Alison Mears, AIA, LEED AP is an architect, Associate Professor of Architecture, and Director and Co-Founder of Healthy Materials Lab. She is co-Principal Investigator of the Healthy Affordable Materials Project (HAMP). HAMP is a three-year funded by The JPB Foundation recently refunded for an additional three years (to 2021). The Project is a coalition of four organizations who work together to detoxify the interior environments of Affordable Housing.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger is Partner at HR&A Advisors where she designs strategies that make cities more inclusive and growth more equitable. As a former leader in government, think tanks, philanthropy and political campaigns, Andrea uniquely understands the capacity and role of government, advocacy, and philanthropy in making cities just and dynamic places. Prior to joining HR&A, Andrea served as Deputy Director of the United States Program of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), George Soros’s global philanthropy, where she managed program operations and grant-making portfolios including investments to advance equitable economic development in Southern cities.

Barika Williams is ANHD's Executive Director where she has led impactful initiatives including ANHD’s mandatory inclusionary housing, equitable economic development, and data and research work. Prior to her appointment, Barika served as the Assistant Secretary for Housing for the State of New York under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. There, she managed the Governor’s major housing priorities consisting of various agencies with a combined workforce of over 1,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $2.5 billion dollars. She supported the Governor’s programs and initiatives to increase NY State housing affordability including the $20 billion housing plan and expanding tenant protections statewide. Barika holds a master’s degree from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Luisa N. Borrell, DDS, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY). Her research interest is on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and neighborhood effects as social determinants of health. She has expertise in racial/ethnic disparities in health and oral health, research methods and the analysis of large databases, including survey, census and spatially linked data. She has published on the areas of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and neighborhood effects on health and oral outcomes as well as mortality. Her current research focuses on the effect of nationality, nativity status and race among Hispanics as social determinants of health.

Melissa Fleischut oversees the largest hospitality association in New York state, serving as the primary spokesperson for the industry and representing the Association in matters with the National Restaurant Association and the Council of State Restaurant Associations. Melissa has worked with the Association for over 15 years and has been integrally involved in all of the Association’s major State and City legislative and regulatory initiatives, wage board efforts, and as a key liaison with various industry affiliates.