Changes With the Season

As we transition into a new season and year, I want to share an important update about my professional journey with the broader Tishman Center community.

I am thrilled to start a new role as the Resource Mobilization Officer at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), an organization I've known and admired for a long time. My work will focus on resourcing GAIA’s mission to catalyze a global shift toward environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance waste and pollution solutions, working across the globe. In this role, I will continue my efforts to move philanthropic resources to be more justice-centered, equitable, and accessible to the broader climate and environmental justice movement. This career shift feels like a natural continuation of my work here, as GAIA’s values deeply align with those of the Tishman Center.

2022-2023 Student Awards and Aronson Fellowships Updates

In the fall of 2022, the Tishman Center’s Student Awards granted funds to nine students to support their research or design work centering environmental justice; you can read about their project proposals in this blog post. We are excited to highlight the progress of some of our awardees here!

Student Awards, Students, HighlightsTishman CenterOctober 16, 2023Student awards, aronson fellowship, Student HighlightsComment

Reflections and Briefing on the Biden-Harris Executive Order on EJ

On April 21, 2023, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Environmental Justice entitled, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. He was surrounded by members of the White House Environmental Justice Council, representing environmental justice leaders from around the country. Some of these leaders were present at the 1994 signing of the first Executive Order (EO) 12892 on Environmental Justice (EJ) signed by President Clinton. The decades since that first EO was signed have demonstrated the power of the EJ movement to advance a national agenda.

HighlightsTishman CenterApril 28, 2023In The News, Politics, environmental policyComment

Tishman Center Promotions and New Hires!

We are pleased to announce a number of staff promotions and new hires at the Tishman Center that will allow us to better serve the campus community, TNS sustainability goals, and President McBride’s Four Pillars of Fearless Progress. The Tishman Center recently received a catalytic grant from an anonymous, new climate funder that will support our strategic growth strategy over the next three years enabling us to hire a number of new employees engaged in campus programming serving faculty, staff and students and in growing our action-based research with frontline, grassroots partners in the tri-state region and around the country. Our expansion has been made possible through the great work and commitment of our staff, faculty and leadership. This illustrates the timeliness and urgency of the climate emergency and environmental justice work the Tishman Center undertakes.

HighlightsTishman CenterJuly 26, 2022updates, staff, ejmf, news

Tishman Center Co-Director Announcement

The Tishman Environment and Design Center is pleased to announce a new Co-Director structure. Professors Ana Baptista and Joel Towers will now be sharing leadership of the Center. Ana Baptista and Joel Towers have both been instrumental in the founding and shaping of the center over the last fifteen years. Joel’s background in sustainable design and Ana’s longstanding involvement in the Environmental Justice Movement make for a deeply complementary partnership as the TIshman Center’s co-directors. This leadership approach embodies the Tishman Center’s commitment to shared leadership grounded in interdisciplinary, diversity and social justice principles.

HighlightsTishman CenterJanuary 27, 2022Faculty News, announcements Comment

2020-2021 Annual Report Now Live

This has been a stressful and difficult year, on campus and around the world. We have seen many of the world’s inequalities laid bare as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. COVID-related deaths and economic fallout from the pandemic are felt unequally, with low-income and communities of color bearing the brunt. Meanwhile the climate crisis continues to grow in urgency as we are witnessing increasingly dangerous droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and storms. Again, poor communities and communities of color are most vulnerable to these events and have the fewest resources to recover.

HighlightsTishman CenterJanuary 25, 2022annual reportComment

Welcome Back!

We would like to welcome all staff, students and faculty back to our campus and we are looking forward to having a safe return and if you are looking for Covid-19 resources relating to campus return, you can find that here. We have a lot of exciting opportunities happening at the center this semester and while a lot of our engagement will be virtual, we still aim to be a resource for The New School community. Here are some highlights:

HighlightsTishman CenterAugust 26, 2021updates, climate week, research, ejmf

Tishman Center Proud to Announce Joel Towers and Ana Baptista's role on the NPCC

New York faces severe challenges posed by climate change including dangerous heat waves and flooding from sea-level rise. The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), founded in 2009, is an independent group that assesses climate and environmental risks to NYC and recommends changes in an advisory report, much like the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) .

Faculty, Highlights, NewsTishman CenterMay 25, 2021npcc, Climate Justice, policy, nyc, facultyComment

TED Talk: The people who caused the climate crisis aren't the ones who will solve it

“Frontline communities are the only ones who can get us out of this crisis.”

This past December, Angela Mahecha, Program Director of the Environmental Justice Fellowship Program, participated in TED Salon: Fairness and Our Future where she shared firmly and unapologetically that frontline communities, those most impacted by the climate crisis, are the only ones who can lead us towards a just future.

Strategic Plan 2020-2023

It is our pleasure to share our new three-year strategic plan, which was completed early this summer. Tishman Center staff worked with an outside evaluator to streamline and update the goals and outcomes from our previous plan while looking to make our work more comprehensive. We also worked with key stakeholders across our community, including our affiliated faculty to refine our goals and measurements for the new plan.

HighlightsTishman CenterJuly 16, 2020Strategic plan, campus engagement, climate justice

Get to Know our New Program Manager, Marouh Hussein

The Tishman Center is very excited to welcome our newest team member, Marouh Hussein. We are in the process of launching an Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship Program for environmental justice (EJ) leaders. Marouh will be instrumental in realizing this fellowship as the Program Manager. Read on to get to know her!

Highlights, interviewsTishman CenterJanuary 21, 2020Featured Staff Comment

A Warm Welcome to our Program Coordinator, Anna Yulsman

Although this post is a bit late, we would like to highlight our Program Coordinator, Anna Yulsman (MA, Parsons, ‘19) who works on a number of projects and is a valuable member of our team at the Tishman Center.

HighlightsTishman CenterDecember 16, 2019Featured Staff, Featured Alum

Ecological Urban Design

Brian McGrath, an Associate Director of the Tishman Center and Professor of Urban Design at Parsons, recently co-authored a book titled Patch Atlas, which is a new tool for mapping urban land cover that integrates design principles and ecological knowledge for understanding cities as complex, patchy, and dynamic systems. McGrath also co-authored an article in Science for the Sustainable City which presents key findings and insights from over two decades of research, education, and community engagement in the acclaimed Baltimore Ecosystem Study.