L & L

L & L is the design partnership of Leigh Mignogna and Liz Seibert. We first started working together as MFA students at Pratt, where we developed a design process that is iterative, collaborative and concept-driven. With every project, our goal is to identify core values and extend them into intelligent, engaging designs. We received recognition for our typeface design at the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno in 2014 and at AIGA/NY in 2013. Previously, we published a book through Pratt Press on interdisciplinary design education, called Five Conversations on Graphic Design and Creative Writing.

Stand for Tenant Safety

STS is a citywide coalition of community organizations who are fighting to protect the lives and homes of New York City tenants from landlords who are using construction as harassment. We define construction as harassment as when landlords use aggressive, disruptive, and unsafe construction as means to displace tenants from their homes. Through a community-driven effort, STS has worked with the New York City Council to pass eleven pieces of legislation to reform the Department of Buildings. The Coalition is led by St. Nicks Alliance, Cooper Square Committee and the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center (CDP).

Fielding Hong

Fielding is a Youth Education Program Manager at CUP. He has over 10 years of experience as a youth educator working at the intersections of history, the arts, and social justice. Fielding has worked as both a high school history teacher in Philadelphia and a museum educator in New York. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, a teaching degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s in Culture and Gender Studies from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Stephen Kwok

Stephen Kwok makes live performance, experimental events, and installations. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He was an artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation’s Performance as Process Programme in London, and has exhibited his work at Haus der Kulteren der Welt (HKW), The Center for Performance Research, American Medium, Julius Caesar, Chicago Cultural Center, Gene Siskel Film Center, and the Lawndale Art Center in Houston.

Ingrid Haftel

Ingrid was the Community Education Program Director for CUP. Before CUP, she was Curator of Exhibitions at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), Chicago’s leading forum for the exchange of ideas on urban design. While at CAF, Ingrid developed major exhibitions that helped public audiences think critically about complex issues related to urban planning and architecture. Ingrid received her B.A. in English and Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington, and her M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago.

Boyeon Choi

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.

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.

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over fifteen years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she was identified as one of the “Public Interest Design 100.” She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Justin Levitt

Justin Levitt is counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, focusing on redistricting, election administration, and other voting rights concerns. Mr. Levitt is the author or co-author of articles in both law reviews and peer-reviewed publications, and has also written many shorter commentaries for a more public audience. His Brennan Center monographs, including A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting (2008), The Truth About Voter Fraud (2007), and Making the List (2006), have been cited extensively in the courts and in the media. He worked with CUP to produce the MPP Know Your Lines.

John Mangin

John Mangin is a construction manager and housing litigator at Fair Share Housing, an affordable housing developer that grew out of the Mount Laurel exclusionary housing cases in the 70’s and 80’s. He was formerly a homebuilder and continues to take building and furniture-making jobs out of his Philadelphia studio. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2008. He was one of three staff members at CUP from 2008 to 2010.  

Erika Wood

Erika L. Wood is an Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School.  Previously, she was the Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice where she designed and launched major reform campaigns around the country and provided legal counsel and strategic guidance to advocates, legislators, and policymakers nationwide. Erika has litigated complex civil rights cases and is a frequent speaker and commentator on voting rights, criminal justice reform and racial justice issues.  In 2010, she worked with CUP to produce the MPP Know Your Lines.

Clara Amenyo

Clara was the Program Manager for CUP’s Public Access Design program from 2012 to 2014. Before coming to CUP, she worked in Structured Credit for Barclays Capital. Clara has a Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Christine Gaspar

Christine is the Executive Director of CUP. She has over fifteen years of experience in community design. Prior to joining CUP, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and city planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, she was identified as one of the “Public Interest Design 100.” She holds Masters in Architecture and in City Planning from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

She’s been a CUP fan since 2001, and a staff member since 2009.

Melissa Gorman

Melissa Gorman is a multi-disciplinary designer, artist, and entrepreneur living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She recently earned an MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts. Her design practice is primarily concerned with visual identity and branding for local startups and small businesses. In her art practice, she is interested in the idea of preservation through illustration, creating a time capsule of aspects of the city through portraits of places bound for extinction. She likes cats more than dogs, finds that yellow is the predominant color in her work, and finds it hard to turn down dessert. costd.com

Fielding Hong

Fielding is a Youth Education Program Manager at CUP. He has over 10 years of experience as a youth educator working at the intersections of history, the arts, and social justice. Fielding has worked as both a high school history teacher in Philadelphia and a museum educator in New York. He holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, a teaching degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s in Culture and Gender Studies from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Stephen Kwok

Stephen Kwok makes live performance, experimental events, and installations. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He was an artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation’s Performance as Process Programme in London, and has exhibited his work at Haus der Kulteren der Welt (HKW), The Center for Performance Research, American Medium, Julius Caesar, Chicago Cultural Center, Gene Siskel Film Center, and the Lawndale Art Center in Houston.

Leigh Taylor

Leigh was CUP’s Development & Program Coordinator. She is a recent graduate from Bard College, where she studied Sociology with a focus on Gender & Labor. Following college, Leigh has worked for organizations invested in social justice education for young people, specifically youth from historically marginalized communities. She is involved in movements of justice for domestic workers, incarcerated folks, and young people of color. She is excited to work with CUP to create accessible tools for people from communities like hers.