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The first cohort of the MS Design and Urban Ecologies and the MA Theories of Urban Practice programs graduated in 2014, transforming the spaces they engaged with and envisioning new urban practices to address the challenges we face today. Since then, many more have followed, becoming part of a thriving alumni community that continues to inspire the next generation of urban students at Parsons. To celebrate and strengthen our alumni network, we are launching the Parsons Urban Alumni Initiative this Fall 2025.

A similar research and mapping project, which traced our alumni’s workplaces and practices, was first conducted in 2017 with participation from the early cohorts. We are now reviving, updating, and expanding that effort in exciting new ways by reaching out to our alumni community. If you are an alum, please check your New School email inbox for more information. If you no longer use your New School account and would like to participate, please contact us at urban@newschool.edu.

Joy Alise-Davis

MATUP Class of 2014– Chief Executive Officer at Design + Culture Lab, LLC. Joy hit the ground running right after graduation from the MA Theories of Urban Practice Program by starting up her own collaborative design firm, Design + Culture Lab, LLC, in Portland, Oregon. Her firm focuses on serving as the glue between disadvantaged...

Alex Roesch

MATUP Class of 2014– Research Associate at Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB). Alex worked at the office of NYC’s City Council Member Helen Rosenthal upon graduation from the MA Theories of Urban Practice program. He assisted the housing constituent liaison and conducted research on affordable housing in his district. This endeavor was crucial to making...

Drew Vanderburg

MSDUE Class of 2016– Senior Project Manager, RiseBoro Community Partnership. Drew is an artist and activist concerned citizen of humanity. Before joining Parsons, he was a theater designer/director and street performer/musician. He became interested in democratization and global solidarity movements through Occupy Wall Street. He was a member of the MSDUE cohort which graduated in...

Raquel de Anda

MSDUE Class of 2015– Independent Curator and Cultural Producer. Raquel is currently working in New York City as an Associate Producer on two nationally touring transmedia projects. The first addresses the economic security of America’s caregivers, and the second police accountability and state surveillance. These projects require Raquel to hold many interpersonal relationships and act...

Jason Azar

MSDUE Class of 2018– Experiential Graphic Designer at Page Southerland Page. Jason Azar holds a BA in Urban Studies and Art History, and an MS in Design and Urban Ecologies, 2018. Jason is a designer and researcher living and working in Austin, TX. His expertise is in the fields of wayfinding and environmental design and...

Mariana Roberti Bomtempo

MSDUE Class of 2016– Graduate Research Assistant at Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA). Mariana is an urbanist and architect by training, designer and activist in her spare time, Mariana is a professional extremely interested in topics related to the Right to the City. She graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Brasília,...

Sara Minard

MATUP Class of 2015– Capital Projects Manager at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Sara has utilized the skills learned in MATUP for many different arenas. Along with five other TUP alumni, she is a co-founder of the in•site collaborative, a multidisciplinary research and design consultancy tackling issues surrounding uneven urban development. Her...

Fransisco Miranda

MATUP Class of 2017– Public Relations & Communications, Great Ink. Francisco is currently working at Great Ink, specializing in public relations and communications in New York’s intricate real estate world. He is also the US representative of Talents & Co., a Paris based representation agency for Design, Architecture, Development and Urban Planning Firms. Additionally, Francisco,...

Rehanna Azimi

MSDUE Class of 2015– Project Associate at Hester Street Collaborative – New York City, NY, USA. Upon graduating from the MSDUE program, Rehanna interned as an urban planner at the Union County Bureau of Planning and Economic Development in New Jersey. She joined the Hester Street team in the fall of 2015. Rehanna works as...

Jonathan Lapalme

MSDUE Class of 2014– Founder of Les Interstices, Montréal, Canada. Since graduating from the MSDUE program in 2014, Jonathan has worked as consultant for the City of Montréal, la Société du Parc Jean-Drapeau, Building Product Ecosystems, and other organizations in and around Montréal. Recently, Jonathan founded Les Interstices, a strategic design studio intersecting several disciplines...

Rania Dalloul

MATUP Class of 2015– Project Associate at Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB). Rania has a rich background in community engagement, freelance research among library archives and refugee camps, as well as access to education in Lebanon. Before moving to NYC, she co-founded Creative Space Beirut, where people were offered free design education. This led her...

Braden Crooks

MSDUE Class 2014– Co-founder of Designing the WE – New York City, NY, USA. Braden is the co-founder of Designing the WE, a social impact design studio. This studio’s work with diverse communities around equitable and innovative projects connects to a larger ecosystem of social change. These projects include an urban farm as a tool...

Michaela Kramer

MSDUE Class of 2017– Program Strategist, TYTHEdesign. Michaela is currently a Program Strategist at TYTHEdesign, a capacity-building firm that uses the lens of design and strategy to support social impact. At TYTHE, Michaela contributes to workshop design and facilitation, written and visual communication and creating engagement tools. Michaela’s work has helped communities steward public space...

Issac Green Diebboll

MSDUE Class of 2019– Artist and Filmmaker. Isaac Green Diebboll is an artist, documentary filmmaker and a co-founder of an educational non-profit, ENGN (“engine”) Civic Creative Center, 501(c)3 based in Sullivan County, NY. His work encourages human connection, collaborating intergenerationally between urban and rural communities, supporting ways in which neighbors, both local and global, can...

Tait Mandler

MSDUE Class of 2016– Interdisciplinary scholar, activist, and freelance designer, writer and editor. PhD student in Anthropology and Urban Planning, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tait (they/them) is an interdisciplinary scholar, activist, and freelance designer, writer and editor from New York City but currently living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Tait earned a BA in Environmental...

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