CUP’s core staff supports the organization from day to day, but CUP projects are designed and implemented by teams of artists, designers, educators, activists, and researchers.
Rent Regulation Rights
Making Policy Public
Fast Trash
City Studies
Figuring Out FEMA
Public Access Design
Immigrants & NY
Making Policy Public
Swipe Out
Urban Investigations
Get Support in Housing Court
Making Policy Public
Michael Anderson
Michael was CUP’s fall 2014 intern. A recent graduate from Parsons The New School for Design, he completed ... moreMichael Anderson
Michael was CUP’s fall 2014 intern. A recent graduate from Parsons The New School for Design, he completed his BFA in Communication Design with departmental honors this past May. He previously held internships at a music label, a chess club, a gallery, and a Brooklyn-based community organization. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he likes his coffee black and gets nostalgic nearly every time it rains. He hopes to continue to use his graphic design knowledge to create a positive impact in his community by working with non-profits and other local advocacy groups.
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Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson, one of CUP’s co-founders, is an architectural designer in New York City. Originally from Seattle, ... moreJason Anderson
Jason Anderson, one of CUP’s co-founders, is an architectural designer in New York City. Originally from Seattle, Jason has worked and taught in New York and Beijing, where he lived for four years after being awarded the Henry Luce Scholarship in 2005. Jason holds a Master of Architecture from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University. Jason served on CUP’s board and as Treasurer from 1997-2006. He continues to be a supporter and a huge fan.
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Cassie Ang
Cassie Ang was CUP’s fall 2015 and spring 2016 intern. She is a designer who loves cities, people, and systems. Born ... moreCassie Ang
Cassie Ang was CUP’s fall 2015 and spring 2016 intern. She is a designer who loves cities, people, and systems. Born and raised in Singapore, she’s interested in understanding and addressing systemic injustice, particularly in urban settings. To that end, she is currently pursuing a BA/BFA at The New School in Urban Studies and Service Design. Before The New School, she pursued a Diploma in Visual Communication (Graphic Design) at Temasek Polytechnic. In her spare time, she’s also a hand-letterer, cook, and writer.
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Anti-Violence Project
The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected ... moreAnti-Violence Project
The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy.
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Students from Are You Ready For A Ruckus?
Students from College Now at New Design High School and the Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law who worked on an ... moreStudents from Are You Ready For A Ruckus?
Students from College Now at New Design High School and the Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law who worked on an Urban Investigation about disaster preparedness. Those students were: Christy Chavez, Oscar Fermin, Diosa Melenciano, Rosa Melenciano, Christian Ogando, Christopher Santos, Jeffrey Salazar, Tajanay Sajous, Malik Tucker; with help from Magdiel Ciego, Kymani Hanley, and Danielle Hernandez.
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Ruben Arroyo
Ruben Arroyo, from City-as-School, was part of the Water Underground crew in 2006.
Asian Americans For Equality
Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Asian Americans and ... moreAsian Americans For Equality
Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Asian Americans and all of those who are in need. Founded in 1974 to advocate for equal rights, AAFE has transformed in the past four decades to become one of New York’s preeminent housing, social service and community development organizations. AAFE is committed to preserving affordable housing throughout New York and to providing new opportunities for the city’s diverse immigrant communities. AAFE provides education, financial assistance and training to empower people, small businesses and neighborhoods. Its research, advocacy and grassroots organizing initiatives help to shape government policy and to effect positive change. At its heart, AAFE embodies the hopes and dreams of New York’s many vibrant immigrant communities, and helps turn those dreams into reality. AAFE contributed to the development of What is Affordable Housing?
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Association For Neighborhood and Housing Development
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) is a 501c3 membership organization founded in 1974, comprised ... moreAssociation For Neighborhood and Housing Development
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) is a 501c3 membership organization founded in 1974, comprised of 98 nonprofit neighborhood housing groups serving low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. Over the past decade alone, ANHD’s training, policy research, advocacy, strategic communications, and leadership development for grassroots groups and residents has leveraged over $1.3 billion for affordable housing, rescued over 30,000 apartments and 160 buildings for low-income residents, and created break through policies for community development. ANHD is collaborating with CUP on an MPP about the Responsible Banking Act and contributed to the development of the Affordable Housing Toolkit and Zoning Toolkit.
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Shauna Badeker
Shauna is working on her undergraduate degree in Community Studies with a minor in Literature at the University of ... moreShauna Badeker
Shauna is working on her undergraduate degree in Community Studies with a minor in Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, go Banana Slugs! Her passion for social justice, alternative education, and travel have brought her to CUP. She is on a mission to break down the injustices of “the system” and to pull knowledge from everywhere she can. You might find Shauna running around New York City (literally running) training for her next marathon, waiting in absurdly long lines for poetry slams, or laying in the sun eating a burrito (back in California, of course).
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Kate Balug
Kate is an artist and an urbanist. She holds a bachelor’s in studio art from USC and a master’s in ... moreKate Balug
Kate is an artist and an urbanist. She holds a bachelor’s in studio art from USC and a master’s in urban planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She recently spent a year as a Harvard fellow in Mexico City, creating the project “Museum of the Future” that involved time travel and building a time machine with over 100 youth. She is a founding member of the Department of Play, a new collective that will infuse Boston with temporary play zones. She has developed art projects and youth collaborations in the US, Latin America and Poland. Her work examines collective imagination as a tool for bold, inclusive city-making, and her process connects local histories toward the future to build local agency. Originally from Poland, Balug grew up in Chicago. She was a CUP teaching artist for “Museumopolis,” where she led youth at Dia:Beacon on a quest to research the role of a museum in a city and build three fantasy museums.
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Analiese Barnes-Classen
Analiese is CUP’s Development Coordinator. She was born and raised in Roxbury and now lives in Brooklyn. Prior to ... moreAnaliese Barnes-Classen
Analiese is CUP’s Development Coordinator. She was born and raised in Roxbury and now lives in Brooklyn. Prior to joining CUP, she managed arts education programs at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Before that role, she worked in development and programming at various nonprofits in the Boston area, including OneGoal Massachusetts and the Boston Women’s Workforce Council. She holds a BA from Providence College in Public and Community Service Studies. Outside of work, she enjoys tending to her houseplants, playing Breath of the Wild, and taking long walks (seriously.)
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Miles Barretto
Miles Barretto is a NYC based graphic designer originally from the Philippines. His work specializes in print and his main ... moreMiles Barretto
Miles Barretto is a NYC based graphic designer originally from the Philippines. His work specializes in print and his main interests lies in creating design that explores social issues. He graduated from Parsons the New School of Design with a BFA in Communication Design.
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Jake Barton
Jake Barton is principal and Founder of Local Projects, which is creating the media design for the 9/11 Memorial Museum, ... moreJake Barton
Jake Barton is principal and Founder of Local Projects, which is creating the media design for the 9/11 Memorial Museum, StoryCorps, Change By Us, and the Frank Gehry designed Eisenhower Presidential Memorial. Local Projects has visited the White House three-times as a National Design Award finalist, and was named the second most innovative design firm by Fast Company for its use of technology to redefine urban spaces and emotional storytelling. Jake is recognized as a leader in the field of interaction design for physical spaces, and in the creation of collaborative storytelling projects where participants generate content. Current clients include the BMW Guggenheim Lab, Seaworld, Microsoft, Google, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
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Sean Basinski
Sean works for the Street Vendor Project, a membership-based organization of more than 700 vendors who work together to ... moreSean Basinski
Sean works for the Street Vendor Project, a membership-based organization of more than 700 vendors who work together to protect the rights of vendors and promote vendor-friendly reform. Sean worked with CUP to help produce the MPP Vendor Power!
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Tess Bath
Tess Bath was a CUP intern. She is a Hunter College student studying “Urban Space and Politics” through ... moreTess Bath
Tess Bath was a CUP intern. She is a Hunter College student studying “Urban Space and Politics” through CUNY’s Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Straddling geography and urban studies, her focus aims to break down the complex web of actors/systems/structures that produce urban space. Tess spent a good long year drooling over CUP and was honored to be given the opportunity to continue this practice in the splendor of their office. Hailing from southeast Florida, she spends much of her time pragmatically reimagining the notoriously “apolitical” suburbs and hopes to apply her experiences in the city and with CUP to alternative and critical pedagogical initiatives back home. In her free time she enjoys jamming out on the air guitar to Weezer.
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Eddie Bautista
Eddie Bautista is an award-winning community organizer and urban planner who currently serves as the Executive Director of ... moreEddie Bautista
Eddie Bautista is an award-winning community organizer and urban planner who currently serves as the Executive Director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), an umbrella network of community-based organizations in low-income communities of color throughout the City. From 2006 to 2010, Eddie served as Director of the Mayor’s Office of City Legislative Affairs. As Director, Eddie spearheaded efforts to pass several major pieces of legislation, including the City‚Äôs 20-year landmark Solid Waste Management Plan. Previously, Eddie was the Director of Community Planning for NY Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), where he served as the lobbying/communications/community organizing director for this non-profit civil rights law firm. At NYLPI, Eddie organized numerous grassroots coalitions and campaigns, including the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN) and Communities United for Responsible Energy (CURE). Eddie has a B.A. from N.Y.U., an M.S. in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute and was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University. In 2003, Eddie was among 17 national winners of the Ford Foundation‚Äôs Leadership for a Changing World awards. Eddie is also a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute‚ Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.
Eddie was a MPP juror.
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Vicki Been
Vicki Been is the Boxer Family Professor of Law at New York University and the Director of Furman Center for Real Estate ... moreVicki Been
Vicki Been is the Boxer Family Professor of Law at New York University and the Director of Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. She is at the cutting edge of legal scholarship in land use, urban policy, and housing. Been writes about land use and housing policy, the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, environmental justice, and fair housing. She is the co-author of a leading land use casebook, Land Use Controls, with Robert Ellickson, Rick Hills and Christopher Serkin. Been’s current research focuses on the public policy aspects of the mortgage finance crisis, the effect of the housing crisis on Black and Latino families, the role of zoning and other regulations in shaping development patterns, and historic preservation. In February 2012, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, which Been co-directs, was named a recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in recognition of the Furman Center’s excellence in providing objective, policy-relevant research to address the challenges facing neighborhoods in New York City and across the nation.
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Ana Beirne
Ana Beirne is CUP’s Summer 2021 intern. Ana was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and studies Human Environmental ... moreAna Beirne
Ana Beirne is CUP’s Summer 2021 intern. Ana was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and studies Human Environmental Geography at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is passionate about envisioning social change through artistic creativity, urban farming, and community-nurtured networks of care. In her spare time, you can find Ana making zines, riding the train, writing letters to friends, and playing with her bunny Momo.
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Bellevue Program for Survivors of Tortur
The Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City, New York, is affiliated with Bellevue Hospital Center and ... moreBellevue Program for Survivors of Tortur
The Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City, New York, is affiliated with Bellevue Hospital Center and New York University School of Medicine. Their primary focus is to identify, assess, and treat survivors of torture. PSOT also offers training to physicians, psychologists, lawyers, resettlement workers, students and community members across the country on issues related to torture and torture treatment. CUP teamed up with The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT) to create What is asylum?, a trilingual fold-out poster in English, Spanish, and French. The illustrated poster guides asylum seekers — many of whom have limited English and literacy skills — step-by-step through the difficult process of receiving asylum, and provides information about other resources they can turn to for assistance. https://www.survivorsoftorture.org/
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Clair Beltran
Clair Beltran is CUP’s Program Coordinator and is also a former intern. She is a recent graduate of Middlebury ... moreClair Beltran
Clair Beltran is CUP’s Program Coordinator and is also a former intern. She is a recent graduate of Middlebury College where she studied Architecture and Geography. She is interested in the intersections between sociology and design and how different people experience space. Having spent the past 5 years in Vermont, she is excited and overwhelmed at being back in her hometown of New York City and relearning what it has to offer.
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