WEBINAR – Earth Day Dialogue: Designing for Planetary and Public Health

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

AIA New York is organizing a webinar on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, featuring a panel discussion on the connections between the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The conversation will discuss the various shocks to our planet and public health systems, and how cities can play a vital role in solving future crises. 

During this conversation we will focus on:

• New frameworks for environmental justice that incorporate public health
• Habitat destruction and its consequences for public health
• Anticipated backlash against urbanism 
• Environmental justice solutions for economic recovery
• Existing and future vulnerable populations

Moderator:
Claire Weisz, FAIA, Principal-in-Charge, WXY 

Speakers:
Juan Camilo Osorio, Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment
Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Senior Research Scientist, Columbia University Earth Institute; Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
Eric W. Sanderson, Senior Conservation Ecologist, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS); author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009) 

About the Speakers

Juan Camilo Osorio is an Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, where he leverages his professional and research experience to engage urban planning students in applied research and professional collaborations with grassroots leaders as a form of mutual learning. He is a PhD Candidate in Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. As Research Consultant with the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance’s “Waterfront Justice Project”, he supports participatory-action research and interdisciplinary collaborations with public health specialists to map and measure the risk of chemical dislodgement in industrial waterfront communities under severe weather. As Co-Investigator with the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, he collaborates with local stakeholders in New York and Latin America to study community-led low-carbon development strategies to monitor and adapt to climate change impacts — as a new source of local income, wealth and security. His work emphasizes the tension between cities, inequality, and environmental conflict. He studies the political economy of climate change adaptation planning and disaster recovery, studying urban conflicts where social and environmental inequality exacerbate each other — and the impacts of such processes on social, economic and environmental transformation to build equity and justice.

Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute. She is also a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College. At NASA GISS, she heads the Climate Impacts Group whose mission is to investigate the interactions of climate (both variability and change) on systems and sectors important to human well-being.

Dr. Rosenzweig has organized and led large-scale interdisciplinary, national, and international studies of climate change impacts and adaptation in rural and urban settings. She is co-director of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) and co-editor of the UCCRN Assessment Reports on Climate Change and Cities, the first-ever global, interdisciplinary, cross-regional, science-based assessment series to address climate risks, adaptation, mitigation, and policy mechanisms relevant to cities. She was co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the Mayor advising the city on adaptation for its critical infrastructure, and co-led the Metropolitan East Coast Regional Assessment of the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Claire Weisz, FAIA is a founding partner of WXY, known for their innovative approach to community, public space, structures, and cities. Claire was awarded the Medal of Honor from AIANY in 2018 and was honored with the Women in Architecture Award by Architectural Record in 2019. WXY is globally recognized for its place-based approach to architecture, urban design, and planning, and has played a vital role in design thinking around resiliency. In 2019 Fast Company named WXY one of the World’s Most Innovative Architecture Firms.