Meet the 2025 cohort of urban leaders who will survey the world for courageous leadership on the housing crisis.
With leaders in architecture, planning, design, development, policy, law, economic development, advocacy, journalism, and philanthropy, this year’s Big Swings Fellows are already immersed in creative solutions to housing challenges in New York City and across the globe.
Fellows are spearheading a national campaign to advance Black homeownership and intergenerational wealth; making it easier to build accessory dwelling units in New York City; streamlining and digitizing affordable housing access at scale; fighting source of income discrimination and getting people from shelter to permanent housing; preventing climate-driven displacement and protecting vulnerable communities from further loss through resilient retrofits; and more.
The cohort will visit Tokyo in September for a 5-day study trip exploring Japan’s unique approach to housing and urban planning. Throughout the year, Fellows will engage with leading global experts, publish insights, and meet with local decision-makers to champion reform.
Big Swings Fellows
Aditi Nair
Habitat for Humanity International
Aditi is a south-Asian urban planner, practicing across the U.S., and in Mumbai. Aditi grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai, in a low-income incremental housing project which deeply influenced her belief in stable and affordable co-operative housing. With the lived experiences of two decades, and as a trained community architect and urbanist, Aditi works with non-profit organizations in Mumbai, Delhi, New York, and Jersey, to build political agency and self-determination in communities that are historically undermined in urban planning processes.
Aditi works as a strategist with Habitat for Humanity International and is on the board of International Center for Community Land Trust.
Aleena Farishta
NYC Housing Preservation and Development
Aleena is the Director of Brooklyn Planning at the NYC Housing Preservation and Development where she oversees affordable housing projects in Brooklyn through the predevelopment and planning process. She has nearly 11 years of planning experience for the City of New York advancing neighborhood plans, shaping affordable housing and mixed use developments, building consensus and support for City initiatives, and contributing to citywide text amendments through her current role at HPD and her prior work with the NYC Department of City Planning.
Amy Collado
Bushwick Housing Independence Project
Amy Collado is the Lead Organizer at the Bushwick Housing Independence Project (BHIP), where she helps tenants build collective power to fight displacement and defend their rights. A Brooklyn-born Afro-Dominican artist and advocate, she is also the founder of Butter Roll®, a skate brand and cultural initiative centering BIPOC joy and mutual aid. Amy’s filmmaking and archival work explores themes of housing, memory, and resistance in New York City, uplifting stories often left out of dominant narratives. Through this program, she hopes to deepen her strategy skills, connect with peers working on housing justice across cities, and bring home fresh ideas to strengthen tenant-led organizing in Bushwick.
Ananth Sampathkumar
NDNY Architecture + Design
Ananth Sampathkumar is an architect whose passion for housing stems from firsthand experiences in Delhi, India, where rapid urban growth underscored the challenges of density and infrastructure. As a co-founder and partner at NDNY Architecture + Design, Ananth leads diverse housing projects, ranging from adaptive reuse in Brooklyn to renovations of brownstones, townhouses, and condominiums. His work extends to collaborating with the New York City Housing Authority to rethink waste management across 30 developments, engaging with agencies like the Department of Buildings and City Planning to improve urban living conditions.
His career includes hands-on experience at Laurie Baker Building Center, a pioneer in affordable housing, and notable residential projects at Richard Meier & Partners, such as Newark’s Teachers Village Workforce Housing and Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Tower. Ananth’s expertise spans architecture, design, and sustainable housing, shaping communities through thoughtful, impactful design.
Anna Ishii
SOM
Anna Ishii, a Japanese-American born and raised in the deep south, is an insightful urban designer and planner with over 15 years of experience in shaping cities. For the past eight years, she has been a core member of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s (SOM) City Design Practice, following her work as an urban designer in Philadelphia. Anna brings a refined design sensibility to master planning, paired with expertise in data visualization, GIS, and graphic communication. Her domestic and international portfolio reflects a deep awareness of climatic and cultural contexts in both architecture and urban design. With a strong artistic lens, she crafts the physical and social dimensions of urban life to create vibrant, inclusive places. She is deeply committed to building livable and healthy communities.
Avery Dement
Strada Ventures, LLC
Avery Dement is an affordable housing project manager and underwriter who is dedicated to preserving and developing affordable and supportive housing. She is currently a Senior Project Manager at Strada Ventures, where she manages the pre-development process on a variety of deal typologies. Previously, she worked at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, stabilizing distressed multifamily buildings and co-ops. She has a Master’s in Urban Planning from Columbia University.
Barbara Mikrut
NYC H+H
Barbara Mikrut serves as the Director of Alternative Project Delivery at NYC Health + Hospitals, overseeing the agency’s Design-Build program to deliver essential healthcare infrastructure to the city’s most vulnerable populations. She has nearly twenty years of experience in the public sector, including key leadership positions within the Courts Capital Program and the Borough-Based Jail Program at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. She emphasizes stakeholder-driven capital projects that advance equity, dignity, and community well-being. Barbara is dedicated to integrating housing, health, and justice systems to foster improved social outcomes. She is also committed to inclusive planning, sustainability, and civic innovation.
Brian Backscheider
The Community Builders
Brian Backscheider is a Senior Development Project Manager at The Community Builders where his work focuses on delivering complex mixed-use affordable housing developments in New York City. Prior to The Community Builders, Brian worked in a variety of community-centered real estate roles including developing a life science campus in Harlem, creating purpose built coliving across New York City, and serving as Director of Development at Clinton Housing Development Company where he led work to produce low, moderate, and middle income housing, preserve community businesses and cultural institutions, and create new publicly-accessible open space.
Carolyn Canahuate
Center for NYC Neighborhoods
Carolyn Canahuate is a proud native New Yorker, born to Dominican parents and raised on the Lower East Side. She serves as Deputy Director at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, a nonprofit organization where she has spent the past decade co-developing state-wide initiatives to help protect low -to moderate-income homeowners, including the $465 million New York State Homeowner Assistance Fund program (NYS HAF). Carolyn’s work is driven by a lifelong commitment to equity, stability, and opportunity in housing. Her civic interests center on preventing displacement, preserving generational wealth, and advancing climate resilience for vulnerable communities. She is especially passionate about supporting seniors, immigrants, and families at risk of foreclosure.
Charlie Rudoy
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Charlie Rudoy is the Senior Program Manager for New York at the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). He leads programs that support the development of new supportive housing in New York and works on policy and advocacy campaigns that expand access to stable housing for homeless New Yorkers, particularly people leaving Rikers Island and other carceral settings. Charlie previously worked as an urban planner at NYC Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) where he led fair housing and community engagement initiatives. His work as a houser is informed by a wide array of prior experiences which include working on Brooklyn Public Library’s strategic plan, stints as an educator and community radio producer, and years traveling the country in a van as the drummer in a touring indie rock band. He holds a Master’s in Urban Policy & Leadership from CUNY Hunter.
Cinthia De La Rosa
co:census
Cinthia is an urban planning and community development professional with over 15 years of experience advancing public health, resiliency, and community engagement across New York City, Puerto Rico, and beyond. She currently serves as a part-time Project Director at co:census, where she leads community engagement projects across several cities. Her work centers on equipping community-based organizations to lead participatory processes and addressing health inequities in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.
Cinthia holds a BA in Human Biology and an MPH in Social Behavior and Community Health from the University at Albany, a management certificate from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and a Master’s in Urban Planning from NYU.
Crystal Eksi
New York City Department of City Planning
Crystal Eksi is a Senior Urban Designer at New York City’s Department of City Planning, where she helps to envision and plan a more livable, equitable and enjoyable city through design. Over the last decade, Crystal has collaborated with city agencies and residents to plan for the future of neighborhoods throughout New York’s five boroughs, all while developing complex policies and solutions for New York’s planning framework and developing tools to guide a more informed planning process.
Crystal’s interests in community planning, housing, the public realm, urban agriculture and transportation infrastructure allow her to bring interdisciplinary professionals, community members and leaders together to explore and develop multi-faceted solutions to her city’s issues. As a mentor, she encourages young planners and designers to do the same.
David Downs
Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation
David Downs is a community development practitioner with nearly 20 years of diverse experience as an affordable housing developer, program manager, and planner with established non-profit, public, and private sector relationships. David currently serves as Vice President of Catholic Charities POP (Progress of Peoples) Development Corporation, the affordable housing development affiliate, and Director of Laudato Si Corporation, the mission-aligned sustainability entity, both under the umbrella of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens. In these roles, David strategizes, plans, and implements affordable housing and mixed-use real estate development and sustainability projects, including the Gail P. Duke Senior Residence (aka Livonia C3) in Central Brooklyn, the Bishop Valero Senior Residence in Astoria, Queens, and a portfolio of twenty solar retrofit projects through Laudato Si. David actively advocates for strategic planning efforts focused on affordable housing, policy, and sustainability, including energy efficiency, resiliency, and healthy living.
Emily Levin
Axcces
Emily Levin is the Co-Founder and COO of Axcces, a Robin Hood Foundation Blue Ridge Labs portfolio company and proptech solution built specifically for government agencies and affordable housing property managers. Axcces streamlines the entire affordable housing process—from AI-powered eligibility screening and universal applications to compliance automation and lease-up management—making it faster and easier to connect renters with available units. With over a decade of experience as a social worker in New York City, Emily worked across housing agencies to help families navigate a broken and fragmented housing system—an experience that drives her mission to make housing more accessible and equitable.
Emily Sperber
Magnusson Architecture & Planning
Emily Sperber, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect with 15 years of experience and a diverse portfolio focused on multi-family housing in New York City. With a career-long commitment to housing equity and a background in architect-led design-build practice and construction management, she brings a passionate, innovative approach to her current role managing affordable, supportive, and senior housing projects at Magnusson Architecture and Planning.
Emily’s current work is primarily with non-profit clients that integrate social services with residential programming, across a typology that ranges from Passive House–certified new construction to the renovation and electrification of 1890s pre-law tenements.
Eric Phillips
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
Eric Phillips is Vice President of Policy at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where he leads a core team in the CEO’s office responsible for agency-wide policy development and implementation. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of law, public policy, and municipal governance in both New York City and Chicago, Eric has focused his recent work on advancing housing opportunities for low-income New Yorkers. He has spearheaded major initiatives, including directing $185 million in rental arrears assistance and leading development of tenant-facing policies and protections under the new Public Housing Preservation Trust. Eric’s civic interests center on building and preserving permanently affordable housing, tackling wealth inequality, and fostering livable, inclusive cities.
Francesca Birks
Aretee Consulting
Francesca is the founder of Aretee Consulting. Aretee Consulting is a strategic consultancy that partners with universities, foundations, and cultural organizations to design future-forward programs, spaces, and initiatives. Francesca is an experienced foresight and design strategist that has worked in the AEC industry for twenty years supporting leadership to create actionable and insightful future strategies. Prior to Aretee, she was at Arup for 15 years where she led Strategic Foresight & Strategic Design for Arup in the Americas.
Gabo Halili
Opisina Halili
Gabriel (Gabo) Halili is the founding principal of Opisina Halili, a multidisciplinary design firm working across architecture, planning, and graphic design. Trained as an architect and urban planner, he uses design as a tool for stewardship of places and the people they serve. Gabo’s work spans New York, California, and Manila, where he focuses on residential architecture, community-based planning, and visual storytelling. His civic interests include equitable, community-led development and the role of culture in shaping the systems behind how cities grow.
Graciela Watrous
The New York Economic Development Corporation
Graciela Watrous is an urban policy leader focused on affordable housing and community revitalization. A Brooklyn native, she began her career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch before joining Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department, where she led public-private partnerships and the sale of city-owned land to create hundreds of affordable housing units. She also directed community-focused planning studies and supported U.S.-Canada infrastructure negotiations.
After earning her MBA from Harvard, Graciela became VP of Property Strategy at a Softbank-backed infrastructure venture, then became the first employee of an affordable housing acquisition firm in New York City. As the senior acquisitions lead at Contour Housing Partners, she helped preserve affordable housing nationwide.
Today, she is Assistant Vice President at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, managing the disposition of public land for economic benefit.
Graciela holds a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.
Ijeoma Iheanacho
Urbahn Architects
For close to twenty-five years Ijeoma has dedicated her career to creating large scale public works and honing her abilities in all aspects of the creative and professional process. She has been at at the forefront in leading the way for realizing Design Build in for multiple city agencies.
With her background working on such large scale public, commercial, and residential works she understands both the design effort at the human scale and the professional demands made by high profile projects. Her dedication to expanding the role of architects in the community has always kept her excited about the profession.
Ijeoma graduated from Cornell University in the Spring of 2001 and is a registered Architect in New York State.
Inbal Himelblau-Denman
INBAL LLC
Inbal is the founder and principal of a real estate investment firm and a graduate student in architecture, bringing over a decade experience in the real estate industry. Her firm specializes in acquiring, restoring, and managing older residential properties in the New York and Pennsylvania areas, with a focus on long-term ownership and community revitalization. By providing quality housing, the firm contributes to improving local living environments and expanding access to affordable homes.
Inbal’s unique skill set combines deep expertise across several real estate sectors, including the acquisition and management of complex hotel properties. Over the course of her career, she has been involved in nearly $1 billion in investments sales across office, multifamily, and re-development projects. In addition to her professional work, she dedicates significant time to the industry as an instructor, facilitator, and co-chair of the Urban Plan Steering Committee at the Urban Land Institute. Her career is defined by a commitment to strategic investment, thoughtful design, and lasting community impact.
J.R. Reed
New York City Economic Development Corporation
J.R. Reed is an Assistant Vice President in the Neighborhood Strategies department at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. As part of that team, he works on an array of planning-focused initiatives from adaptive reuse efforts to public realm improvement projects in Long Island City, Queens, the Staten Island’s North Shore, and Manhattan’s Chinatown. J.R. is excited to participate in the fellowship as a way to better understand the levers other cities are using to effectively deliver housing-focused projects.
Before joining EDC, J.R. was at the New York City Housing Authority, where he worked on the Authority’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program. J.R. received his Master’s in Urban Planning at NYU Wagner, where he was a Bloomberg Public Service Fellow. Before starting graduate school in 2021, he spent five years in broadcast news. J.R.’s last post was as a field producer in CNBC’s San Francisco bureau, where he covered the tech industry, small business development, major climate events, and the Bay Area housing market.
Janaki Chadha
POLITICO New York
Janaki Chadha is a reporter at POLITICO, where she covers housing, real estate and economic development in the New York bureau. She has been on the beat for more than six years, and has written extensively about city and state housing policy and the intersection of real estate and politics.
Joyce Kwon
The NRP Group
Joyce works at The NRP Group, where she advances the company’s affordable housing projects in New York State and City. She previously served as a director on the New Construction Finance team at NYC HPD, overseeing affordable homeownership and 9% LIHTC projects. Prior to HPD, she worked at the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, where she helped ignite the community land trust movement in NYC. She currently sits on the Board of New York Housing Conference’s Rising Leaders Network and co-chairs the educational series panel and site visits. Joyce holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis as well as a Master of Urban Planning from NYU Wagner. She looks forward to exploring how other countries keep their affordability issues at bay through their housing policies and connecting with policymakers through the program to advocate for a more equitable NYC.
Katie Schwamb
Building Energy Exchange
Katie Schwamb is the Managing Director of the Building Energy Exchange (BE- Ex), a nonprofit resource center that accelerates the transition to healthy, comfortable, and energy efficient buildings by serving as a trusted advisor to the building industry. Katie leads BE-Ex’s team on a variety of research, training, and resource development initiatives.
Prior to BE-Ex, Katie worked as sustainability consultant managing multifamily, affordable housing projects pursuing sustainability certifications, financial incentives, and energy code compliance. She is a current board member of GreenHomeNYC, a former AmeriCorps VISTA, and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin.
Keith Engel
Dattner Architects
An Associate Principal at Dattner Architects, Keith Engel values architecture’s ability to affect change and provide meaningful and equitable experiences, and he has dedicated his career to practicing socially responsible design with a focus on affordable and supportive housing. Born and raised in the Bronx, Keith has a nuanced perspective of a city in constant transition, and a personal commitment to a collaborative practice that invigorates neighborhoods and promotes constructive dialogue within the urban realm. Embracing the notion of architect-as-advocate, Keith served as a Design Advisor for UDF’s ‘Shelter for All’ fellowship and presently serves as Chair of his Community Board’s Land Use and Housing committee where he works to foster productive dialogue on initiatives that expand affordable housing opportunities within the community and the city.
Lynda Nguyen
Climate Jobs Institute, Cornell University Industrial & Labor Relations School
Lynda Nguyen is an Associate at the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School, where she designs pro-union policies that center equity, job creation, and emissions reduction. Her portfolio spans a decade of community-driven policy and advocacy wins on social justice issues, including affordable housing, worker rights, environmental justice, and gender equity. Lynda’s efforts helped win over $1.7 million to decarbonize affordable housing in the downstate region, $4 billion for building upgrades in New York City public schools, and the passage of the NY HERO Act.
Matthew Seybert
Perkins Eastman
Matthew Seybert is an Associate Principal at Perkins Eastman Architects with 20 years of experience in New York City and around the world. As an architect and urban designer, he focuses on envisioning new futures, with an understanding that designers must be diligent to understand the places we practice and committed to delivering sustainable impacts. He has helped craft Sustainability Metrics within the Perkins Eastman Planning and Urban Design and Multi-Family practice areas and recently participated in the Urban Design Forum Re-Wire program to help decarbonize the city.
Meldis Jiménez
Broadway Housing Communities
Meldis Jiménez is a proud Dominican, born and raised in Harlem, New York. Meldis has spent her life committed to building stronger, more equitable communities. A proud advocate for youth development and social justice, with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from The City College of New York.
Meldis’s professional journey reflects her deep-rooted passion for advocacy, research, and community organizing. At Broadway Housing Communities, she helped launch the Youth Leadership Institute and co-published Dreaming of Home: Youth Researchers of Color Address NYC’s Housing Crisis, empowering young people to advocate for fair housing policies. Her earlier work at Catholic Charities focused on supporting families facing eviction, hunger, and other urgent challenges across New York City. Fluent in Spanish and certified in Family Development and Mental Health First Aid, she brings empathy, skill, and a collaborative spirit to every project.
Whether organizing neighborhood initiatives, mentoring youth, or advocating for systemic change, Meldis remains driven by a lifelong conviction: every person deserves a safe and dignified place to call home.
Melissa Quirk
Quirk Planning Solutions
Melissa Quirk founded Quirk Planning Solutions to integrate her 25 years of experience working at the intersection of affordable multifamily housing policy, organizational strategic development, program design and implementation, and public administration and management.
Melissa has devoted her career to bringing about equitable housing and planning, reversing historical bias in the field. In New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. she has served in statewide and national nonprofits, housing and planning consulting practices, and the local governments of Boston and New York, including NYC HPD, NYCHA, and NYC Mayor’s Office of the CTO.
Melissa serves as president of her local NYC Green Thumb Community Garden and on the board of a local housing organization. Melissa is an adjunct lecturer in the Hunter College Urban Policy and Planning graduate program.
Meredith McNair
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
Meredith McNair is a senior community planner at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, a non-profit organization serving East New York, Brooklyn. Meredith manages affordable housing development projects from start to finish, incorporating innovative models like shared housing and community land trusts. She also leads neighborhood planning and climate resiliency initiatives and engages in citywide advocacy for comprehensive planning. Meredith has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from New York University and 11 years of experience working in community development in New York, Honolulu, Seattle, and Pittsburgh.
Ross Tilchin
Results for America
Ross Tilchin is the Director of the Economic Mobility Catalog at Results for America. In this role, he leads a research and engagement team that helps state and local leaders identify and implement evidence-based approaches to advancing upward mobility. Previously, he was a Senior Policy and Research Assistant for the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, where he focused on a range of urban economic development and local government policy issues. He has served as a Kreisman Fellow with Enterprise Community Partners and as a Visiting Fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research. Ross received an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago and a BA in Government and History from Lafayette College.
Shambhavi Manglik
Robin Hood
Shambhavi (Sham) Manglik is a Senior Program Officer at Robin Hood, New York City’s largest poverty-fighting in this organization. In this role, she helps lead the organization’s housing and homelessness direct-service grantmaking strategy. Prior to joining Robin Hood in 2015, Sham spent 10 years working on housing policy in Washington, D.C., both on and off of Capitol Hill. She has a MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Shams DaBaron
LionFox
Shams DaBaron, known as “Da Homeless Hero” and “Da Housing Hero,” is a Bronx-born leader whose lived experience has directly shaped housing policy in New York City. Raised in foster care and first unhoused at ten, he educated himself in libraries while navigating street homelessness and later the family shelter system with his son.
In 2020, while living at the Lucerne Hotel, DaBaron became a national voice on behalf of fellow residents during a high-profile fight over their removal. He later organized the 2021 Mayoral Candidates Forum on Homelessness and worked with the Adams administration on the Subway Safety Plan, Safe Haven expansion, Housing Our Neighbors Blueprint, removal of the 90-day CityFHEPS voucher rule and much more.
In 2023–24, he championed the City of Yes zoning reform and launched LionFox Development to build affordable housing. In 2024, Adams appointed Shams to the NYC Charter Revision Commission to advance housing development.
Shreya Ghoshal
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Shreya Ghoshal is the Director of Planning and Design at Lincoln Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Columbia GSAPP’s M.S. in Historic Preservation and M.S. in Urban Planning programs.
At Lincoln Center, she is responsible for directing the planning, design, land use, and environmental teams for the West Project to transform Lincoln Center’s western edge. Her role straddles both design/construction and community engagement/participatory processes at one of the world’s leading performing arts + civic institutions.
Shreya holds dual Masters’ of Science in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation from Columbia GSAPP, along with a BS in Architecture from the University of Minnesota. Leveraging her multi-disciplinary expertise, her research and work focuses on tackling issues of justice and sustainability in the built environment.
Stephanie Rudolph
The Legal Aid Society
Steph Rudolph is a staff attorney specializing in fair housing in the Civil Law Reform Unit of the Legal Aid Society. Prior to Legal Aid, Steph served as the Deputy Director of the tech non-profit, JustFix. Other than the brief stint in tech, Steph has spent their career representing the interests of homeless families and tenants at risk of losing their homes in government and non-profits roles.
Taylor Nelson
Bloomberg Associates
Taylor Nelson is currently a manager at Bloomberg Associates, the philanthropic consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies. In this role, she advises global mayors’ offices on strategies to improve internal operations, design impact measurement frameworks, and deploy data and technology solutions to enhance service delivery.
Taylor is particularly passionate about leveraging philanthropic, government, and community resources to drive economic mobility and expand socioeconomic opportunities in urban areas. As a Metro Detroit native, she has witnessed the powerful role that public-private collaboration can play in advancing meaningful change—especially when developed in close partnership with local communities.
Terri Davis-Merchant
Trinity Church NYC
Terri Davis-Merchant serves as the Senior Program Director for the Housing & Homelessness initiative of Trinity Church Philanthropies. She manages Trinity’s day to day grantmaking to housing and homelessness organizations across New York City. Previously, Terri was the Director of Predevelopment Planning at NYC HPD, where she managed the Request for Proposals process for affordable housing development projects on publicly owned land as well as solicited ideas for the Agency’s future pilots and initiatives. Her past roles have included legislative advocacy around various housing issues, financing affordable housing projects, and the legal representation of community-based organizations building affordable housing. Terri hopes to expand her houser network and learn more about international housing policy so that she can further serve her grantees. Terri received her BA in African American Studies from Yale University and JD from the University of Michigan Law School. She is an immigrant, a Queens kid, and a Brooklyn adult living with her family in Bed Stuy.
Travis Bostick
Henge Development
Travis Bostick is an economic and community development professional with specialized expertise in affordable housing preservation, public housing recapitalization, and urban development strategy. His extensive experience spans government, nonprofit, and private sector roles, with particular focus on RAD/Section 18 repositioning programs.
At the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), Travis managed predevelopment for more than 3,100 units transitioning under the PACT program, coordinating developer selection, due diligence, and resident engagement processes. Later, at Urbane Development, he directed the PACT/RAD conversion strategy for NYCHA’s Reid Park Rock portfolio, overseeing a $360 million capital improvement scope for nearly 1,700 public housing units.
Travis’s development experience includes comprehensive management of relocation planning, HQS inspections, lease-up strategy, and resident needs assessments. He has served as a primary liaison between city agency partners, developers, and resident leaders.
His professional approach combines technical expertise in housing finance and HUD regulatory compliance with a deep commitment to resident-centered development. At Enterprise Community Partners, Travis managed the RAD Roundtable, improving coordination between housing authorities, tenant associations, developers, and community-based organizations throughout the conversion process.
Travis holds a Master of Arts in Theories of Urban Practice from Parsons School of Design at The New School and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Policy from Bard College.
Wil Fisher
Unit Two Development
Wil Fisher is a sustainable development professional with deep experience in New York City’s infrastructure and housing landscapes. He is the Director of External Affairs at Rise Light & Power, a renewable energy developer seeking to transform NYC’s largest power plant into a clean energy hub. He is also Founding Principal at Unit Two Development, a firm that equips homeowners with the tools to design, finance, and build accessory dwelling units and other “missing middle” housing.
Wil previously spent eight years in NYC government, at the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery. In these roles, he played a multidisciplinary role negotiating public approvals for thousands of units of new housing, infrastructure, and parklands designed to mitigate and withstand the impacts of climate change.
About Big Swings
Our 2025 Global Exchange initiative, Big Swings seeks to build solidarity between leaders in New York and other cities taking “big swings” at their housing crises. By exploring the cultures and politics behind housing shifts around the world, we will equip decision-makers to better advocate for reform and support a new generation of leaders to house every New Yorker.
Support Our Work
Lead Sponsor
We thank Global Circle sponsors Akerman LLP, Apple Bank, CAMBA Housing Ventures, Charney, Fogarty Finger, HKS, Jamie von Klemperer, KPF, Office for the Next Environment, Skylight, Turner Construction and Upside Collab
Global Exchange is made possible with additional support from our Board of Directors, Circle Members, and company and individual members. Our programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
To learn more about supporting Global Exchange, please contact Miranda Bellizia, miranda@urbandesignform.org.