Amber Yared

Amber Yared is an artist and educator. She received a BFA in Studio Art and Art History from Concordia University in Montreal, a BEd from OISE/UT in Toronto, and an MAAE from SAIC in Chicago. She has experience in museum education, community arts, and high schools. In 2006 she interned with CUP and worked on The Water Underground and What’s Poppin’ at Fulton Mall.

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre is a Puerto Rican civil rights attorney of African and Indigenous ancestry born and raised in New York City. She is Executive Director ofUPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community based organization. Her vision for an inter-generational, multi-cultural and community led organization is the driving force behind UPROSE; she is a long-time advocate and trailblazer for community organizing around sustainable just development in Sunset Park. She holds a BA from Fordham University and a law degree from Northeastern University.

Sucharitha Yelimeli

Sucharitha Yelimeli is CUP’s Program Coordinator. She hails from Northern California, and has a background in architecture, art, and teaching. Before coming to CUP she designed single-family homes and before that, was an art teacher. She’s interested in how people respond to design, especially at the city scale, and likes taking seemingly unapproachable ideas and making them friendlier. Some things she enjoys doing on the side are getting lost in a good book, making very intricate coffee cup doodles, and trying to win the affection of street cats.

Kaz Yoneda

Kaz is an architect based in Tokyo, Japan. He participated in “Detroit Do Your Thing!” 2007, graduated with Bachelor in Architecture from the Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning with three concentrations in theory, history and technology. 2007-2009, worked for Sou Fujimoto Architects. 2011, received Master in Architecture II with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 2011, appointed the Coordinator and Teaching Associate for Harvard GSD abroad studio taught in Tokyo by Toyo Ito on “Home for All” projects in Tohoku region. 2012, began collaboration with takram design engineering. While investigating new architectural theory and design process that fuses research, design and praxis, Kaz is also active in wide range of activities from education to product design.

Sondra Youdelman

Sondra has been at CVH since 2000 and was named the organization’s Executive Director in March 2007; she was previously CVH’s Director of Public Policy and Research. Sondra has worked both in the United States and abroad to achieve social and economic justice through organizing. She has over 15 years experience as an organizer and activist with grassroots groups including farm workers, Native Americans, public housing residents, and low-income workers in the United States, and abroad for various populations throughout Latin America and in several African countries. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School in order to gain policy analysis tools to bring back to the grassroots. She also has a BA in American Studies focusing on Oppression and Revolution from Wesleyan University.

Sondra was a MPP juror.

Emily Young

Emily Young is a Chinese-American artist and designer living in Brooklyn, NY. Since graduating from New York University in 2014, she has been exploring how experimental art and architecture can bring about a more conscious relationship between humans and the built environment. Her favorite subjects as of late include informal cities, Chinatowns, youth culture, and fermentation practices. Most recently, she was the teaching artist for Our Voice, Our Choice: Why Vote in Local Elections?.

Kristen Zeiber

Kristen has been a CUP fan for a few years, and was thrilled to get to intern at CUP during a gap between semesters at MIT, where she is studying architecture and urbanism. Before MIT she worked in Mississippi for over 4 years at the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, and has dabbled here and there in woodworking and design/build projects. She has an undergraduate degree in architecture, and probably too many crafty hobbies.

Ping Zhu

Ping Zhu is a Brooklyn-based illustrator. She received the ADC Young Gun in 2013 and has been recognized by American Illustration and Communication Arts. Her clients include the New York Times, Pentagram, New Yorker, Coach, GOOD Magazine, The Independent, Sunday Times, Pushkin Press, Hèlium, and Nobrow Press. She is a visiting instructor at Pratt Institute and a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Kate Zidar

Kate Zidar is an Environmental Planner with a professional focus on solid waste, open space, urban agriculture and stormwater management. As Executive Director of the Newtown Creek Alliance, she works to strike a balance between waterfront access, environmental health and economic development for the city’s most polluted waterway and one of it’s strongest centers for manufacturing and industrial jobs. Kate serves as Chairperson of the Steering Committee for the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) Coalition, an organization dedicated to ensuring swimmable, fishable waters around New York City through Green Infrastructure. Kate is CUP’s biggest fan.