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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.

Matt Delsesto

MATUP Class of 2014– PhD Candidate of Sociology at Boston College. Matt is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Boston College. He received his MA in Theories of Urban Practice in 2014. What brought him to MATUP was his search for a critical and creative approach to exploring cities, oriented toward intervention or action. In...

Sabrina Dorsainvil

MSDUE Class 2014– Director of Civic Design, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, Boston, MA, USA. Immediately after graduation, Sabrina worked as a freelance designer, and for Contininuum, a global innovation design consultancy on design projects ranging from healthcare services to retirement and education. She then joined the Housing Innovation Lab as part of the...

Silvia Resende Xavier

MSDUE Class of 2016– Professor of Design. Silvia completed her bachelor’s degree in Product Design back in 2010 in Brazil. She worked in furniture design until she decided to pursue a master’s degree. She enrolled in the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program and graduated in 2016. Her main interests are design and urban waste...

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...

Guillermo León Gómez

MATUP Class of 2018– Program Director, Urban Design Forum NYC. Guillermo graduated in 2018 from the Theories of Urban Practice (TUP) program. Prior to TUP, he had received a BA in Art and worked in the art community in Miami. Guillermo currently works as the Program Director at the Urban Design Forum in New York...

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...

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...

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...

Jasmine Vasandani

MATUP Class of 2016– Co-Creator, Digital Bazaar NEW INC. Jasmine is a business and design strategist with nine years of work experience, abroad and locally, in the fields of urbanism, cooperatives, business development, social entrepreneurship, information science, civic engagement and art curating. Before coming to The New School, Jasmine received a Bachelor’s in Art History....

Alex Castillo-Kesper

MSDUE Class 2014– Organizer at the California Federation of Teachers – Oakland, CA, USA. Alex, who has a background in fundraising for arts based not-for-profits prior to her study at Parsons, started working right after graduation as an organizer The American Federation of Teachers union in New York City. Following her passion for social and...

Joshua McWhirter

MATUP Class of 2017– Managing Editor, Urban Omnibus. Joshua is a writer, editor and musician based in Brooklyn. Prior to studying at Parsons, he received a BA in Political Science from the University of North Texas and enjoyed a stint as a professional touring guitarist. He graduated from the MA Theories of Urban Practice program...

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...

Claudia Rot

MSDUE Class of 2019– Lecturer and Researcher at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Claudia graduated in Environmental and Climate Sciences (BSc) from the Amsterdam University College before attending Parsons. She graduated from MSDUE in 2019. She is an avid environmental scientist and is very much interested in the intersections of justice and environmental and climate change....

Sinead Petrasek

MATUP Class of 2016– Ph.D. student, University of Toronto. Sinead graduated in 2016 from the MA Theories of Urban Practice program. She holds a BA in Art History from McGill University, 2012. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Toronto, working with Prof. Kanishka Goonewardena....

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,...

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