OUR PEOPLE
DIRECTOR
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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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Kevin Bennett
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Kevin Bennett, PhD, is a Teaching Professor of Social/Personality Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University, Beaver Campus. His research--psychological science at the intersection of urban design and mental health—addresses three big questions: (1) What are the meaningful ways in which people differ in personality, emotion, and decision making across physical spaces? (2) What are the root causes of these individual differences? (3) What are the important outcomes of all this? Dr. Bennett earned a PhD in Psychology from City, University of London UK and degrees from University of Michigan (BA, Psychology) and the University of New Mexico (MS, Experimental Psychology). Bennett is the coordinator of the psychology program at Penn State Beaver and runs the Personality and Human Performance Lab (PHPL) on campus.
@KevinBennettPhD |
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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 Italian Visiting Researcher in Architecture and Urban Design at Keio University in Tokyo. She has been granted by Japan Foundation Fellowship with the investigation entitled ‘Tokyo Playground: the Interplay between Infrastructure and Collective Space’. Her focusses of investigation are spontaneous urban scenarios aimed at the improvement of the livability of public spaces and spaces that have 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, and recently won the "Europan14" for the city of Neu-Ulm in Germany. She is correspondent in Japan for Domus and collaborator of Warehouse TERRADA in Tokyo, dealing with the promotion of art projects in between Japan and European countries
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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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Daniel Gan
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Daniel Gan is an award-winning urban designer and mental health researcher at the Gerontology Research Centre at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. He conducts research at the intersection of planning, psychology and gerontology to improve the cognitive health of older adults living in community. He developed a Transdisciplinary Neighbourhood Health Framework which is the basis of current work on neighbourhood cohesion, loneliness and dementia. He has served as a managing editor of the Journal of Population Ageing, University of Oxford, prior to UD/MH. He carries out age-friendly interventions in neighbourhoods via the nonprofit: Healthy Ageing in Place .
@daniel_gry |
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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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Oliver Gruebner is a health geographer who combines quantitative methodologies from geography and epidemiology to assess population health risk. He earned a PhD in geography from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He works at the Department of Geography and at the Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Prevention Institute (EBPI) at University of Zurich, Switzerland. Oliver serves as the director of an international summer school program on spatial epidemiology and leads the newly created SSPH+ course on Big Data in Public Health. Furthermore, he is a research fellow with the Competence Centre for Mental Health (CCMH) at the University of Zurich.
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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 (M. Arch) is a Behavioral Health Design Leader at NK Architects, USA. Erin completed her post-graduate work at the University of California Los Angeles UCLA from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning with a Master’s in Architecture and her Master’s in Design from DOMUS Academy in Milan, Italy, where she lived and worked as a Creative Director & Design Leader for Cibic & Partners (Aldo Cibic). Her research, design, and vision span from architecture and urban design to the fine arts, from industrial design to technology and writing. Her work has been exhibited at the Milano Trienalle, at the Milan Design Fair, at the Royal College of Physicians in London, published in Domus, Interni Magazine, and Philips Solid Side. She has been active as juror/ critic/ mentor at major architecture and design schools such as the Art Institute, Cornell University, Drexel University, Moore College, Sci-Arc, UC Fullerton, UCLA, Milan Politecnico, Venice Politecnico, and Woodbury University (among others).
Erin was awarded the NJBIZ 50 Top Women in Business Award for her efforts to advocate improvements in business and in the built environment for mental health, which include serving as the Vice-President of the Executive Board of the Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program, for the Department of Health & Human Services as Chairperson on the Local Advisory Committee on Drugs & Alcohol, the County Alliance Steering Subcommittee, on the Morristown Mayor's Wellness Committee, supporting solutions for mental health in the community. In Philadelphia she was involved with the Philadelphia Charter High School of Architecture and Design and Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, bringing architecture into the community. She is also an ongoing professional writer on Archinect.com, an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects and a Notary Public. @ESharpNewton |
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Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo
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Dr Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo is President and founder of NeuroLandscape. She has a PhD in Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology from the University of Porto (Portugal), and is a researcher at the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. She is interested in the relationship between the characteristics of the natural and built environment and the mental health and well-being of city dwellers and people suffering from mental disorders. She has applied psychophysiology tools, including neuroscience, to study changes in brain wave oscillations in people exposed to various types of landscapes. She introduced and operationalized the concept of Contemplative Landscapes and proposed a psychometric tool (Contemplative Landscape Model), which is a quantitative scale for assessing and classifying views, based on their potential mental health benefits through passive observation. In her work, she strives to implement scientific research into practical actions to promote mental health in cities.
@neurolandscape |
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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 |
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Greg Rybarczyk
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Greg Rybarczyk is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Michigan-Flint. He holds an affiliate appointment with the Michigan Institute for Data Science. He has over a decade of experience utilizing geospatial technology to analyze transportation, urban, and environmental phenomena within government, non-profit, and private sectors. Currently, his research, teaching, and service is focused on active transportation and urban design, and how this relationship influences public health. Greg’s passion for examining human mobility and access is also evidenced in his past research projects on: mode-choice, wayfinding, Big Data, neighborhood health, food equity, and urban planning. He serves on the board of directors for the International Professional Association for Transport & Health (IPATH); is an active member of the City of Detroit’s Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Citizens Advisory Committee; is an editorial advisor for the journal: Cities and Health. Dr. Rybarczyk has also worked alongside several national and international organizations on promoting urban health and active living. For instance, Greg has assisted the Crim Fitness Foundation, Safe and Active Genesee for Everyone, the Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation (Italy), and was a visiting scholar at Bergische University Wuppertal (Germany).
www.grybarczyk.com @GregRybarczyk |
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES 2021
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Yuelin Ge |
Yuelin is a MSc Candidate in Planning at the University of Toronto, with a specialization in Economic Development and Social Planning and Policy. She holds a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University in Geography and a Certificate in Business from the Smith School of Business. Yuelin’s research interests focus on the intersectionality between age-friendly cities, public health (including mental and physical health), housing affordability, and equitable economic development. With experience as a start-up cofounder of KS ConnectHub, a LEED Green Associate and having done advocacy work featured by CNN, Yuelin is committed to building and co-creating more sustainable and accessible communities for all.
Twitter: @Yuelin_Ge |
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Scotty Houtsma |
Scotty Houtsma is currently a Masters student at the University of Westminster, studying Urban Design. He is interested in 15-minute cities, green infrastructure and developing better-connected ecosystems. His background is in Architecture and has worked for two years in the USA. He enjoys designing better cities to help people live better lives. Scotty loves the outdoors and is an avid runner, biker, golfer and skier.
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Claire Janda |
Claire Janda is an independent researcher working to understand urban community life and health. She holds a B.A. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she designed her own degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She is active in the intentional communities movement - a passion she discovered as an undergrad while examining physical and social elements of alternative utopian community design across the US for her senior thesis. Her research focuses primarily on factors of urban environmental mental health and the duties held by designers in all areas to incorporate and prioritize community feedback. She has a special fascination with family-friendly urban layouts, trauma-informed design, and the social culture of public spaces.
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Nitya Patel |
Nitya Patel is a 4th-year Bachelor's student of Urban Design at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. She is interested in fundamental questions relating to our day to day lives in the city: how does the city influence us and how do we influence the city? She is interested in understanding the gap between the way cities work and how we aspire to design them through a sensible and sensitive approach, which not only considers the physicality but also the mental health and psychological impacts of it on its citizens.
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Amy Pivak |
Amy Pivak is the Senior Planner for Land Use and Policy at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the US's largest affordable housing agency. Amy received her Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from the Bloustein School at Rutgers University in 2013, and since then has fostered her lifelong passion for the urban environment and social justice through her career spanning the private and public sectors. In her spare time, Amy volunteers with The Architectural League of New York and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, and enjoys photography and cooking.
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Jacob Richey |
Jacob Richey is a Masters of Urban Planning student at the University of Southern California (USC) concentrating in mobility and transportation planning. With a bachelors in Government from Georgetown University and a professional background in data analytics in the software industry, he decided to pursue the field of urban planning because he believes that good urban design is a key determinant of physical and mental wellbeing. His mission is to make the places we live in happier and healthier for all people through smart policy and design decisions, both in the public and private sector. When he’s not appreciating good urban form, he enjoys cooking, backpacking, and travelling with friends and family. He currently works as a Planning Intern with Los Angeles County’s Department of Regional Planning.
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Monica Tseng |
Monica Tseng is currently completing a Masters program in Urban and Environmental Planning at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Having developed a love and passion for brain and behavioural science from her earlier undergraduate studies in Psychology, Monica believes in creating and improving urban environments that are conducive to good brain health, and contribute to positive mental health and wellbeing. Monica’s research interests include urban mobility rights, with a key focus on public transport and cultural infrastructure access equity, and unlocking the scope of creativity and personal expression in everyday urban spaces.
@MonicaT03004613 |
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Sabah Usmani |
Sabah Usmani is an urban planner and interdisciplinary researcher with 7+ years of experience working on addressing needs of underserved populations in urban contexts. She has research and professional experience across geographic scales in air pollution and health disparities, energy and water, transportation, informal housing, and climate mitigation and adaptation planning in India, USA, Ecuador, and Malaysia. Her research interests include neighborhood influences on health and wellbeing, spatial/social inequities and health outcomes, and applied urban analytics and data science for health and climate policy. Sabah has a Masters in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Columbia University. She is an Analyst at Environmental Defense Fund, where she focuses on developing and executing strategies to scale air quality monitoring and pollution mitigation in cities.
@sabahusmani |
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Annelie Weißel |
Annelie Weißel is studying medicine in her 5th year at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technical University Dresden, Germany. Having studied architecture for a while before switching to medicine, she is very interested in combining these two disciplines. Throughout her studies, she has been part of research projects in the field of neurology and neuroscience and a number of clinical traineeships in the department of mental health disorders. She will work as an associate of UD/MH throughout 2021 to get a deeper understanding of the connection between urban design and mental health and share ideas with others involved.
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GET INVOLVED
Information about becoming a Fellow or Associate is available here.
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