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.
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.
closeNew Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) is a community-based, non-profit organization that works to ensure that new immigrants can build social, political and economic power in their communities and beyond. Over the years, NICE has built community power to effect change for our base, made up primarily of day laborers in the construction industry and domestic workers. We have markedly increased the visibility of the issues facing our base, including wage theft, and have taken the lead and/or joined forces in key campaigns for immigrant workers’ rights, for the rights of immigrant consumers, and for just and humane immigration reform. NICE worked with CUP on ¡No me han pagado!, a guide for day laborers about how to prevent wage theft.
closeCaroline 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.
closeAlex Tatusian designs publications, records, environments, and magazines. He works on civic and social problems in New York and recommends you read Toyo Ito’s “Architectural Scenery in the Saran Wrap City”. He will gladly get a beer and noodles with you at Deluxe Green Bo.
closeThe Fortune Society, founded in 1967, supports a broad array of alternative-to-incarceration and reentry initiatives for people with criminal records. Fortune founded the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) to coordinate Fortune’s policy development, advocacy, technical assistance, training, and community education efforts. DRCPP promotes programs that support people with criminal records, and works to change the laws and policies that create counterproductive barriers to the successful reentry of people with criminal records into our communities. The Fortune Society Collaborated with CUP on the MPP Barriers to Reentry.
closeJohn 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.
closeSara is a freelance designer based in Brooklyn. She has done work for Elixir Design, Carin Goldberg Design, Number 17, and New York Times Magazine. Prior to discovering that she was a designer, she had an entirely different career in social justice-based community planning and development. She worked with CUP to design the Barriers to Reentry MPP.
closeValeria is a visual storyteller who creates tools for participation in collaboration with social justice organizations. She also consults with cultural institutions, education non-profits, and others on community engagement and youth education. Valeria was formerly the Deputy Director of CUP, where over the course of eight years she created popular education tools with community-based organizations and developed curricula to help public high school students change the way the see their own neighborhoods. She has shared her thoughts on project-based learning, collaboration, and design for social impact at places like the New Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, and institutions from Indianapolis to Rotterdam. Valeria holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media.
closeRosten Woo is a cultural producer living in Los Angeles. He makes work that helps people understand complex systems and participate in group decision-making. He produces that work in partnership with local and national groups ranging from the American Human Development Project to the East Los Angeles Community Corporation. His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, the New Museum, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Netherlands Architectural Institute, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, on the internet, and in various public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks in New York City and Los Angeles. His first book, “Street Value,” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. He is co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). His website: www.wehavenoart.net
closeA group of students in Big Brothers Big Sisters worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and CUP teaching artist Doug Paulson to find out how to make a change in public spaces.Those students were Brion Beaufort, Erick Cayo, Amy Ford, Marquise Mack, Aaron Modoo, Celina Muñoz, Macy Shields, Sharay Wade, and Jason Williams.
closePema was CUP’s Program Assistant for youth education programs. She previously worked at the Queens Museum and was a Public Allies New York fellow. Pema grew up in Bangkok and went on to study art at the University of Washington and the University of the Arts London.
closeValeria is a visual storyteller who creates tools for participation in collaboration with social justice organizations. She also consults with cultural institutions, education non-profits, and others on community engagement and youth education. Valeria was formerly the Deputy Director of CUP, where over the course of eight years she created popular education tools with community-based organizations and developed curricula to help public high school students change the way the see their own neighborhoods. She has shared her thoughts on project-based learning, collaboration, and design for social impact at places like the New Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, Pratt Institute, and institutions from Indianapolis to Rotterdam. Valeria holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in Modern Culture and Media.
closeDouglas Paulson is an artist who explores the ways people construct cultural moments and spaces through collaboration. Douglas has organized and participated in expansive projects, adventures, and shows across the U.S. and Europe, and loves asking the question: “What art are you for?”
He is the New York wing of the international collective Parfyme, initiator of an informal collaborative group Action Club and a member of Flux Factory, where he runs the residency program. As a CUP teaching artist, he explored vacant property in Flatbush with middle school students, street-level banking mechanisms, and affordable housing placement with high school students.
closeCodi was CUP’s 2018-2019 Public Ally. She holds a BA in Feminist & Gender Studies from Colorado College. She is excited to learn more about design as a tool for social change and community development. Codi interned and continues to work with the Parole Preparation Project, an organization that provides advocacy and direct support to currently and formerly incarcerated people and seeks to transform the parole release process in New York State.
closeFielding 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.
closeHugo Rojas is a Media and Art educator, and multimedia artist. He has a B.A. in International Relations from Mexican University and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. With over nine years of experience in education having taught from Spanish Language to Photography and video production in Mexico, Brazil, and NYC. Currently, he is teaching residencies in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He also explores public space through his art intervention, and in his spare time he bikes around Brooklyn.
closeLeigh 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.
closeHrudaya is an Engineer turned Designer from India. She is currently working as a Design Strategist at the Design and Innovation Group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (MSKCC). Her work at MSKCC primarily consists of using Human Centered Design methodologies to improve patients, caregivers and clinicians experience in Cancer Care. Some of her other work consists of creating communication strategies for organizations like Going to School, India and United Nations Foundation. She has also been awarded the Public Access Design Fellowship at the Center for Urban Pedagogy in 2018. She holds a Masters degree in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Hrudaya has a passion to work in the International Development sector. During her free time she enjoys painting, cooking and travelling with her family. To see her work, visit hrudayaveena.com.
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