Transforming Cities and Minds through the Scholarship of Engagement: Economy, Equity, and Environment

Contributors

237 Contributors Leila Bozorg: Leila’s professional experience includes work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Pathfinder International, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and Saath—an Indian nongovernmental organization working on quality-of-life issues in informal settlements. She has worked in San Francisco, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Washington, D.C.; Ahmedabad, Gujarat (India); and in the Yazd province, Iran. While at M.I.T., Leila served as a research assistant with MIT@Lawrence. Leila earned a bachelor of arts in government from Wesleyan University, as well as a master in city planning and certificate in urban design from M.I.T. She is currently a presidential management fellow in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Benjamin Brandin: Ben has worked as the outreach coordinator for Amnesty International’s San Francisco office, where he served as the Western Region representative on the organization’s Gender Audit task force. Ben also worked as the organizational development consultant for the Lynn Coalition for Green Development in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he sought federal funding to put disadvantaged minority residents in new green jobs. Ben has a bachelor of arts in American studies from the University of California , Berkeley, and a master in city planning from M.I.T. He is currently an assistant project manager at Eden Housing, designing green development and retrofit strategies. Gayle Christiansen: Gayle previously taught seventh- and eighth-grade science in Camden, New Jersey, under the auspices of Teach for America, and contributed to the development of an economic development strategy for the city of Camden while working at the Camden Empowerment Zone Corporation. She led and significantly expanded Lawrence@MIT, bringing dozens of eighth-grade students from Lawrence, Massachusetts, to M.I.T. monthly to take part in science and technology workshops. Gayle has a 238 Transforming Cities and Minds through the Scholarship of Engagement bachelor of arts in sociology from Kenyon College and a master in city planning from M.I.T. She is currently working at Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, placing high school and college students in internships with small-business owners. Lorlene Hoyt: Lorlene is currently the director of programs and research for the Talloires Network at Tufts University, a global coalition of 266 universities in 67 different countries. She is also a visiting scholar in the New England Resource Center for Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Lorlene founded and led MIT@Lawrence, a sustained city-campus partnership between M.I.T. and the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts as an assistant/associate professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at M.I.T. (2002–2011). MIT@Lawrence was recognized when she received the Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement (2007) and the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award (2008), and the partnership received the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll (2007) and the Massachusetts Campus Compact Presidents’ Community Partnership Award (2011). She has a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania , a master of landscape architecture from the State University of New York, and a B.S. in landscape architecture from the Pennsylvania State University. Nick Iuviene: Nick worked for the Northwest Bronx Coalition where he was lead staff for a large-scale, grassroots economic development project, negotiating strategic alliances with labor unions, city agencies, and real estate developers. During the same period he worked with youth leaders to develop an art-and-technology center in the Bronx. He also cofounded Black Leaf Studios, a web development firm focused on serving nonprofit organizations, artists, and small businesses. While enrolled at M.I.T., Nick worked with on the MIT@Lawrence Story Project, producing an interactive web-based timeline depicting the ten-year history of the partnership. Nick holds a bachelor of science in urban studies and planning from the State University of New York, Empire State College and a master in city planning from M.I.T. He is currently a program manager at the M.I.T. Community Innovators’ Lab where he works on the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and is the New York project lead for the Emerald Cities Collaborative. Marianna Leavy-Sperounis: Marianna worked as a community organizer Contributors 239 with Lawrence CommunityWorks from 2003 to 2007, where she helped craft the organization’s network organizing approach. In 2008, she joined the Obama campaign to train...