OUR PEOPLE
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Layla McCay is Director of the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health. A psychiatrist, international public health and health systems specialist, and adjunct professor of international health at Georgetown University, she set up UD/MH in 2015 to help increase interest, knowledge sharing and translational research to improve population mental health through smart urban design. Trained at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London, Layla has a keen interest in the determinants of mental health, and a passion for the built environment and helping people love the places they live.
@LaylaMcCay and @urbandesignmh |
FELLOWS
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Rhiannon Corcoran
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Rhiannon Corcoran is a Professor of Psychology and Academic Director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice at the University of Liverpool. Her scholarly record into the psychological and social determinants of mental health and wellbeing is internationally recognised. With her partner, Graham Marshall, she founded the Prosocial Place Programme in 2012, aiming to understand and address the pernicious impacts of low-resource urban environments on health and wellbeing. Together with other colleagues, their ambition is to provide the mental health and wellbeing evidence that can underpin urban design practice and place stewardship. Rhiannon also overseas the Community Wellbeing evidence programme of the UK's What Works Centre for Wellbeing which will identify and disseminate the highest quality evidence about factors that are most important to the creation of good community well-being.
@rhiannoncor |
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Alice Covatta
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Alice Covatta is an architect, researcher and illustrator, and is currently a PostDoc Research Fellow in Architecture and Urban Design at Keio University, Japan. She holds a Bachelors degree and Masters degree with Honors in Architecture from IUAV, University of Venice, and received her PhD from the University of Udine. She has worked as an architect in Italy and Spain dealing with architectural and landscape projects and is currently a PostDoc research fellow at Keio University in Tokyo on a Japan Foundation Fellowship researching 'Tokyo Playground: the interplay between infrastructure and collective space’. Alice has a wide interest in spontaneous urban scenarios aimed at the improvement of livability in public spaces which have the potential to become a meaningful part of a bottom-up design process that enhances community and generational cooperation. Her works have been exposed at MAXXI Museum in Rome and Venice Biennale.
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Colin Ellard
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Colin Ellard is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory. He works at the intersection of neuroscience, experimental psychology, and architectural and environmental design to understand the psychological impacts of places, on which he has published numerous peer reviewed research papers, and written two books: Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life (2015, Bellevue Literary Press) and You Are Here (2009, Doubleday). His current research interests focus on urban stress, wellbeing, and environmental appraisal. Current work: Psychology on the Street.
@whereamInow |
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Sophie Gleizes
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Sophie Gleizes has worked in the fields of urban food policy and urban geography in France and Russia. A graduate in Humanities and Social Anthropology (Paris), she also holds a Masters degree in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy from the University of Oxford, focused on urban traumascapes. She currently works as a trainee at the European Commission (Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety). At UD/MH she focuses on how urban planners, designers and policymakers can engage with places associated with a community’s traumatic experiences, and how to work with the complexities of memory, identity, and resilience to enrich the experiences of people's urban environment.
@SonechkaGleizes |
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Jan Golembiewski
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Jan Golembiewski is a registered architect, serves as Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, and is a leading researcher in architectural design psychology. His PhD traces phenomenological experience back to the neurological mechanisms that cause them. Jan’s research experience places him at the centre of current thinking about design for health and wellbeing. He is on the editorial board of three academic journals and has guest edited a special edition on ‘Designing the Psychiatric Milieu’. Jan regularly judges the International Academy Awards for Design and Health. Key writings.
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Oliver Gruebner
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Dr. Oliver Gruebner is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany and from June 2017 will be an adjunct post doctoral researcher at the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. He is co-director of the annual international summer school program "Spatial Epidemiology and Urban Health" at the Berlin School of Public Health, Charité University Medicine, Germany. His research focuses on the complex relationships between socio-ecological factors and health at distinct scales. Using methodologies and concepts from epidemiology and geography, he investigates how these factors shape population health in urban contexts. He received his PhD in Geography from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany in 2011.
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Georgina Hosang
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Georgina Hosang is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Illness & Chronic Diseases he Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London. She is project leader for the London Mood Project, an innovative research project using mobile phones to identify associations between mood and aspects of the built urban environment. She is based in London.
@DrHosang |
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Tracy Marciano
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Tracy Marciano left a career as Executive Director of an international brand marketing firm in New York to study historic preservation and landscape design. Tracy holds a Masters degree in Sustainable Planning and Development from Pratt Institute of Architecture and attended Columbia University for graduate studies in landscape design for urban environments. She has an interest in urban design for mental health, particularly the relationship between nature access, colour theory, fragrance, sound and other sensory elements. The concept of using “urban acupuncture”, or small pockets of improvements in design and planning to promote wellness is at the forefront of her current research. She works for CJS Architects in New York State focused on historic rehabilitations, master planning and sustainable development in urban centers and postindustrial sites.
@NewPreservation |
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Graham Marshall
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Graham Marshall studied landscape architecture and urban design. He worked with several leading design firms in London, UK, before joining Liverpool Vision as Founding Director in 1999. He was responsible for the creation and successful delivery of the Liverpool City Centre Strategic Regeneration Framework, winning many awards for this work. Establishing Maxim Urban Design in 2004, Graham returned his focus to towns and communities, acting primarily as a design advisor to public clients. At the same time, he was an Urban Design Advisor to the London Development Agency, and an active member of several regional Design Review Panels. He continues his pro bono enabling work as a Built Environment Expert with Design Council CABE. In 2013, Graham established the Prosocial Place Programme, partnering with researchers in Liverpool and Middlesex Universities to develop an integrated evidence base approach to urban planning, design, development and stewardship. He has transformed Maxim into a social enterprise, Prosocial Place, to implement this knowledge-based approach to urban design. He is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool Institute of Psychology Health and Society.
@prosocialplace |
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Robin Mazumder
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Robin Mazumder is a doctoral candidate in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, where he is studying the psychological impacts of urban design. Using sophisticated wearable technology and immersive virtual reality, he examines how people experience cities. His interest is inspired by his love for cities as well as his front line experience working as a mental health occupational therapist. Robin’s research is funded by the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Canada’s most prestigious doctoral award. Always striving for a healthier, happier, and more inclusive city, Robin is also a passionate community builder. His advocacy and research and has been featured in numerous outlets including the BBC, Vice Magazine, CBC , Canadian Geographic, Canadian Cycling Magazine, University of Toronto Magazine and University Affairs. Avenue Magazine named him one of Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 in 2014. Robin is also an accomplished keynote speaker sought out internationally to give talks on cities, well-being and mental health.
@RobinMazumder |
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Erin Sharp Newton
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Erin Sharp Newton is part of the NK Architects Healthcare Group in Morristown, New Jersey in the US. She holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from UCLA and a Master’s in Design from Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. Erin has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Milan, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Her exposure and experience span all areas of design, from architecture to the fine arts, from industrial design to technology, and her research and ideas have featured in venues such as Philips Solid Side and the Milan Design Fair. She is an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects, a Board Member of the Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program, and is on two Health & Human Services Local Advisory Committees. Erin believes that integrity and creativity are fundamental to the success of the multi-faceted world of design and living.
@ESharpNewton |
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Itai Palti
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Itai Palti (Bsc. MArch) is a practicing architect, educator, and researcher. His work focuses on designing with the human experience in mind. A graduate of The Bartlett School of Architecture in London, Itai is an adjunct faculty member at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. His built and theoretical work has been published internationally, including ‘A Manifesto for Conscious Cities’ in The Guardian, part of research in collaboration with leading figures in the behavioural and brain sciences. At UD/MH, Itai will focus on exploring how cities can develop an awareness to human needs and desires and act upon opportunities to benefit people's mental health.
@ipalti |
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Nélida Quintero
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Nélida Quintero is an environmental psychologist and licensed architect based in New York. She holds a PhD in Environmental Psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a Master's in Architecture from Princeton University and a Master's in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design. She has taught at Hunter College and on the Parsons School of Design Certificate Program, and has designed and managed interior architecture projects in the US and Latin America. She is an American Psychological Association NGO Representative at the United Nations. Her research interests are broadly focused on the interactions between people, behavior and the physical environment, in particular in relationship to health, well-being, culture, new media and gender.
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Jenny Roe
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Jenny Roe is the Mary Irene DeShong Professor of Design and Health and the Director of the Center of Design and Health at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia in the US. She is building research to show how design of the built environment can maximize human health, quality of life and wellbeing. A previous landscape architect turned environmental psychologist, she has expertise in the relationship between people and place, particularly restorative environments and mental wellbeing. Before her move to the US, she worked alongside environmental scientists and health professionals as a Research Leader in Human Wellbeing and Behavior Change for the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), University of York, exploring how best to build sustainable, resilient and healthy cities. Her research has pioneered methods for quantifying the health benefits of good neighborhood design, using physiological indicators such as cortisol – the stress hormone – and mobile electroencephalography (EEG) to explore emotional activity on the move in cities, a form of ‘neuro-urbanism’. Much of her research explores environmental inequities – and the relationships with health disparities - in economically disadvantaged communities, including racial/ethnic minorities, children and teenagers, the elderly, and people with chronic health conditions including those with severe mental health problems. Prior to her current career in academia, she was Principal Landscape Architect in a multi-disciplinary architectural practice in London called Sprunt that specializes in social housing, educational and healthcare design. Publications, blog postings and films here.
@jennyjroe |
ASSOCIATES
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Charlotte Collins
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Charlotte Collins is studying BA Geography at UCL, and is currently on an exchange year at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her main interests are in the architecture and regeneration of urban housing estates and its link to wellbeing, which she is currently researching for her undergraduate dissertation.
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Edward Kermode
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Before making a move to London, Edward Kermode graduated from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Architecture. He has since been working as an architectural assistant at both small residential firms to larger, commercial practices. Currently at Grimshaw Architects, he has recently been working on designing public spaces for the proposed Tirana masterplan in Albania. Always having a deep interest between the impact of urbanism towards both physical and mental health, Ed is particularly curious towards how bottom-up architectural interventions and technologies can improve human health, quality of life and wellbeing.
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Jacob King
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Jacob King is a fourth year medical student in UK, currently undertaking an MSc in Global Mental Health at King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His main interest concerns the association between green space exposure and mental health, and how we can design interventions to promote this relationship.
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Larissa Lai
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Larissa Lai is a licensed social worker and researcher based in New York. She holds a Master's in Social Work from New York University. Larissa currently works as a psychotherapist and also in program design and evaluation for multiple social services and mental health agencies in the city. Her academic and research interests include critical theory, diversity issues, best practices and programming models for mental health, community impact, and innovative housing solutions.
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Anushka Thakkar
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Anushka is a recent graduate in Urban Planning from the Center for Environmental Planning & Technology (CEPT University), Ahmedabad, India. She is passionate to delve deeper to understand various dimensions of urban planning which can help build healthier and happier cities. In the wide possibilities of the field, she is inclined towards understanding the impacts of transportation on urban health and well-being.
@anushka0569 |
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Andre Williams
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Andre is a Panamanian and American undergraduate student currently working on his BA in Urban Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His main interests include architecture, urban public spaces, and urban sociology. In addition, he would like to research the effects the built environment has on the moods and behaviors of urban inhabitants.
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Sarah Willson
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Sarah Willson is a graduate of human geography from UCL. After taking such a broad degree, picking a main interest proved difficult, but her current focus is the connection between active transport and urban wellbeing.
@pseudoswede_ |
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Tiffany Zau
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Tiffany Zau completed her undergraduate studies at New York University, and is currently a second year Master’s in Public Health student with the Environmental Health Sciences department at Columbia University, where she is pursuing a certificate in Climate and Health. Her interests lie in the relationships between urban design, human health, and climate resiliency.
@TiffanyZau |
If you would like to get involved as a fellow or research associate, please get in touch.
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