of sanctuary and asylum in Canada for Dr. Laura Madokoro.

Luis Lozano-Paredes

Oceania Coordinator

Luis is a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, with a focus on urban studies, management, and the emerging discipline of “Platform Urbanism.’ His main interest is the study of urban institutions and the impact of the platform economy in cities of the global south. He is currently studying the effects of paratransit, institutional entrepreneurship, and the effect of ride-hailing platforms in cities of South America.

Before moving to Australia, he worked as a spatial planning coordinator for the Argentina Ministry of Transportation, as junior researcher for the University of Buenos Aires and as assistant professor at the University of Belgrano. He was also a Frédéric Bastiat fellow and current Adam Smith fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Luis speaks native Spanish as well as English, French, Portuguese, Papiamento and Hebrew. He holds a BArch of the University of Belgrano and a MSc in Urban Economics at the Torcuato di Tella University, both in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bruna Gimba

Latin America Coordinator

Bruna works at UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean supporting urban sustainability projects that spans informal settlements, urban data, public spaces, gender equality, urban safety and resilience. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and is concluding a specialization in Cities, Urban Policy and Social Movements from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

She previously attended a semester at the University of Copenhagen focusing on global urban studies and international aid and worked at the Consulate General of Denmark in Brazil, the Brazilian Embassy in Copenhagen and in the private sector with the implementation of international projects. 

Her academic and professional interests lie in the intersect between international cooperation and inclusive urban development, aiming to guarantee human rights in cities through public policies. She is also highly interested in the international action of local governments and their role in localising global agendas.

Melanie Goerke

North America Value Creation Coordinator

Melanie is a LEED AP BD+C certified Sustainability Specialist with Steven Winter Associates, a Mid-Atlantic consulting organization dedicated to improving the built environment through energy, sustainability and accessibility consulting as well as certification, research and development, and compliance services. She provides sustainable consulting services to new construction commercial projects in Washington D.C. 

Prior to Steven Winter Associates, she worked for a construction firm and a non-profit focusing on guiding communities toward being more sustainable and resilient through the adoption of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

She is passionate about communities, housing, and the impact of development on cities. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from Michigan State University and specializes in real estate, economics, finance, and sustainable construction. She is currently completing her Masters in Urban Planning with a focus on Sustainable Development and Affordable Housing from Georgetown University.

Jali Packer

Oceania Coordinator

Jali is a Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for Urban Science & Progress (King’s College London) and is studying for an MSc in Behaviour Change at University College London. He holds a Double First Class BA in Psychological & Behavioural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (King’s Scholar). His main interests lie in placemaking and explore how a deeper understanding of residents’ perceptions of neighbourhoods can be used to promote more inclusive urban regeneration. Working with collaborators at Nokia Bell Labs and the Cambridge Personality & Social Dynamics Group, his current research explores the role of personality in shaping ‘urban ambiance’. Utilising machine learning techniques and computerized text analysis, this project has inferred the urban ambiance of New York and London neighbourhoods from geo-referenced Flickr imaging data. He has presented this work at numerous conferences and talks, including the Society for Personality & Social Psychology New Orleans 2020 convention.

Cross-registered at the Bartlett School of Planning, he is also researching the importance of biophilic design as a determinant of physical, mental and environmental health within buildings. He has previously interned at McKinsey & Co, where he worked on a pro-bono project co-creating the strategy plan for a global girls’ education charity. He will be re-joining the firm as a Business Analyst in the London Office this year.

Rachel Halfaker

North america coordinator

Rachel is the Founder of PorchLights, an urban tech company focused on democratizing placemaking through the distribution of small-scale infrastructure project management tools. Her current research is focused on the intersection of technology and urban planning, and is working to utilize new platforms to create more equitable, enjoyable and engaging cities. Prior to PorchLights she was the Market Launch Lead for a curb management startup, curbFlow, serving as the intermediary between local government and private sector to reduce curbside congestion, safety incidents and carbon emissions. She worked as an urban development consultant at Deloitte in their smart city practice serving clients ranging from the World Bank to a regional non-profit. She is completing her Masters in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus in International Development from Georgetown University and holds her Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the University of Florida

Satvik Mishra

North America Coordinator

Satvik Mishra is a resource economist at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he conducts economic analysis and regulatory policy development for the USDA and other agencies. Satvik is completing his Masters in Urban and Regional Planning at Georgetown University, and is interested in sustainable land-use, green infrastructure, and urban welfare. He combines his interest in machine-learning and feature engineering in both a regulatory policy framework and his studies. Satvik hopes to combine his expertise in algorithm design, economic policy development, and agriculture to promote welfare and a healthy urban environment.

Brandon Chye

SouthEast Asia Coordinator

Brandon is an MPhil student in Development Studies from the University of Oxford's Department of International Development. His current research focuses on contemporary networks of urban capital, technologies and knowledge circulating between Asian and African cities. He was previously a short-term researcher with the World Bank's Hub for Infrastructure and Urban Development . In addition, he has experience researching and writing on trade finance in emerging markets and complementary business interests between companies in Southeast Asia and Africa. He holds a Bachelors degree in History from the National University of Singapore.

Yasmina Yusuf

Sub-saharan Africa coordinator

Yasmina is currently a freelance consultant, working on issues related to urban poverty and inequality in the UK and internationally. She recently completed an MSc at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit focussed on social and urban development, where she worked on two projects that analysed the unequal power dynamics at play in large scale urban development projects in London, UK and Salvador, Brazil. She was also awarded the DPU Dissertation Fellowship on “Re-spatialising Johannesburg” where her research focussed on the ‘informal’ urban space economy in the context of Transit Oriented Development, which provided insight into the location decision of informal workers and entry points for inclusion in TOD from a design, policy and practice perspective.

Prior to this, she worked in the Office of the Chief Economist at Oxford Policy Management, where she managed complex multi-million pound research programmes focussed on inclusive economic growth. She is particularly interested in strengthening links between policy and research, and was Research Uptake Coordinator on the Energy and Economic Growth Programme where she co-authored the programmes research uptake approach and oversaw capacity development and policy engagement activities.

Underpinning her work is a strong emphasis on social and spatial justice. In addition to working with OU, she is a member of Architectures sans Frontieres UK and volunteers at the Gatehouse charity in Oxford, where she provides advisory support to the homeless and people in vulnerable housing conditions.

Lubna Elmahdy

sub-saharan Africa Coordinator

Lubna Elmahdy holds a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in International Relations from the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A). During her studies, she undertook research on the role of women in post-conflict community development in urban areas with a case study of Liberia and South Sudan. She is interested in the interlinkages within the sphere of urban development, specifically in analyzing the socioeconomic factors which drive resilience and inclusivity of cities in the African context.

She is currently working in communications at the Stockholm Environment Institute - Africa headquarters, where she helps transform scientific research into human-impact stories. Prior to this, she worked in UN-Habitat as a digital media strategist, managing the social media platforms of the Executive Director. She has also worked in communications and events management at Nairobi Design Week, where she brought together African designers of all disciplines focused on human-centered design. 

Annie Butkiewicz

EUROPE COORDINATOR

Annie is a masters candidate at Sorbonne Université in Paris, where she is studying geography. Her research focus is in urban geography and social cartography, and specifically the relation between access to different modes of  transportation with daily mobility. Prior to pursuing a masters in France, she had diverse experiences, working on the 2016 coordinated campaign for the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, then working as a journalist for a regional daily newspaper in Northeast Pennsylvania. She briefly worked for French publication, Libération, where she helped with coverage of the November 2018  U.S. midterm elections. Currently she is working at Autonomy & the Urban Mobility Summit in Paris as a content and communications officer. Autonomy is an annual event that brings together innovators and policy makers to change movement in cities.

Anna Clemente

Europe coordinator

Anna is currently studying an MPhil in European Politics and Society at Oxford and is working as Research Assistant for the SCHOOLPOL project with the Department of Education. Before this, she graduated with a first in Politics and International Relations at the University of Bath, with a placement year as Communication and Events Intern for the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation in Malaga. She has been a teacher in Russia and ran for city councillor in Italy. She has conducted research in international affairs for the Hudson Institute and is a member of the Italian think tank Tortuga, which is dedicated to evidence-based policy making. In this position, she has investigated how the European Union helps cities exchange knowledge and implement best practices through networks.

She is deeply interested in participatory politics at the urban level and international networks of cities as political actors, especially with regards to the European experience of cities coordinating to have a voice in the EU.

Radiya Jamari

Innovations Coordinator

Radiya is on the MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy programme at the Oxford Department for International Development. Having lived in dense cities her whole life, her interests lie at the intersection of environment, technology, and urban development. She previously completed her BA in Geography at the London School of Economics, where her dissertation examined the role, impact and effectiveness of civil society on urban conservation in Singapore. 

Marvin Lagonera

southeast asia coordinator

Marvin is a professional city climate planner and urban economist with over six years of experience working with cities in the Southeast Asian region. He is affiliated with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, serving as a city adviser in its climate action planning programme. He is concurrently reading an MSc in Sustainable Urban Development part-time at the University of Oxford. His background is in urban sustainability transitions, carbon emissions accounting and management, and climate governance.

He holds a master’s degree in Political Science major in Global Politics and bachelor's degrees in Economics-Honors and Political Science at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He was a recipient of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Mobility with Asia at the University of Warsaw (Poland) and the Joint Master’s Research Mobility of the ASEAN University Network and Kyoto University Graduate School of Energy Sciences (Japan). LinkedIn | Twitter

Kate Field

Oceania Coordinator

Kate is a multidisciplinary urban professional with an interest in design, urban policy and environmental law as factors governing our interactions with the built environment. Kate is a J.D. candidate at the Australian National University. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Environments from the University of Sydney where she was a Katrina Dawson Foundation Scholar. During her undergraduate studies, Kate undertook an exchange semester at the National University of Singapore where she studied Southeast Asian geography and urban planning. While at international architecture firm, BVN, Kate has worked on major building projects across Australia and Europe.

Michelle Tjondro

Oceania coordinator

Michelle is a strategy consultant with sector expertise in educational policy and enterprise. She is currently advising the New South Wales state government’s economic growth agenda and was previously a demographer for the Department of Education. 

She is passionate about the science of cities and the digitally mediated urban experience, with a keen interest in big data approaches to analysing social gradients in life opportunity. Her interdisciplinary research examines the interactions between various urban domains to highlight their value as less traditional inputs to policy development and equitable service planning. 

Michelle holds a Master of City Analytics from the University of New South Wales, with a focus on applied spatial analysis, and a Combined Bachelor of Arts and Laws from the University of Sydney. 

Dr Binti Singh

Associate Editor

Dr. Binti Singh (Ph.D.; MPhil) is an urban sociologist with expertise in urban planning, policy, and governance. Her current research engages with questions related to urban planning, politics, culture, climate change, and Smart Cities, and she is working on research and book projects with international institutions and publishers such as National Geographic, Deakin University, Springer and Routledge, Taylor & Francis, Business World, Domus India, and KKN India.  She is the author of The Divided City: Policy and Ideological Contestations in Contemporary Urban India. Her ethnographic work on Lucknow was recently compiled into another book titled Lucknow: Culture, Place, Branding and Activism. Website.

Diana N. Huynh

Associate Editor

Diana Huynh is a multidisciplinary practitioner of the built environment, continuously seeking to explore ways that build and sustain resilient communities, cities and regions. She is a former UN-Habitat intern, where she worked on capacity building, urban design and climate adaptation in Laos and the Philippines. Diana holds a master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Studies from Cambridge University and received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Art History and Political Science, where she was a UWC Davis Scholar.

Georgia Spencer-Rowland

Associate Editor

Georgia is currently reading for an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy at the University of Oxford, where her research focuses on the intersection of development strategies in conflict resolution and mediation, multilateral diplomatic agents, and the impact of technological advances on international negotiations. In her previous research, she applied securitization theory to a critical discourse analysis of the language in the Brexit debate.  Fluent in French, Georgia recently worked for The Carter Center in Atlanta, GA, serving as part of a team tasked with monitoring the implementation of the 2015 Peace Agreement in Mali. She previously served as senior editor on two editorial boards for foreign affairs societies. Georgia holds an MA degree in French and International Relations (honours) from the University of St. Andrews.

Michael Newson

Associate Editor

Michael is Senior Labour Mobility & Human Development Specialist with the UN Migration Agency (IOM). Within this capacity, his work focuses on improving governance of international labour migration, enhancing diaspora engagement in development, and facilitating immigrant integration in communities of destination. It is within this latter area that his work has most engaged with issues of urban planning and municipal governance, looking at how urban design and municipal programs may hinder or facilitate social and economic integration of immigrant communities. He is currently based in Vienna, covering the South Eastern, Eastern Europe & Central Asia regions and has previously worked for IOM in Cairo, Mauritius, and Bogota, as well as a brief stint with the Government of British Columbia.

John Surico

Regional Focus Editor

John Surico is a journalist and urban planning researcher, who focuses on mobility, open space, and infrastructure. His reporting can be found in outlets like The New York Times, CityLab and VICE, amongst others. Previously, he taught undergraduate journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, his alma mater, and oversaw New York City transit coverage for VICE. As a research fellow for Center for an Urban Future, he published 'A New Leaf,' an in-depth policy report on New York's parks infrastructure, which led to a historic increase in funding for the city's parks. His work has also explored the future of the city’s libraries, and how to streamline the capital construction process for vital civic institutions.

John received a MSc in the Transport and City Planning programme, at University College London. He authors the ‘Journalism & Urbanism’ monthly newsletter.

Gustavo Sbardelotto

Projects & partnershipS Advisor

Gustavo Sbardelotto is an Architect and Urban Planner and holds a master degree in Architecture Urban Planning (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul). His previous research addressed urban regeneration, and changes in the socio-economic dynamics. His recent research interest is in the interrelation of the sense of belonging among inhabitants, gentrification, sharing economy, & new technologies.  

He is the founder of Sbardelotto Arquitetura, an architecture practice based in Brazil collaborating on the Cais Mauá waterfront regeneration Project (Brasil). Beyond this, Gustavo was a part-time lecturer at ESPM (Porto Alegre - Brasil) and is a member of the research group “The project of socialising places and contemporaneity of the cities” lead by Prof. Lineu Castello, at UFRGS. He is currently living in London as has been accepted to begin the Urban Regeneration MS.c, at Bartlett School of Planning (UCL) in the next year.

Linda Worden

partnerships development officer

Linda is reading for an MPhil in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford. Academically, she is interested in examining the evolution of contemporary tenant union policy demands in different national contexts. Although born and raised in Canada, Linda attended Williams College for her undergraduate degree, where she became interested in housing and urban environments as areas of social policy development. During her undergraduate career, Linda conducted research and work at the intersections of marginal identities, tenant empowerment and housing insecurity in cities such as Vancouver, BC, Brooklyn, NY, and London, UK. Her undergraduate dissertation explored tenant participation in the management of social housing in the United Kingdom.

Maria Chiara Mantova

Outreach and COmmunications

Maria Chiara is a medical student at the university of Manchester, originally from Naples, in the south of Italy. Throughout her studies, she was always interested in philosophy and in the interaction between people and their environment. Recently, she started learning more about the topic of urbanism, which she find incredibly interesting and stimulating.

Dafna Babila

Outreach and COmmunications

Dafna is an Architect and Urban Planner from Tel Aviv. Since graduating from Tel Aviv University, with a B.Arch, she has been working on various projects (residential, commercial and urban regeneration) around the Metropolitan area of Tel Aviv. Living in a car-oriented environment for more than a decade, her interest includes sustainable urban mobility and planning cities for people.

Dafna is a current MSc candidate in the Transport and City Planning programme, at University College London. Her thesis focuses on the attitudes toward cars and public transport in the Metro area of Tel Aviv.

Richard Conway

Newsletter Editor

Richard Conway is a journalist, editor, and copywriter. For three years, he worked as a reporter and digital photo editor for TIME, and was later a contributing editor for BBC Worldwide, and a digital visual media editor for Bloomberg News. His work has appeared in LIFE, Wallpaper*, The Guardian, Politico, CNN, Dazed, GCN, The Irish Times, Mixmag, Time Out, The Journal, and The Irish Independent. He was editor of Plan, Ireland’s largest design periodical and currently edits and curates a regular newsletter for the public policy think tank, Oxford Urbanists. 

Born in Dublin, Richard trained as a journalist at Columbia University. He was a reporter for TIME magazine's Luce Award-winning "The Most Influential Images of all Time," and was deemed a person of extraordinary ability by the American government in 2013.

He oversaw communications and creative strategy for Rourke Studio, an agency working with The New York Times and Wired and worked as a senior copywriter for Wrike, the world's leading work management platform with clients including Google, Ogilvy, Airbnb, and Hootsuite.

Photo: Peter Hapak for TIME