At the FONDATION USM Futures Lab, I developed policy strategies on climate governance and migration. I also led the creation of the Department for Communities in Climate Transition (DCCT), a modular policy model integrating climate action into social services, the arts, participatory budgeting, and cultural preservation, with design support from Corbin LaMont.

As Deputy Director at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, I led a team that developed policy initiatives for extreme heat mitigation, transportation resiliency and sustainability, waste management, green infrastructure, and air quality. I also led an interagency team focused on developing maximum indoor temperature regulations, one of the first policies of its kind in the Northeast. These policy areas were key features of PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done, New York City’s Climate Action Plan, and Cool Neighborhoods NYC, the city’s first heat resiliency plan. As one of the leading experts on extreme heat mitigation strategies in urban areas, I have shared my knowledge with planning and policy makers locally and internationally, as well as university students and young people engaged in citizen science.

I was part of an interdisciplinary team invited to develop heat resiliency strategies for the City of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. The initiative was spearheaded by Ramboll in partnership with the International Water Association. This workshop led to the creation of an urban cooling toolbox released by C40.

In my role as a neighborhood planner and flood resiliency specialist, I managed ULURP projects and led planning studies in Canarsie, Sheepshead Bay, and Gerritsen Beach as part of Resilient Neighborhoods, a place-based planning process that advanced land use policies for communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This multi-year effort culminated in the development of tailored neighborhood plans and zoning actions to support long-term neighborhood resiliency.

In partnership with the Urban Design Forum, I managed Turning the Heat , a year long fellowship that explored how urbanists can address the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable communities in New York City. The fellowship culminated in the development of a manual of 30 design, policy, finance, and community resiliency strategies for heat mitigation.

I served as a pro-bono environmental planner for Community2Community (C2C), a Haitian-led nonprofit founded after the 2010 earthquake, and Pinchina Consulting in partnership with a local farming organization in Petit Goâve. The project focused on the 12th Section of Petit Goâve, specifically Piton Vallue. Since neighborhood-level mapping data is limited throughout Haiti, Pinchina Consulting and the farming organization developed a community mapping initiative where residents used GPS devices to walk and map their neighborhood boundaries. This process, combined with community conversations, revealed that Piton Vallue is one of several communities within the 12th Section and helped to guide land use planning and tree planting initiatives to help mitigate riverine flooding.