Mariana Alegre Escorza

Mariana Alegre Escorza is Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the founder and executive director of Sistema Urbano , a Latin American urban innovation ecosystem that integrates data, participation, and collaborative action to transform cities and territories. Her work seeks to improve quality of life by advancing citizen-led urbanism to address urban inequity, spatial injustice, and climate challenges. She bridges research, policy, and practice through participatory processes, civic engagement, and cross-sector collaboration, with a focus on urban mobility, public transit and active modes, climate resilience, land use, and the co-creation of public space. Alegre believes in community care and community power as essential drivers for advancing public goods.

Alegre has founded and led multiple award-winning platforms. Lima Cómo Vamos , an independent urban observatory, has produced more than 30 surveys and reports influencing public policy and community action. Ocupa Tu Calle has transformed over 50 public spaces, shaped national and local policy, trained mayors and public officials, and partnered with multilateral organizations to scale participatory approaches across Latin America. She also established Ciudades Cómo Vamos – Perú, a national civic observatory network; Nodal, a regional platform connecting urban changemakers across Latin America; and Clima Urbano, an initiative advancing socio-ecological responses to environmental and health crises. She has served on national and municipal advisory committees, including Peru’s Bicentenary Special Project; designed participatory frameworks for local governments; and worked with communities throughout Peru and Latin America to co-produce public goods and strengthen resilience.

Her academic work includes teaching at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Business, Law and Urban postgraduate schools), where she is a tenured professor, designing and delivering courses on urbanism, citizenship, sustainable cities, social management, and social innovation. She has advised graduate theses and authored publications on public space, citizen-led urbanism, mobility justice, inequality, and risk management. In addition to her academic and civic leadership, Alegre is a skilled communicator and public voice, with experience as a columnist and radio presenter on urban issues.

Alegre’s leadership has been recognized with the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard GSD (2024–25), inclusion in Forbes Peru’s “Most Powerful Women” list (2022), and designation as a Remarkable Woman in Transport by Women Mobilize Women & TUMI (2019). She has participated in global exchange and leadership programs with the U.S. Department of State, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Affairs Office of Bordeaux Métropole, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and international universities such as MIT (MetroLab IAP), Aalto University and the Technical University of Dresden (CIPSEM).

She holds a MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics as a Chevening Scholar, a Master’s in Human Rights, and a Law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Avis Devine

Dr. Avis Devine holds a PhD in finance from the University of Cincinnati, an MBA from Duquesne University, and a BSc from Westminster College. She comes to the School from York University’s Schulich School of Business, where she was Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance and Sustainability (tenured). Prior to her academic career, she worked in commercial real estate finance, underwriting, and valuation. Her expertise sits at the intersection of real estate finance, sustainability, and organizational strategy; her research primarily investigates the financial and environmental performance of sustainable investment within the commercial real estate sector.

Devine’s work is broadly published in leading peer-reviewed economics, finance, and sustainable development journals, including Energy Economics, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Journal of Regional Science. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized with such awards as the Nick Tyrrell Research Prize in Real Estate Investment. Devine regularly collaborates on interdisciplinary projects with scholars and industry partners, contributing to a broader understanding of how sustainable investment and climate-related risks shape financial outcomes, portfolio strategy, and the built environment. She has received multiple research grants from academic and industry organizations and is currently engaged in projects examining the efficacy of green bond use of proceeds, the relationship between institutional ownership and carbon emissions in the energy sector, and office leasing impacts of remote and hybrid work on sustainable building adoption and commuting carbon emissions.

Additionally, Professor Devine plays an active role in shaping sustainability discourse within the real estate sector and beyond. She has served on advisory boards for the International WELL Building Institute, BOMA Canada, RealPAC, and RERI. She has crafted and frequently taught in real estate executive education programs and presents on sustainable real estate investment to corporations and real estate industry audiences worldwide. Her public presence in industry and academia alike has been widely recognized, with citations in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Commercial Property Executive, and The Financial Post.

Elisa Silva

Elisa Silva is the director and founder of Enlace Arquitectura, (est. 2007) a multidisciplinary professional practice in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture, and Enlace Foundation (est. 2017), an NGO that promotes environmental, cultural and educational programs of social inclusion and participatory design collaborations. Enlace’s work has been recognized in numerous design competitions, exhibitions and international biennials including the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize 2022, the Biennale di Venezia 2021, the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021, Arc en Rêve centre d’architecture in Bordeaux 2022, Centro Cultural Parque de España in Rosario Argentina 2022, Miami Art Basel FIU Gallery 2022, the XI and VIII Ibero American Architecture and Urban Design Biennial and the XX Architecture Biennial in Chile.

Elisa is an American-Venezuelan architect, with a Master of Architecture from Harvard GSD. Her practice and research challenge prejudiced narratives that support spatial inequality and engage communities in establishing long-term independent, local associations to sustain improvements in their livelihood and environment through collaborative programs. Communities include the barrio La Palomera and the Guaire River in Caracas Venezuela, rural villages in Oaxaca Mexico and Little Haiti in Miami Florida. These efforts have been supported by grants from the Swiss, French and US Embassies in Venezuela, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Roma Burgau Germany, the Mellon Foundation and private donations. Elisa is the author of seminal publications on barrios and public space including CABA Cartography of the Caracas Barrios (FE 2015) and Pure Space: expanding the public sphere through public space transformations in Latin-American spontaneous settlements (Actar 2020). Her writings have also been published by Park Books, Birkhäuser, Actar, Arquine, Metropolis Magazine, Azure, Brooklyn Rail, Rassegna di Architettura e Urbanistica, NESS.doc, forA on the Urban, Manifest Journal and Venezuelan journals. Elisa has received the Rome Prize from the American Academy, the Wheelwright Fellowship from Harvard, Graham Foundation Grants in 2017 and 2021 and the Lucas Artist Fellowship. She is Associate Professor at Florida International University FIU with a joint appointment at the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab and the Department of Architecture. She has also taught at Harvard GSD, Princeton University School of Architecture, the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Design at the University of Toronto, the Simón Bolívar University and the Central University in Venezuela.

Paola Sturla

Paola Sturla is a lecturer in Landscape Architecture and the 2018/2019 Daniel Urban Kiley Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy at Politecnico di Milano in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies. Born and raised in Italy, Paola is a registered “architetto” and “paesaggista.” She is currently a full-time researcher working on the designer’s creative agency to address open-ended problems through the hermeneutic design process, and the potentials and limits of Artificial Intelligence-based tools in such a practice. Before entering academia, she had been practicing internationally in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry in the framework of large scale infrastructure projects. Paola holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture (Politecnico di Milano, 2004), a Master in Architecture (Politecnico di Milano, 2007), and a Master in Landscape Architecture (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2011).

Jungyoon Kim

Jungyoon Kim is a practicing landscape architect, registered in the Netherlands (Tuin- en landschapsarchitect) and in the state of Massachusetts, USA (Professional Landscape Architect). She found PARKKIM with Yoonjin Park in Rotterdam, upon their winning of the Taiwan Chichi Earthquake Memorial Design Competition (2004), and relocated to Seoul, Korea (2006). PARKKIM completed projects of diverse scale and nature, ranging from corporate landscapes to civic venues, including Seoul Museum of Craft Art (2021), Hyundai Motor Group Global Partnership Center and University Gyeongju Campus (2020), the Plaza of Gyeonggi Provincial North Office (2018), CJ Blossom Park (2015), and Yanghwa Riverfront (2011). Current ongoing projects include Suseongmot Lake Floating Stage in Daegu, Korea, for which PARKKIM won the international invited competition in 2024 and is to be completed in 2026.

In 2025, PARKKIM PLLC opened in Massachusetts, aiming to expand its practice beyond the Korean peninsula.

She published the book ‘Alternative Nature’ (2015), co-authored with Park, which is a compilation of articles written by the two principals and published in various media since 2001. The term ‘alternative nature’ was first presented in their essay ‘Gangnam Alternative Nature: the experience of nature without parks’, published in the book ‘Asian Alterity (ed. William Lim, Singapore: 2007)’, rethinking the concept of ‘natural’ within the context of contemporary East Asian urbanism.

Upon her appointment at Harvard GSD, Kim has expanded PARKKIM’s design research into the seminar courses and option studios: When her seminar “Lost and Alternative Nature: Vertical Mapping of Urban Subterrains for Climate Change Mitigation” explored the implication of urbanization on both above/underground in 12 mid-latitude cities, her another discussion-based seminar “Origins and Contemporary Practices of Landscape Architecture in Asia” introduced and discussed many of amazing yet under-discussed landscape practices of the region. Jungyoon’s series of option studios, titled “Below, Above, and Beyond,” explored the underground of Seoul, Antwerp, and Boston, to see how innovative connections between the above and below ground would create novel public spaces in the era of climate change. Her recent studies on Japan specifically focus on the hydrology of cities as an agency to enhance the quality of life of citizens in public spaces.

Jungyoon was selected as the ‘Design Leader of Next Generation’ (2007) awarded by the Korean Ministry of Commerce and appointed to ‘Seoul Public Architect’ (2011) by the Metropolitan Government Seoul.

She received a Master of Landscape Architecture from the GSD and a Bachelor of Agriculture from Seoul National University with distinction.

Susannah Drake

Susannah C. Drake is the founding principal of DLANDstudio Architecture + Landscape Architecture pllc. The firm, winner of the 2014 AIA New Practices New York Award, has received city, state, and national AIA and ASLA awards.  In 2013, Susannah was awarded the AIA Young Architects Award and Fellowship in the ASLA, and was recognized as an Architectural League Emerging Voice. She has received numerous grants and awards for adapting infrastructure corridors for storm water capture, climate resilience and park creation. Susannah is the former President and Trustee of the NYASLA and former Trustee of the Van Alen Institute. She lectures globally about resilient urban infrastructure, and has taught courses at The Cooper Union, Harvard University, Syracuse University, Washington University in St. Louis, Florida International University, The City College of New York, and Illinois Institute of Technology. Susannah delivered the keynote addresses at the 18th Congress of the International Union of Women Architects in Blacksburg, VA in 2015, and at the XXV International Union of Architects World Congress in Durban, South Africa in 2014. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. DLANDstudio’s recent projects include QueensWay, MoMA Rising Currents, BQGreen, and Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™.

Susannah received a BA from Dartmouth College and MArch and MLA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is a registered architect and a registered landscape architect.

Steven Handel

Steven Handel studies the potential to restore native plant and animal communities, adding sustainable ecological services, biodiversity, and amenities to the landscape.  He has explored pollination, seed dispersal, plant population growth, ecological genetics, and most recently, ecological solutions for urban and heavily degraded lands.   In addition to his GSD appointment, he is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University.  Previously, he was a biology professor and director of the Marsh Botanic Garden at Yale University, Visiting Professor at Stockholm University, and Research Scholar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Handel is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and Certified Senior Ecologist of the Ecological Society of America, and is the Editor of the professional journal Ecological Restoration.  In 2007, he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He received the Society for Ecological Restoration’s highest research honor, the Theodore M. Sperry Award, “…for pioneering work in the restoration of urban areas.”

He has been on design teams doing ecological restoration in urban areas, such as the “Rebuild By Design” U.S. HUD competition, Gateway National Park in New York City, Fernbank Forest in Atlanta, Georgia, the Great Falls National Historical Park in NJ, and the Orange County Great Park in California.  Recognition for this work includes ASLA Honor Awards for Analysis & Planning (2008 and 2009), for Research (2009 and 2015), and for Communications (2015).  Also, the AIA National Honor Award in Regional & Urban Design, and the APA National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Regional Planning.  His research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Park Service, and private foundations.  He has published widely in ecological and botanical scientific journals.

Handel received his B.A. from Columbia College in Biology and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University in the Field of Ecology and Evolution.

John R. Stilgoe

John Stilgoe, Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape Development, holds a joint appointment in the Harvard Faculties of Arts and Science and Design. He offers courses on the history and future of the North American built landscape.

Author of What Is Landscape? (2015), Old Fields:  Photography, Glamour, and Fantasy Landscape (2014), Train Time:  Railroads and the Imminent Reshaping of the United States Landscape (2007), Landscape and Images (2005), Lifeboat (2003), Outside Lies Magic (1998), Alongshore (1994) and other books,  Stilgoe is a Fellow of the Society of American Historians and winner of the Parkman Medal (1983, for his Common Landscape of America), the ASLA Williams Medal, the AIA Medal for collaborative research, the Cabot Fellowship Prize, and other awards. Among his research projects are a book on elites and another on the enduring meanings of Spanish, French, African-American, Portuguese, Canary Island, and related Creole landscape terms north of Haiti and Cuba. He restores and sails antique boats.

Chris Reed

Chris Reed is Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture and Co-Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is also Founding Director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism . He is recognized internationally as a leading voice in the transformation of landscapes and cities, and he works alternately as a researcher, strategist, teacher, designer, and advisor. Reed is particularly interested in the relationships between landscape and ecology, infrastructure, social spaces, and cities. His work collectively includes urban revitalization initiatives, climate resilience and adaptation efforts, speculative propositions, adaptations of infrastructure and former industrial sites, dynamic and productive landscapes, vibrant public spaces that cultivate a diversity of social uses and cultural traditions, and numerous landscape installations. His work can be found in cities as diverse as Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Galveston, Abu Dhabi, and Dongshan, China.  His work through Stoss has been recognized with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture; the Topos International Landscape Award; and various other practice- and project-based awards from Progressive Architecture, the American Society of Landscape Architects, Azure’s AZ Awards, World Landscape Architecture, the Architectural League of New York, the Waterfront Center, EDRA / Places, and the Boston Society of Architects.

Reed is the co-editor of Projective Ecologies with ecologist and planner Nina-Marie Lister, and co-author of the book Mise-en-Scène: The Lives and Afterlives of Urban Landscapes with photographer Mike Belleme. He is a recipient of the 2012 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the 2017 Mercedes T. Bass Landscape Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. Reed received a Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in Urban Studies from Harvard College.

Jerold S. Kayden

Jerold S. Kayden is the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Founding Director of the Master in Real Estate Program. He previously served as co-chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and director of the Urban Planning Program. His teaching and scholarship address issues of land use and environmental law, public and private development in cities, public space, urban disasters and climate change, and design competitions. His books include Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience; Urban Disaster Resilience: New Dimensions from International Practice in the Built Environment; Landmark Justice: The Influence of William J. Brennan on America’s Communities; and Zoning and the American Dream: Promises Still To Keep.

As an urban planner and lawyer, Professor Kayden has advised governments, non-governmental organizations, and private and public real estate developers in the United States and around the world. He has argued court cases, authored or co-authored amicus briefs in United States Supreme Court cases, and served as expert witness. He has drafted zoning laws for various U. S. cities on inclusionary housing and privately owned public spaces. On international work, he has consulted widely for such institutions as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Development Programme, working principally in Armenia, China, Nepal, Russia, and Ukraine on drafting and implementing land use, real estate, and housing laws. Since 1991, he has served as principal constitutional counsel to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C. He leads Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space, a non-profit organization he founded based in New York City. From 2009 to 2011, he was Principal Investigator for the Harvard-Netherlands Project on Climate Change, Water, Land Development, and Adaptation, a collaborative project between Harvard, the Dutch Government, and the Deltares Institute.

Among Professor Kayden’s honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, multiple fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the American Bar Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Environmental Design Research Association. At the Design School, he was recognized schoolwide as “Teacher of the Year.” Professor Kayden earned his undergraduate, law, and city and regional planning degrees from Harvard and subsequently was law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University was established in 1957 from a bequest from Frank Backus Williams, a prominent New York City lawyer who played a significant role in creating the 1916 New York City zoning resolution, the first comprehensive zoning law in the United States. Among many publications, he wrote The Law of City Planning and Zoning (Macmillan, 1922) and co-wrote Model Laws for Planning Cities, Counties, and States (Harvard University Press, 1935). Professor Kayden is the sixth holder of the chair. Previous holders include Martin Meyerson (1957), followed by Charles Abrams, Fernando Belaunde Terry, Brian Berry, and William Doebele.