Adjunct Faculty
Rafael Bergés is an urban designer from New York City. His work focuses on civic life, collective form, and climate resilience. As a Senior Urban Designer at the New York City Department of City Planning, he has shaped major zoning and design initiatives including the City of Yes, Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, and Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency. He teaches planning, zoning, and theory at CUNY Hunter College, guiding future planners through the interplay of design, history, and policy in the built environment. As a 2022–23 Forefront Fellow at the Urban Design Forum, he developed a decentralized community composting strategy, rethinking NYC’s waste system through the lens of social equity and neighborhood agency. Prior to DCP, he worked on civic projects and exhibition design at wHY Architecture and The Open Workshop. He holds a Master of Architecture from the California College of the Arts and a BA in Art History from SUNY Albany.
Ralph Blessing is the Land Use Bureau Chief for the City of Stamford, Connecticut. Before that, he was the Deputy Director of Planning Coordination at the New York City Department of City Planning and is an alumnus of the Hunter College Master’s Program in Urban Planning. Dr. Blessing earned a Ph.D. in Western European History from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and a Master’s in History, Economics, and Social and Economic History from RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, and has studied in France and the UK. He has taught classes in History, Western Civilization, and Green Thinking at CUNY’s York College and City College, and several classes in Hunter’s MUP program, including two study trips to Germany.
Samia Cohen
(PhD, American Studies) is a writer, professor, and creative practitioner. She teaches Urban Studies at Hunter College and Brown University. Samia’s current work centers para-industrial sites along urban water bodies and coastal edges in the Northeastern U.S. with a focus on Providence, Rhode Island and New York City. Combining history and ethnography, she considers the ways such places embed toxic legacies while also supporting vibrant lifeways.
David Henry is a multidisciplinary designer and educator with over 20 years of experience in visual communications, graphic design, and branding. His career spans the real estate, professional services, and luxury retail sectors. David currently works as a freelance designer and teaches graphic communications as an adjunct lecturer in the Urban Affairs and Planning Department at Hunter College and in the Communication Design Department at City Tech. He previously held roles at Karp Strategies, an urban planning consulting firm, where he managed design and communications initiatives, and The Seventh Art, a branding and design firm specializing in luxury real estate and hospitality. He earned a Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College, an M.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in global cities and migration from the CUNY Graduate Center, a post-baccalaureate major in Graphic Design from Edgewood College, and a B.A. in History with a minor in Studio Art from the University of Rochester. His academic work has explored adaptive reuse, immigrant entrepreneurship, and housing policy. As a dyslexic designer, David is committed to using visual communication as a tool for clarity, accessibility, and engagement.
Melissa Haldeman is a Senior Project Manager in the Capital Projects Division at NYC Parks, where she coordinates complex interagency infrastructure projects across the city. She’s currently working on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, helping to oversee the agency’s role in rebuilding East River Park as part of a 2.4-mile flood-protection system. Since joining NYC Parks in 2015, she has developed expertise in design review, construction coordination, and cross-agency collaboration. Earlier in her career, Melissa worked in community-based planning with the Jackson Heights Green Alliance and supported planning initiatives during her internships with the New York City Council and the Project for Public Spaces. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College, CUNY, and a BA in English Literature from Marymount College.
David Holzman, MLA, DDes, has professional experience spanning landscape design practice, research, and teaching in both academic and community contexts. His work bridges design, ecology, and social dimensions of urban life. His research examines the ethical relationships between humans and the built environment through the lenses of biophilia and biophobia. Across his work, David is committed to fostering critical, creative, and inclusive approaches to shaping more sustainable and just urban futures.
Mark Hurwitz is a social impact leader with 30 years of experience delivering innovative solutions to the intertwined problems of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. He is currently a consultant who helps leaders and teams to increase impact for mission-based organizations. He has served in executive positions at several human services and housing nonprofits, including Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, Urban Pathways, Project Renewal, Palladia, and Services for the Underserved. Mark served in New York City government as a Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, where he negotiated with the Governor’s office and State agencies to reach the “New York-New York III” agreement, a landmark $1 Billion pact to create 9,000 units of supportive housing over 10 years. He holds a JD from Columbia University and BA in economics from Harvard College.
Kevin Keen
an, Ph.D., AICP, is an associate professor and the chairperson of the Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability in the School of Earth and Environment at Rowan University in New Jersey. He is an alumnus of Hunter College, receiving his Master’s in Geography in 2005. He has taught for the Department of Urban Policy and Planning each summer since 2007, with a brief hiatus in 2008 to conduct fieldwork for his dissertation. Dr. Keenan earned his doctorate in urban geography from Clark University in 2009. He also has a master’s degree in public policy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, which he received in 2000. Dr. Keenan achieved certification as a planner from the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2014 and has maintained this certification. Dr. Keenan has published widely on environmental risk and hazards and has applied those theories to the study of novel threats, including terrorism and cyber vulnerability. Keenan’s work appears in several journals of note, including Environment and Planning A, Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Geography.
Mitch Korbey is a partner and chair of Herrick, Feinstein’s Land Use & Zoning Group. Mitch is an accomplished urban planner and land use attorney with more than 30 years of experience in private practice and government service. Before joining Herrick, Mitch served as Commissioner of the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals. Before that, he directed the Department of City Planning’s Brooklyn office and served as the deputy director of its Staten Island office. Mitch advises clients on various zoning and land use issues, including site acquisitions and assemblages, site development options, zoning lot mergers, and development rights transfers. He also represents clients in applications for zoning variances, special permits, and other discretionary approvals from key New York City agencies, including the Board of Standards and Appeals, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Buildings, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Mitch regularly counsels prominent real estate developers, owners and lenders regarding their day-to-day management of millions of square feet of real estate in the five boroughs.
Elena Madison is the Director of Projects at Project for Public Spaces and a veteran of placemaking. She is an urban planner with rich experience in planning and designing parks, plazas, campuses, and civic and cultural institutions. She is passionate about working with people in communities to build a shared vision for active and diverse public spaces that nurture a sense of pride and ownership. She is currently working on placemaking initiatives in Detroit’s Belle Isle and Campus Martius, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; at Houston’s Central Library; at Astor Place in New York City; and at the healing gardens of Stanford University’s Medical Center. She holds a Master’s of Urban Planning from Hunter College.
Doug McPherson is an urban planner and affordable housing developer, who has worked for over 15 years to ensure that changing communities remain accessible to low- and middle-income families. Currently working in housing development for Apex Building Group, he has worked to create over 6,000 units of housing in New York City, Connecticut, and Greater Boston. Previously, he served as Interim Manager of the ReAL Edgemere Community Land Trust and held various roles at Empire State Development and NYC HPD. Doug serves on the boards of the Western Queens Community Land Trust and the Natural Areas Conservancy, while also volunteering with Friends of the QueensWay, Resilience PAC NYC, and the Enterprise New York Gotham Society. He earned his master’s degree in city planning from MIT and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Lina Moe studies how governments regulate land, labor, and emerging technologies. Her work asks who bears the costs of change, who captures the benefits, and how policy can close that gap. Her work on New York City centers on labor markets, gender equity, and the nonprofit organizations that deliver city policy on the ground. At the Center for New York City Affairs, she co-authored New York City’s Workforce Landscape (2022), examining how nonprofit workforce intermediaries function within and are shaped by city policy. Her research on gender and labor markets includes Closing the Gender Pay Gap: Why Pay Equity Has Stalled in New York City (2023) and Unequal Ground: The Impact of Occupational and Industrial Segregation on Women’s Economic Outcomes in New York City (2024). She has also written on the scale and structure of New York’s gig economy, including the magnitude of low-paid gig and independent-contract work statewide and, more recently, a New Labor Forum roundtable on “the next gig economy.” She helped design and field the driver surveys that informed minimum pay standard policies for for-hire drivers in New York City and Minneapolis–St. Paul. Her research has also appeared in Feminist Economics and the Journal of Planning History. She holds an MA in Economics from The New School and a PhD from Yale.
Michael Perles is an urban planner and organizer interested in non-speculative housing alternatives, public and community ownership, land equity, and environmental justice. He serves on the board of the Cooper Square MHA – the deeply affordable housing co-op that is part of the Cooper Square CLT, NYC’s oldest community land trust – and organizes to build tenant power with city and state housing organizations and tenant unions. Michael previously worked at the National Public Housing Network; Hester Street; the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD); WXY Studio; Philip Habib and Associates; and at The Earth Institute. He holds an M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia GSAPP and received his bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan.
Melissa Quirk is Principal of Quirk Planning Solutions, a consultancy she founded to offer her more than 20 years of experience in local governments and nonprofits working at the intersection of affordable multifamily housing policy, strategy development, program design, and management. Melissa has devoted her career to crafting strategies that bring about equitable housing access and reverse historical bias in planning working in the City of Boston, nationally in Washington, D.C. and in New York City government and consulting agencies. Through her consultancy, Quirk Planning Solutions, Melissa offers nonprofits and start-ups her expertise in creative solution design, consensus building, and scaling impacts. Melissa holds a Master’s in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and a Bachelor’s in Urban Studies from Vassar College. She serves on the board of IMPACCT, an affordable housing organization in Brooklyn.
Mary Rocco, Ph.D., is an urban planner whose research focuses on community and economic development and urban and neighborhood revitalization. She explores the role of civic institutions (civil society organizations, philanthropy, private enterprise, and government) in urban development. As a member of the General Assembly of Partners, a global urban stakeholder platform, Professor Rocco participated in the World Urban Forum 2018 in Kuala Lumpur and in the historic Habitat III conference in Quito (2016). She is Director of Engaged Scholarship in the Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion at Barnard University. Rocco was a Term Assistant Professor in Urban Studies at Barnard College-Columbia University and an Emerging Scholar at the Penn Institute of Urban Research (IUR). She teaches courses on the spatial structures of cities, neighborhoods and community development, neighborhood change/gentrification, and shrinking cities.
Deborah Rojas is the Founder and Principal of Rojas AP. With over fifteen years of work experience, Deborah has amassed an enviable catalog of clients and projects in her mission to improve the quality of life in New York City. Her passion for urban planning presented itself early in her career; she completed her Masters in Urban Planning at Hunter College in 2014 and established her firm in 2015. Her work explores the intersection between architecture and transportation planning to create functional spaces for community living. Her vigilance and forward-thinking mindset, matched with her ability to meet her client’s needs, is unmatched in the industry. Her desire to serve her community led to her involvement in research projects sponsored by the Federal Transit Authority to improve public participation in transportation planning. In 2010 her valiant work was recognized by the Transportation Excellence Awards when a project she was part of received an honorable mention. She is a member of the Young Transportation Professionals New York Chapter and part of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Alex Sommer (he/him) is the Deputy Director of the NYC Department of City Planning’s Brooklyn Office and has been a proud NYC civil servant since 2011. Alex manages a team of over 20 city planners and urban designers, undertaking neighborhood planning initiatives, developing citywide land-use policies and zoning regulations, supporting Community Boards and local organizations through the planning process, advising expense and capital budget processes, and coordinating City agencies, and processing more than 100 land use applications annually. Before joining DCP, he worked with the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation helping set up their new Business Improvement District, and the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council leading a regional planning effort in Rhode Island. Alex received an MS from Pratt Institute’s City and Regional Planning program and a BS from the University of Florida’s Tourism and Hospitality Management program. He has taught and guest lectured at Hunter, NYU, and Pratt. His focus areas include zoning, land use and physical planning, community engagement, NYC’s industrial and commercial sectors, climate change and resiliency, and planning for income-restricted housing.
Laura Tamman, Ph.D., completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and her Masters degree at Oxford University, England. A scholar of American and Urban Politics, Laura uses quantitative methods to engage with issues of race, ethnicity, public policy, and democratic participation in diverse urban communities. Informed by her two decades of experience working on the frontlines of political campaigns, her research examines political persuasion in the diverse setting of New York City municipal elections. An expert on New York City politics, her writing has been featured in US News and World Report, WBUR’s Cognoscenti, and Campaigns & Elections Magazine, and she is a regular guest lecturer at universities throughout New York City.
Winston Von Engel is an urban planner and educator with over 35 years of New York City and international experience. Winston Von Engel is an Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York, Hunter College’s Urban Planning and Policy Department and currently teaches urban planning for graduate students. Winston was a Senior Policy Advisor at the New York City Department of City Planning where he provided land use policy guidance to the agency leadership and coordinated with the agency’s borough offices. From 2014 until 2022, Winston was the Director of the Department’s Brooklyn Office and had served as the Office’s Deputy Director since 2001. From 1988 to 2001, he was a borough planner in the office responsible for planning in communities throughout Brooklyn. Winston has also taught at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, the City University of New York’s Macaulay College, at New York University’s Wagner School, the University of Vienna, Austria, the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, and at the Meiji University School of Public Administration in Tokyo, Japan. Winston received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Science in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1986 and 1988, respectively. He was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study public housing in Vienna, Austria, at the Technical University in Vienna, and wrote his Master’s thesis on the subject.
David Woloch served as Executive Vice President of External Affairs for Brooklyn Public Library where he oversaw the Library’s government and community relations, development, and marketing and communications departments. He and his team succeeded in increasing public awareness of the library and growing the institution’s operating and capital budgets through increased public and private investment. David also helped lead BPL’s efforts to form innovative partnerships and strategies to develop new libraries throughout the borough. Previously, David worked in a variety of positions in New York City government, including as Deputy Commissioner for External Affairs with the Department of Transportation and as an Assistant Commissioner at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He lives in Brooklyn where he serves as a member of Community Board Two and on the Board of the Fifth Avenue Committee. He has previously taught at the New School’s Milano School.
Affiliated Faculty
David U. Himmelstein M.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Public Health at CUNY’s Hunter College and a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he was previously a Professor of Medicine. He also serves as a staff physician at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. He graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed a medical residency at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Harvard and practiced primary care internal medicine, and served as the Chief of Social and Community Medicine at the public hospital in Cambridge, MA prior to his move to CUNY. He has authored or co-authored three books and more than 125 journal articles, including widely-cited proposals for single-payer health care reform, and studies of patient dumping (which led to the enactment of EMTALA law that banned that practice), the high administrative costs of the U.S. health care system, medical bankruptcy (co-authored with Elizabeth Warren), and the mortal consequences of uninsurance. He co-founded, with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Physicians for a National Health Program, whose 20,000 members advocate for non-profit, single-payer national health insurance.
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., MPH is a Distinguished Professor at The City University of New York’s Hunter College, a primary-care doctor in the South Bronx, and a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she was formerly a Professor of Medicine. A native of Louisiana, she graduated from LSU Medical School in New Orleans and completed an internal medicine residency at Cambridge Hospital and a research fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Harvard. During her stint as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow at the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), she worked with Senator Paul Wellstone and then-Congressman Bernie Sanders. She has published more than 150 journal articles, reviews, chapters, and books on health policy and is a leading advocate of non-profit national health insurance for the United States She, along with Dr. David Himmelstein co-founded Physicians for a National Health Program. Among her influential scholarly articles are studies on patient dumping (which led to a federal ban on that practice, medical bankruptcy (co-authored with Elizabeth Warren), waste in hospitals and in medicine more generally, the lethality of being uninsured, and proposals for single-payer health reform.