Join us for a discussion with our faculty, students and staff to share their experiences with the global pandemic, their thoughts about the interactions of climate change and social justice. This roundtable will be an opportunity to hear and share what we as a community are feeling during these turbulent times. The event will be hosted on Zoom and will feature panelists from all three groups and a Q&A. Register to the left and you will be provided with a link to the roundtable in advance of the event.
Panelists Include:
Christian Tandazo
Christian Tandazo was born and raised in Ecuador, between the shores of the Pacific and the Andes mountains. He immigrated with his family to New Jersey when he was 14. He graduated from William Paterson University with a BFA in ceramics and sculpture.
Christian is mixed, of Indigenous and European descent, raised in Andean tradition. Growing up in Ecuador he was constantly exposed to vast biocultural diversity which created a deep connection with the natural world, the people, and the planet. These experiences have shaped his worldview and endeavors.
He is currently a graduate student in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management MS program at The New School in New York City. In this program, his work has focused on decolonization, environmental justice, and alternative food and business models that do not replicate capitalist extractive modes of production and instead address the social, environmental, and economic burdens perpetuated by climate change that disproportionally affect low-wealth and marginalized communities of color in the global South and the global North.
Ivan J. Ramírez
Ivan J. Ramírez is a geographer whose research focuses on the intersections of global and urban health, community justice, disasters, and climate change. Using geospatial and community-based approaches, he examines health and social inequities across and between communities and places. His current projects focus on mental health, chronic conditions, and COVID-19 in Colorado and climate and infectious diseases in Peru and Guatemala. His work is published in interdisciplinary journals such as Weather, Climate, and Society, International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health, EcoHealth, and International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. As a teacher, he is committed to cross-disciplinary environmental and public health education that emphasizes spatial thinking, multidisciplinarity, ethics, and community engagement. Ivan is a faculty member in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences at University of Colorado, Denver. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Eugene Lang College, The New School. Ivan has a Ph.D. in Geography from Michigan State University and a M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia University.
Jennifer Lim
Jennifer Lim is part of The New School's Public Programs team, working to develop and implement strategies to amplify the impact of the university's 1,000+ events annually. Her work values center around building individual capacities, equalizing access to information, and fostering a stronger sense of community and collaboration. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Organizational Change Management at the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment.
Jill Corson Lake
Jill Corson Lake currently works as Senior Manager, Student Services & Support, within the Open Campus division of The New School. She worked for the Urban Systems Lab at The New School from 2018 to 2019. And, she worked in leadership roles in Academic Advising with Parsons undergraduate and graduate students from 2004 to 2018. She is a photographer and the former President & CEO of the New York Chapter of Advertising Photographers of America. She earned a Master of Arts in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMass Boston. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Georgia State University. She is a member of the Board of Education of the Garrison Union Free School District in Garrison, New York. And, she is a member of the Environmental Education Committee of the Garrison School. She loves growing vegetables and flowers in her garden.
Leonardo Figueroa Helland
Leonardo Figueroa Helland is an Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at The New School. He leads the Indigeneity and Sustainability project of the Tishman Environment and Design Center (https://www.tishmancenter.org/indigeneity) and co-convenes the Latin American Observatory of the Humanities for the Environment. A decolonizing scholar of mix-blood heritage (Indigenous, and Euro-American), his work underlines the centrality of Indigenous resurgence and revitalization in addressing planetary crises and achieving climate justice. His latest writings appear in the Journal of World Systems Research, the journal Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, the volume on Social Movements and World-System Transformation, and the forthcoming volume on Anarchist Political Ecology. His current projects include a manuscript prospectively titled “Anthropocene” Collapse / Indigenous Resurgence: From Planetary Crises to Decolonization.
Luis Ortiz
Luis Ortiz is Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Urban Systems Lab at The New School. A mechanical engineer by training, he is interested in the intersection of built environments, humans, and the atmosphere. In particular, he is interested in how climate change impacts energy use and health, as well as how cities may mitigate and adapt to these impacts. His current work as a member of the UREx SRN project involves projecting vulnerability to weather extremes across a range of stakeholder-driven land use and climate scenarios. Before joining the Urban Systems Lab, Luis earned his PhD at The City College of New York, where he worked on high-resolution extreme heat projections for New York City as well as impacts of climate change on the city’s summer electric demand for air conditioning. His work on heat wave projections will be featured in the upcoming Third New York City Panel on Climate Change report, scheduled for release in early 2019.
Maria-Elena Grant
I have worked at The New School since 2007 and am currently the Senior Manager of Operations and Special Projects in the Marketing and Communication department. Prior to joining The New School, I worked as an Operations Manager for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission - an aggressive NGO that advocated for the human rights of all people, on a global level. It is my dedication to the protection and advancement of human rights that has drawn me to serve on the Staff Senate. As I enter my 2nd decade of working at the university, I am very interested in helping to make The New School environment a safe, productive and enjoyable space for all its employees.
I am a graduate of the BPATS program at The New School for Public Engagement, and have been a member of Lavender Light Gospel Choir for the last 30-years.
A British born child of Jamaican parents, I have lived in the US for almost 41-years and am very happy to call New York City my home.
Timon McPhearson
Timon McPhearson is director of the Urban Systems Lab, associate professor of urban ecology at The New School’s Environmental Studies Program, and research faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center. In 2017 he was awarded The New School's Distinguished University Teaching Award and in 2018 became a member of the IPCC and lead author for the urban systems chapter. He investigates the ecology in, of, and for cities and teaches urban resilience, systems thinking, and urban ecology. Dr. McPhearson is a member of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), and the Urban Heat Island Task Force in the New York City Mayor's Office for Recovery and Resiliency. He co-leads the US NSF Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-related Events Sustainability Research Network (URExSRN) (2015-2020) and ENABLE project (2017-2020). His work is published in scientific journals (e.g. Nature, Nature Climate Change, BioScience, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution), in books (Urban Planet, Sustainability in America’s Cities, Urban Sustainability Transitions), popular press (e.g. The Nature of Cities), and covered by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and more. He is a senior research fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, and associate research fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University in Sweden.
Tommy Yang
Tommy Yang completed his Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and is a current graduate student in the Master of Architecture Program at The New School.
Yang’s work focuses on collaborative design, resiliency, ethnic studies, and speculative urban futures.
In his project 'Finding Home: A Place to Belong’ investigates the importance of home in the production of the Hmong and Hmong American identity in an inner-city neighborhood of Milwaukee. His research methodologies are structured from disciplines such as ethnic studies, cultural geography, cultural studies, architectural history, public history, and cultural landscape studies.
His current research involves Geographic Analysis of infrastructures and science fiction to inform urban and architectural futures. Utopic Forecasting and Storytelling in Architectural Design can simulate solutions for urban wicked problems.