New Yorkers for Parks

is the citywide independent organization championing quality parks and open spaces for all New Yorkers in all neighborhoods.

Newtown Creek Alliance

is a community-based organization dedicated to restoring, revealing and revitalizing Newtown Creek. The Newtown Creek Alliance represents the interests of community residents and local businesses who are dedicated to restoring community health, water quality, habitat, access, and vibrant water-dependent commerce along Newtown Creek.

Dori Nguyen

Dori was a graduate intern at CUP. She is pursuing her MCRP at the Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, studying community and international development, with particular emphasis on food systems, economics and informal settlements.  She is currently scheming to make the world a better place.

Vivianne Njoku

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised in and around Washington, DC, and currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Vivianne A. Njoku/Van Alexander is a multi-media artist working most prominently in video, drum kit, performative storytelling and education. She is an inspired and engaged member of her communities locally, globally and everything in between. Her personal work is driven by obsessions and textures, particularly at the intersection of the two. Despite the ever-changing inspiration and context for Njoku’s work, most recently she has found this intersection most fascinating as it relates to exploring notions of representation. Professionally, Ms. Njoku has spent numerous years providing her services as a video artist for festivals, musicians and non-profits, as well as instructing youth in video production and progressive arts. Most notably, Vivianne spent a number of years as a Teaching Artist with the Tribeca Film Institute, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. The common thread in Ms. Njoku’s past and present work is providing youth with the tools to empower themselves to become critically-engaged citizens who strive for a just, democratic society. Vivianne’s work and performances have been showcased at arts festivals, multi-media venues, and creative spaces across the country and internationally, including Artomatic in Washington, DC; Galapagos Art Space in New York City; and Toronto Pride in Canada. Ms. Njoku holds a Masters Degree in Art Education from New York University and is licensed through the state of New York as Visual Arts Instructor for all grades. Currently, she teaches 12th grade Media Arts at the International High School at Union Square.

Katrina Noble

Katrina is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer who designs book covers by day and all manner of other things (sweaters, dresses, hand-bound books, circuit-breaker maps) by night. She has an abiding interest in how everything is communicated, and aspires to one day understand how everything works. katrinanoble.com

Katrina was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.

Gavin Noble

Gavin was a BCCP student in the I Heart East New York Urban Investigation.

Danica Novgorodoff

Danica Novgorodoff is a painter, comic book artist, writer and graphic designer who currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. As an art major, she received her B.A. from Yale University in 2002. Since 2005, she has worked as a book designer for Roaring Brook Press, a publisher of graphic novels and children’s books. Novgorodoff has self-published several comic books, and her graphic novels “Slow Storm” and “Refresh, Refresh” were published by First Second Books in 2008 and 2009. Danica designed the MPP I Got Arrested! Now What?

Oscar Nuñez

Oscar was a Community Education Program Manager at CUP. He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning Master’s Program at Pratt Institute with a concentration on Community Development. While completing his studies at Pratt, Oscar worked and interned in various local community organizations and groups, including CUP, on issues dealing with planning, design, and community education and engagement. Previously, he received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he moved to Washington, D.C. at a young age. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French and can give pretty good directions in Portuguese.

Leah Obias

Leah Obias is Campaigns Coordinator and Case Worker for Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a grassroots, membership-based organization of Filipino women domestic workers and other low-wage migrant workers in the New York City area. Leah was a founding member of the youth organization Ugnayan, where she worked on local youth-centered programs addressing issues of cultural identity, education and family separation, and helped to develop the organization’s first youth restaurant worker campaign on wage theft. As Damayan’s campaign coordinator, Leah directly supports members with cases while connecting them to larger organizing efforts and advocacy on wage theft, trafficking, and the proper valuation of domestic work as women’s work. Through Damayan’s leadership in the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Leah has also been active in national efforts to build the power of domestic workers and expand workers’ right to organize across different industries.

Caroline Oh

Caroline Oh is a designer and educator interested in creating delightful interactive tools for storytelling, learning and play. She is the Lead Designer and Co-founder of TKOH for which she is currently working on Totem, an interactive platform for collecting personal stories, generously supported by the Knight Foundation. Caroline also teaches typography at the Pratt Institute. 

As a 2013 Public Access Design Fellow for CUP, Caroline illustrated and designed ¡No Me Han Pagado!, a pocket book for day laborers to help protect themselves against wage theft, in collaboration with New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE). Caroline holds a Graphic Design MFA from CalArts and a Film BA from the University of Michigan. 

Students from Old School New School

Public high school students together with the Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP) investigated the high school application process. They created Old School New School to break down the process for middle school students. Those students were: Gongga Baerde, Adriana Deonarine, Destiny Lopez, Safiya Mann, Remorn Radway, Zoya Seaforth

Marianna Olinger

Marianna Olinger is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher working on various media with a focus on inspiring, and contributing to human development in harmony with other species and the planet.  

Eddie Opara

Eddie Opara was born in Wandsworth, London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as a senior designer/art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in October 2010. Opara is a multi-faceted designer whose work encompasses strategy, design and technology. His projects have included the design of brand identity, publications, packaging, environments, exhibitions, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media. Opara is a visiting critic at Yale University and teaches narrative design at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the Yale University School of Art. He currently serves on the board of the New York Chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design.

Karl Orozco

Karl Orozco is an artist and educator based in Queens, NY. He is interested in gaming as a multidisciplinary art form for community building, storytelling and social commentary. He believes good art is playful. Karl loves working with youth and strives to give them the tools to create change in their communities.

Ilaria Ortensi

Ilaria Ortensi is an artist and art educator with an interest in architecture, urban landscape and the representation of contemporary spaces. She uses both documentation and fiction to create images that viewers are encouraged to question. Born in Italy, she received her MFA from Columbia University in 2015 and is currently part of the Hercules Art/Studio Program in Long Island City, NY.