NYU Wagner Faculty

• Shlomo Angel

  Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning
  

  Angel teaches the History and Theory of Planning. He has advised the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on housing and urban development policy, as well as conducted housing policy research in dozens of countries. His most recent research work focuses on developing a comprehensive set of metrics for measuring urban spatial structure, often referred to as sprawl, using GIS (Geographic Information Systems), as well as on developing a theoretical framework and a set of practical metrics for measuring the compactness of geographic shapes, including U.S. Congressional districts. Dr. Angel obtained a degree in architecture and a Ph. D. in urban and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

• Hilary Ballon

  University Professor of Urban Studies and Architecture
  

  Ballon is an architectural historian whose work focuses on cities and the intersection of architecture, politics, and social life in two fields of research, 20th-century America and 17th-century Europe.  Dr. Ballon serves on the Board of Directors of the Regional Plan Association, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, and the Skyscraper Museum. She was chairman of the Planning Board of Englewood, New Jersey from 2000-05 where she dealt with contested development issues and rewrote the town’s master plan.  Dr. Ballon has taught at Columbia University since 1985 and received a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from M.I.T.

 

• Vicki Been

  Elihu Root Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy; Director, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy
  

  Been is the Elihu Root Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law and the Director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Her areas of research include affordable housing, exactions, land use, predatory lending, smart growth, and takings.  She has also been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law, and the Yale Law Journal.  Ms. Been has also served as a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and an Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She received her B.S. from Colorado State University, and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.

 

• Rachelle Brunn

  Postdoctoral Fellow

  Brunn received her B.A. with Distinction in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Delaware. While at the University of Delaware, she participated in the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program. Brunn was also awarded a Graduate Certificate in Urban Studies and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.  Brunn completed her dissertation, entitled “Intersectionality at Work: Race, Class, and Gender Gaps in Achievement and Attainment at Selective Colleges and Universities,” with funding provided by the 2007-2008 Association for the Study of Higher Education/Lumina Foundation for Education Dissertation Fellowship. Her research and teaching interests include the intersection of race, class, and gender; race and ethnic relations; the sociology of education; urban sociology; and public policy.

 

• Ingrid Gould Ellen

  Co-Director, Furman Center and Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning
  

  Ingrid Gould Ellen is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning and Co-Director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. She teaches courses in microeconomics, urban economics, and urban policy. Professor Ellen’s research interests center on urban social and economic policy, with a particular focus on housing and community development. Professor Ellen is currently studying how the development of supportive housing influences development in surrounding neighborhoods, using longitudinal data from New York City.  Professor Ellen held visiting positions at the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, served as a research analyst at Abt Associates, and worked at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Professor Ellen received a B.A. in applied mathematics, an M.P.P., and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University.

 

• Frank S. Fish

  Adjunct Professor of Planning
  

  Mr. Frank Fish is a founding principal of Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart Inc., a New York planning and design firm. He specializes in real estate feasibility, comprehensive planning and development approvals. Mr. Fish holds a master of science in planning from Pratt Institute and serves on the board of directors of the New York Planning Federation.

 

• John Fontillas

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning
  

  Fontillas, AIA, is a Senior Associate at H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, a New York City-based architectural and urban design firm.  Mr. Fontillas has designed and managed a range of projects for institutional and cultural clients.  He is responsible for master plans and facility designs for Barnard College, Columbia University, Cooper Union, New School University, and the University of California Los Angeles.  He has overseen projects for New York Botanical Garden, New York Academy of Sciences, New York School of Interior Design, New York Law School, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Masters in Urban Planning and Policy from New York University.

 

• Sarah Sheon Gerecke

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning
  

  Gerecke is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning. She has over 25 years’ experience in the field of affordable housing and community development. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, a nonprofit community-based organization that promotes affordable homeownership.  Prior to her position with the Neighborhood Housing Services.  Ms. Gerecke worked for the City of New York on homeless programs and policy in the Mayor’s Office during the Koch Administration and as Assistant Commissioner for Production and Planning at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Ms. Gerecke was a real estate attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

 

• Zhan Guo

  Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Transportation Policy
  

  Zhan Guo studies travel behavior at the individual and household levels within the web of market forces, government policies, multimodal supplies, technology advances, and social trends.  Guo’s projects have focused on the impact of the built environment on walking experience in Boston, the weather impact on transit ridership in Chicago, and transfer behavior in the London Underground. Guo’s research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the University Transportation Center (New England), the Alliance for Global Sustainability, the Martin Society for Sustainability, the Future Boston Foundation, and transit authorities in Chicago, Boston, and London.

 

• Holly Haff

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning
  

  Ms. Haff is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning. She received her B.S. from the University of Oregon and her M.A. from the University of Hawaii.

 

• Georges Jacquemart

  Adjunct Professor of Planning
  

  Mr. Jacquemart has a civil engineering diploma from the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Switzerland and an Master of Science in Urban Planning from Stanford University. He is a principal of Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, a New York City consulting firm, and directs the firm’s transportation work. Prior to that position he was a vice-president with Alan M. Voorhees Associates, an international consulting firm specializing in transportation.  He acted as advisor to governments, institutions and private organizations all over the world. His areas of expertise include multi-modal transportation planning, transit planning, integrating transportation and land-use strategies, pedestrian circulation and safety analyses, and traffic calming.

 

• Richard Landman

  Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning
  

  Richard Landman, Esq., AICP, was the Director of Real Estate Development at New York University until his retirement and teaches the Land-Use Law class at Wagner. 
  He has 3 Masters Degrees: (Ed . M. in Curriculum Planning, with an emphasis on individualized, community based pragmatic education) and (M.S. in Civil (Socio) Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo; a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University (MCRP); and a J.D. degree, cum laude, from New York Law School.  In the mid 1980s he was the Vice President of one of Brazil’s largest construction companies, and before that he was the Executive Director of Real Estate Development for the City of New York during the Koch Administration   He also volunteers as an attorney for the LeGal Foundation Walk-In Clinic as well as the Trans Name Change Clinic at the LGBT Community Center in the Village.  He is also a weekly volunteer at the Church of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen for two years and has been an active member of CBST, (the world’s largest GLBT Synagogue) for decades, especially with issues dealing with children of Holocaust Survivors.

 

• Sarah Ludwig

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning
  

  Sarah Ludwig is founder and executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP), a nonprofit resource and advocacy center that provides legal, technical, and policy support to community groups organizing for economic justice in New York City. Ms. Ludwig has trained and counseled hundreds of New York groups on community reinvestment and fair access to credit, financial literacy, predatory lending, electronic benefits, financial modernization, and community development financial institutions. Ms. Ludwig is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and received a joint degree in law and urban planning from New York University School of Law and NYU Wagner.

 

• Mitchell Moss

  Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy & Planning
  

  Moss, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, teaches and does research on urban planning and politics, with special emphasis on economic development, telecommunications, and the governance of New York City.  Professor Moss served as Director of the Taub Urban Research Center and he was Director of NYU’s Urban Planning Program. He recently completed a study on the need for reform of The Stafford Act, the principal federal legislation governing federal disaster policies. He is an honorary member of the League of Women Voters of the City of New York.

 

• Zvia Naphtali

  Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Public Administration
  

  Zvia Segal Naphtali, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Public Administration. She teaches a number of courses on spatial analysis and statistical mapping, including (1) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Planning: (2) Advanced Applications of GIS, and (3) Mapping (GIS) for Health Care Professionals; and (4) one day Introduction to GIS.  Dr. Naphtali is a research scientist at the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS).  In recent years, she has made GIS presentations at conferences and universities in the US and in Israel.  Dr. Naphtali is also the President of Resource Mobilization Inc., a consulting firm specializing in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications; survey design, administration and analysis, statistical and demographic analysis (Census). Dr. Naphtali received her B.S. from the School of Education, New York University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University.

 

• Katherine M. O’Regan

  Associate Professor of Public Policy
  

  O’Regan is Associate Professor of Public Policy, and Director of the Public and Nonprofit Management and Analysis Program (PNP).  She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and spent ten years teaching at the Yale School of Management prior to joining the Wagner faculty in 2000. She teaches courses in microeconomics, program evaluation, and urban economics.  Professor O’Regan’s research focuses on issues and programs affecting the urban poor and the neighborhoods in which they live, including transportation, employment, housing and isolation problems.

 

• David Quart

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Administration
  

  Quart currently teaches Urban Economics at Wagner.  He is Vice President for Development at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-public organization that works to encourage economic growth throughout New York City.  Previously, he was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Commissioner for Development at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development where he helped manage a staff of 230 employees to implement the City’s Ten-Year Affordable Housing Plan.  He has also been affiliated with AKRF, a leading environmental consulting firm.  Mr. Quart received his Masters in Urban Planning from NYU Wagner, and his B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

• Leonardo G. Romeo

  Adjunct Professor of Planning
  

  Romeo is Managing Director of Local Development International (LDI) s.a.s, an international development consulting firm and Adjunct Professor of Planning at NYU Wagner.  He retired as Principal Technical Adviser for Local Development Planning with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), after a career of 30 years dedicated to building local/municipal governments’ capacity and designing, managing and evaluating urban and rural infrastructure projects in developing countries. His research, teaching and consulting work covers public sector decentralization reforms, local government planning/budgeting processes and investment projects planning and analysis in developing economies. Mr. Romeo holds a Dott.Arch. degree in Urban and Regional Planning (University of Venice, Italy) and an M.Sc.in Civil Engineering (Columbia University, New York, USA).

 

• Jerry Salama

  Adjunct Professor of Law
  

  Jerry Salama co-teaches a seminar on Land Use, Housing, and Community Development in New York City. Mr. Salama manages and develops low- and middle-income housing in Harlem. In 1997, he was awarded a fellowship from the Open Society Institute to evaluate the redevelopment of troubled public housing in three cities across the United States.

 

• Elliot Sander

  Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Administration
  

  Sander oversees an organization that provides 2.4 billion subway, rail and bus trips each year to New Yorkers — the equivalent of about one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation’s rail riders. MTA Bridges and Tunnels carry more than 300 million vehicles a year — more than any bridge and tunnel authority in the nation.  Mr. Sander has over 25 years of public and private sector experience executing high profile transportation programs and projects in the New York metropolitan area. He is a former Senior Vice President at DMJM Harris, a global transportation infrastructure firm, and former Director and Founder of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management.  Mr. Sander began his career as a budget analyst in the New York City Office of Management and Budget. He is also a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

 

• Amy Ellen Schwartz

  Professor of Public Policy, Education, and Economics
  

  Schwartz is Professor of Public Policy, Education, and Economics and Director of the NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy. She teaches courses in public finance and policy at both Wagner and The Steinhardt School of Education. Her research is primarily in applied econometrics, focusing on issues in urban policy and education policy and finance. Current research in K12 education examines the education of immigrant children in New York City; the race gap in test scores; and the impact of school organization and school size on student performance. In addition, Professor Schwartz has consulted on various issues of economic and tax policy for non-profit organizations and governments. Professor Schwartz received her Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.

 

• Howard S. Slatkin

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Administration
  

  Howard Slatkin is Deputy Director of Strategic Planning for the New York City Department of City Planning. In eight years with the Department, he has managed redevelopment planning initiatives including the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning and the Department’s planning framework for the Gowanus Canal corridor. He has also helped shape and administer agency policies on a range of subjects including Inclusionary Housing, waterfront open space, and industry. He received his Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

 

• Paul Smoke

  Professor of Public Finance and Planning
  

  Paul Smoke, Professor, Director of International Programs, and Director of Doctoral Studies, teaches courses on public finance, development planning, and governance in developing countries. His research and policy interests include urban and regional development and the political economy of fiscal reform and public sector decentralization. He previously taught in the International Development Program and chaired the Master in City Planning Program at MIT, and he worked as a resident policy advisor with the Harvard Institute for International Development in Kenya and Indonesia.  He has worked with various international organizations, including the World Bank, UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), UN Development Program (UNDP), US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), and GTZ (German Aid Agency).  Professor Smoke received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

• Steven J. Stainbrook

  Adjunct Assistant Professor of Planning
  

  Stainbrook, AICP, is an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  Trained both as an architect and urban designer, he is readily able to meld issues between a city and building scale.  His recent projects include working with the Economic Development Corporation on the Far Rockaway Redevelopment Plan, New York, NY; a Strategic Space Plan for Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY; and a new arts center for Texas State University, San Marcos.  He teaches an urban design course to graduate level students. His students are currently working on a plan for reshaping Gansevoort Plaza at Greenwich and Little West 12th Streets in the Meatpacking District. He holds a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard, a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design from Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

 

• Philip Weinberg

  Adjunct Professor of Planning
  

  Weinberg teaches Constitutional Law and Environmental Law at St. John’s University School of Law.  He was Assistant Attorney General in Charge of the Environmental Protection Bureau in the New York State Attorney General’s Office. He argued numerous appeals at the Attorney General’s Office, including three at the United States Supreme Court.  A graduate of Columbia Law School, Professor Weinberg writes the Practice Commentary to McKinney’s New York Environmental Conservation Law and is author of an environmental law casebook, as well as numerous articles on environmental law and constitutional law.  He has been Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section and of the Committee on Environmental Law and Committee on Transportation Law of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

 

• Claire Weisz

  Adjunct Associate Professor of Planning
  

  Claire Weisz is a founding principal of Weisz Yoes, an award winning architectural and urban design firm specializing in design solutions for challenging sites. She received her professional degree with Honors from the University of Toronto and her post-professional degree in architecture from Yale University. She is the former co-executive director of The Design Trust for Public Space. Recent awards include the 2006 Chrysler Innovative Designer of the Year Award, Runner up in the international Toronto Central Waterfront Competition and a 2005 AIA New York Chapter, Honor Award for Architecture.

 

• Mark Willis

  Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning
  

  Mark Willis is the executive vice president of the Community Development Group at JPMorgan Chase.  Before joining Chase, Mr. Willis had held various positions with the City of New York, culminating in his appointment as the deputy commissioner for development in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He has served as the director of the Office of Tax Policy and as the special assistant to the deputy mayor for finance and economic development. He has also held posts in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and with Maine Printing Co. Mr. Willis has an undergraduate degree in economics and a Ph.D. in urban economics and industrial organization from Yale University, as well as a degree from Harvard Law School.

 

• Rae Zimmerman

  Professor of Planning and Public Administration
  

  Zimmerman is Professor of Planning and Public Administration and Director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS).  Professor Zimmerman teaches and conducts research that cuts across planning, management and policy in environmental quality, environmental health risk management, and urban infrastructure in the context of the quality of life in cities. Professor Zimmerman has directed research projects with funding most recently from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through three universities-NYU, USC, and Dartmouth College, and various state and local agencies.  She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California (Berkeley), a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in planning from Columbia University.