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.
I am an illustrator/graphic designer based in New York. I love making images to make sense out of things, or sometimes rather to obscure them. I have worked at MTWTF and prior to that, participated in a residency program at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, as a design group ‘FF’ working on community-based art projects. Currently, I am working as a freelancer to collaborate with various clients on a wide range of projects from printed matters to website. As a side project, I also make zines and hand-silkscreened stationery goods for a project group ‘Instant Rabbit’ which I co-founded with two of my classmates from SVA in 2012.
closeYeju Choi is a graphic designer / creative director / design educator working and living in New York City. Originally from Seoul, South Korea, she studied graphic design at Yale University (MFA) and Seoul National University (BFA). Since 2000, she has worked in various parts of graphic design, such as Art Director at Barneys New York, Graphic Design Director at WXYArchitecture + Urban Design, User Interface Designer at LG. Currently, she is running her own design studio NowHere Office in Chinatown and teaching graphic design at Yale University School of Art, and Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. www.yejuchoi.com
Yeju was a 2013-2014 Pubic Access Design Fellow.
closeNikki Chung is a graphic designer and the principal of Once & Future, a design studio in NYC dedicated to bringing thoughtful visual order to complex information. Once & Future makes identities, websites, mobile apps, books, illustrations, and more for small businesses and cultural organizations. Nikki received a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a MFA in Graphic Design from RISD. She has worked with CUP on Scary, OK With It, Good, Soda Census, and Draw the Line. Her website is http://once-future.com
closeAlice Chung is a co-founding partner of Omnivore, a small studio with a voracious appetite for cultural- and cause-related work based bicoastally in Brooklyn and Portland. Before venturing into the world of design, she completed studies in biology and health/social behavior and, though perhaps a bit unconventional, has been able to ally those disciplines in her current work. She also teaches typography and intermediate design at Yale University School of Art. Alice is currently working with CUP on the Tomato Supply Chain MPP.
closeCITAD is a design, consultancy and research studio based in Brooklyn aiming to improve the urban experience for Everyone. CITAD learns from cities and their residents, collaborates and helps to build healthy and equitable environments.
With backgrounds in architecture, urban planning and design and sustainable mobility CITAD explores new ways to tackle the social and territorial challenges that human settlements face today.
Website: www.citad.xyz (still under constructiont)
Alayna Citrin is a graphic designer interested in process oriented design, experimental typography and lettering, and sustainability’s role in the world of design. She is interested in working with people in a rigorous, collaborative environment on projects that use design for good. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD with a BFA in Graphic Design and is currently working at as an Art Director at Green Team Global.
closeThe Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a community-based farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, with over 4,000 members. The CIW seeks modern working conditions for farmworkers and promotes their fair treatment in accordance with national and international labor standards. The CIW uses creative methods to educate consumers about human rights abuses in the U.S. agriculture industry, the need for corporate social responsibility, and how consumers can help workers realize their social change goals. The CIW is currently working with CUP on the Tomato Supply Chain MPP.
closeChristine Coletta is an attorney at the law firm Hirschen Singer & Epstein, where she specializes in affordable housing and community development. Christine represents both non-profit and for-profit clients in the structuring, financing and development of affordable housing and mixed-use developments throughout New York City. A specialist in not-for-profit governance, Christine is actively involved in deals ranging from supportive housing to rental and homeownership initiatives. She has held positions at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Fifth Avenue Committee. Christine received her BA from Brown University and her JD from Boston College Law School. She is a native Rhode Islander and lives in Brooklyn.
closeCommunity Connections for Youth (CCFY) is a New-York based nonprofit organization, whose mission is to mobilize indigenous faith and neighborhood organizations to develop effective community-based alternative-to-incarceration programs for youth. CCFY believes that increasing local community capacity to work with youth in the justice system is the key to reducing youth crime and delinquency, and improving long-term life outcomes for youth. CUP collaborated with Community Connections for Youth, Inc. to create Pinned Down? Rise Up!, an illustrated foldout poster that explains the PINS process and its consequences, lists community-based alternative solutions, and provides advice on making the right decision for each family. https://cc-fy.org/
closeCommunity Food Action at New Settlement Apartments launched in 2014. This initiative integrates access to healthy and affordable food into every aspect of community development work – providing resident outreach, nutrition education, and cooking classes; creating new or improved healthy food outlets; and generating food-sector jobs. CUP collaborated with Community Food Action at New Settlement Apartments to create What’s On Your Plate? as a guide to school menu choices and how communities can get involved in the type of food served at public schools. https://newsettlement.org/food/
closeCommunity Health Advocates (CHA), a program of the Community Service Society, provides free and confidential individual counseling and educational community presentations to individuals, families, advocates and providers about health insurance in New York State. CHA network of community-based organizations and small business serving groups help New Yorkers access the health care they need, understand their health insurance options, and how the healthcare system works. CHA helps all New Yorkers: the privately insured, publicly insured, and uninsured. To help the thousands of people in NY State who still don’t have health insurance make their way through this complex process, CUP worked with CHA to create Figuring Out Health Insurance. This issue of Making Policy Public illustrates how health insurance works, basic rights under the ACA, and how to get insurance—including reduced price programs. http://www.communityhealthadvocates.org/
closeThe Community Service Society (CSS) of New York is a 170-year-old nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty and strengthening New York City. Throughout its history, CSS has embraced the idea that policy recommendations grounded in research and informed by real life experience inspires legislative remedies, volunteerism, and direct service models that assist populations in need. Across the city and around the state, CSS is working to ensure that every New Yorker has access to affordable, quality health coverage. CSS has recently been contracted by New York State to help consumers enroll in new health insurance options through the NY State of Health marketplace.
closeCommunity Voices Heard (CVH) is a membership-based community group that works to engage low-income families in organizing campaigns to influence policy that affects their families and their communities. CVH was started in 1994 by women on public assistance who wanted to fight to have their voices included in the national debate on welfare reform. CVH places priority on leadership development, policy education, direct action, participatory research and community outreach to build the tools necessary to engage community members and win on policy issues. CVH is currently working with CUP on the Public Housing Participation MPP.
closeZoë Coombes is from Toronto. Her and her partner Francisco David Boira, are now 100% commited to the creation of software-driven design at their Brooklyn-based business, Commonwealth. Zoe Coombes has worked on “Garbage Problems”.
closeLuisa Covaria is a filmmaker, animator, interaction designer and social entrepreneur. She recently graduated from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. Luisa received a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship and a Tisch school of the arts Fellowship. In 2004, Luisa received a scholarship to attend the Mahindra United world college of India. In 2009 Luisa received a Davis scholarship to attend Middlebury College where she majored in Film, Media Culture and German. In the past 10 years Luisa has led participatory video projects and develop curricula in India, China, Uruguay, Colombia and the US. Luisa’s films and interactive installations have been exhibited in Korea, India, China, U.S and Colombia. www.luisacovaria.com
Luisa was a 2013-2014 Public Access Design Fellow.
closeBenjamin Critton is an American designer, art director, typographer, publisher, writer, editor and curator. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he makes graphic design from a studio in a neighborhood called Greenpoint. Before moving to New York, he attended the Yale School of Art. Before that, he went to Hamilton College. Before that, he went to William H. Hall High School. Before that, he went to King Philip Middle School. Before that, he went to Morley Elementary School. Before that, he went to Knight Hall Nursery School.
closeBraden began life as a gardener turned landscape architect, before entering into the fray of community organizing and advocacy. Once he graduated with a BLA from Penn State, Braden founded Groundswell PA, a citizen’s coalition that successfully banned fracking on the local level using a Community Environmental Bill of Rights. Since then, he came to New York for a graduate degree in Design and Urban Ecologies at Parsons, in which he hones his praxis developing forms of horizontal organizing, solidarity economies and political ecology. In his spare time, Braden produces a webseries talk show about New York. Some day, he plans to cook lunch for the whole CUP office.
closeBorn and raised in the Dominican Republic, Lizania Cruz is a New York-based designer working in fashion, advocacy, and the arts. She brings a decade of design experience to her current work at the branding studio Language Department. Her clients have included established brands, like Anthropologie, startups, and nonprofits, such as the American Cancer Society. Her work has been recognized by AIGA, the Type Directors Club, and Communication Arts. Lizania recently launched her own jewelry line called Bagavundas.
closeGlen Cummings is a graphic designer, design critic and the principal of MTWTF – a graphic design studio specializing in publications, environmental graphics and identity systems. MTWTF engages in collaborative projects with partners in other disciplines, such as architecture, industrial design, and urban planning. They believe that conversation and negotiation are essential to the design process. MTWTF was founded in 2008 and is located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Glen has worked with CUP on a number of projects including Predatory Equity, Participatory Budgeting, and What is Affordable Housing?
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