Mary Voorhees Meehan and Neil Donnelly

Neil Donnelly and Mary Voorhees Meehan are graphic designers who work in print, identity, interactive, exhibition, and motion design. Their clients include Yale University, Williams College, the New Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, The New York Times, Storefront for Art and Architecture, The New School, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They have been working together since meeting in the graphic design MFA program at Yale. Both are active design educators and live and work in Brooklyn. Neil and Mary will be working with CUP on the upcoming MPP Increasing Immigrants’ Access to Banks.

Brendan McBride

As a researcher in Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico, Brendan began to understand the powerful role immigrant remittances play in improving economic opportunities and standards of living in immigrants’ hometowns. Back in his native New Jersey, Brendan coordinated an outreach team that connected migrant farmworkers to medical services, an experience that that got him thinking about the transformational power of well-targeted information. Brendan has also worked in affordable housing development for over ten years, mostly in cities in the US. In 2010, he founded Remás, a nonprofit organization motivated by the belief that people everywhere, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have access to information that improves their financial options in life. He has written about microfinance, housing, and immigration issues for United Nations Habitat, Habitat for Humanity and as a Fellow at Kiva. Brendan earned a B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College and a M.Sc. in Urban Development and Management from Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He enjoys cooking, biking, and embarrassing himself in foreign languages. 

Valeria Mogilevich

Valeria is the Deputy Director at CUP. She has been with CUP since 2006 creating design projects that break down the city’s complex systems to help people better participate in shaping the city. In partnership with high school teachers and teaching artists, Valeria has produced over a dozen experiential youth education projects. These projects have been featured in such venues as the Netherlands Architecture Institute and MoMA and such publications as City Limits, the New York Times, and Design Observer. She has presented on project-based learning and community-engaged youth education at the New Museum, NYU’s Steinhardt School, The Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, plenty of NYC public high schools, and educational institutions from Philly to Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media. Valeria is also an independent film programmer and has worked with the Margaret Mead Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and Cinema Tropical. 

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over ten years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Valeria Mogilevich

Valeria is the Deputy Director at CUP. She has been with CUP since 2006 creating design projects that break down the city’s complex systems to help people better participate in shaping the city. In partnership with high school teachers and teaching artists, Valeria has produced over a dozen experiential youth education projects. These projects have been featured in such venues as the Netherlands Architecture Institute and MoMA and such publications as City Limits, the New York Times, and Design Observer. She has presented on project-based learning and community-engaged youth education at the New Museum, NYU’s Steinhardt School, The Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, plenty of NYC public high schools, and educational institutions from Philly to Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media. Valeria is also an independent film programmer and has worked with the Margaret Mead Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and Cinema Tropical. 

Juliette Spertus

Juliette Spertus is an architect and curator. Her work focuses on the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and public space. She uses cultural programming to publicly draw parallels between overlooked experiences of the recent past and current strategies for the built environment. She organized the exhibit Fast Trash: Roosevelt Island’s Pneumatic Tubes and the Future of Cities, and collaborated with CUP on the educational programming. She is continuing her research on pneumatic collection and is planning a new exhibition.

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over ten years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Sam Holleran

Is an artist, designer, and writer. Sam is CUP’s Communications Coordinator and office baristo. He attended the New School, Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the Cooper Union where he was the recipient of the Herb Lubalin Fellowship for Typography and the Benjamin Menschel Fellowship for Creative Inquiry. Sam has worked extensively in printmaking; his fields of interest include: photogravure, letterpress, Ukiyo-e, etching, and silkscreen.

Jeff Maki

Jeff Maki is an artist-programmer in New York City and a principal collaborator with Publicworks Office. Jeff writes about the legibility of urban infrastructure and advises public and private organizations on the future of digital cities.

Alexandra Woolsey Puffer

Alexandra Woolsey Puffer is an artist-designer in New York City and principal collaborator with Publicworks Office. Her interests include social systems and symbolic capital.

Fast-Tracked students from College Now at New Design High School

Sarai Arroyo, Kharee Boyd, Lawrence Daise, Juan Garcia, Isaiah Ortiz, Dayhana Santos, Aldo Sorcia, Chun Fung (Ronex) Tse, Shadiq Williams, and Steven Mejas were all part of the Fast-Tracked Urban Investigation in 2011.

Students from Field Guide to Federalism

Students from the Academy for Urban Planning in Mr. Sandoval’s 9th grade US History class worked with CUP on Field Guide to Federalism

Stephen Fiehn

Stephen Fiehn is an artist from Chicago, now based in Brooklyn, working in collaboration, performance, sound, visual art, and writing. He co-founded the collaborative art duo Cupola Bobber in 2000 and the sound group Fessenden in 2005. Other recent collaborative projects include: Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never.(2010) and Testimony 2.2 (2013) with Every house has a door. His work has been shown across the U.S. and Europe.  Most recently, Stephen worked with CUP and the Academy of Urban Planning on a two week class consisting of a series of micro-investigations viewing federal, state, and city governments through the businesses and streets of a small area in Brooklyn, NY. The class culminated with the production of a booklet titled Field Guide to Federalism: Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York in collaboration with designer Jennifer Korff.

Jen Korff

Jen Korff is the founding principal art director and designer of Sophik Studio, a small one-woman shop that works to create positive change via an illustrative aesthetic and unique strategic approach. Jen’s intention and instinct guides her thinking as she works to build effective solutions that encourage conversation and engagement in and across communities to effect positive social change. Jen predominantly works with a handful of wonderful folks in Brooklyn and Chicago. Jen’s other interests include baking, experimental theatre, drawing her breakfast, cat snuggling, Johnny Cash, the films of Buster Keaton and Ang Lee, gardening, cheese, and golden retrievers. Jen designed CUP’s “Field Guide to Federalism” city studies book alongside teacher extraordinaire, Stephen Fiehn and CUP’s “Are you Ready for a Ruckus?” Urban Investigation book.

Hatuey Ramos Fermín

Hatuey Ramos Fermín is an educator and multimedia artist who uses photography, video, installation, graphics, performance, intervention, maps, sounds, and social and curatorial practices to creatively investigate issues related to urban space. His work is informed by the documentary and the fine arts.

Valeria Mogilevich

Valeria is the Deputy Director at CUP. She has been with CUP since 2006 creating design projects that break down the city’s complex systems to help people better participate in shaping the city. In partnership with high school teachers and teaching artists, Valeria has produced over a dozen experiential youth education projects. These projects have been featured in such venues as the Netherlands Architecture Institute and MoMA and such publications as City Limits, the New York Times, and Design Observer. She has presented on project-based learning and community-engaged youth education at the New Museum, NYU’s Steinhardt School, The Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, plenty of NYC public high schools, and educational institutions from Philly to Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media. Valeria is also an independent film programmer and has worked with the Margaret Mead Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and Cinema Tropical.