NYC Connect

Sung E Bai, the first in her immigrant family to be born in the U.S., was raised in Queens and by the NYC social justice movement for over 25 years. Addressing issues related to violence against women, police brutality, immigrant and worker rights, and food justice, she was an Executive Director of local and global organizations and spent some time in city government as Chief of Staff at the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs. Receiving her BA from Cornell University and MA and MPhil from Columbia University, Sung E taught Asian American Studies at NYU, Bard College, and Hunter College. She is currently Chief Operating Officer at Literacy Partners, a non-profit with a two-generation approach to education, and a certified instructor of mindfulness. She teaches martial arts to children and adults, and has spent the past 17 years exploring the intersection of spirituality and social justice.

Clara Bingham is an award-winning journalist and author whose work has focused on social justice and women’s issues. She is a former Newsweek White House correspondent, and the author of four books, Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress (1997), Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law (2003) which was adapted into the film "North Country," and Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost its Mind and Found its Soul (2016). Bingham’s latest book The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America (2024), is an oral history of the early years of second wave feminism. She graduated from Harvard College in 1985 with a degree in History and Literature, is the mother of three, and step mother of three adult children, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband Joe Finnerty.

Noah Chasin is Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture in the Urban Design program at Columbia GSAPP. He received his Ph.D. in Architectural and Urban History from the CUNY Graduate Center and is a historian/critic/theorist with a specific emphasis on the relationship between urban design/planning and human rights. His teaching, research, and writing center on human rights issues in urban conflict zones, questioning how citizenship and access are adjudicated in urban social networks. In addition to his role in the MSAUD faculty, he is a faculty affiliate at Columbia´s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Chasin has taught at Bard College, Cornell, Barnard, RISD, and the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School. His critical writing has appeared in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, ArtForum, and Journal of Architectural Education, among many others. He was formerly the architecture critic for Time Out New York and was featured in the urban design documentary Urbanized, directed by Gary Hustwit.

Shelly Malkin is a painter who grew up in New York City. She attended the Dalton School and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art History and a minor in European Cultural Studies. She also studied painting at the School of Visual Arts and at the National Academy of Design under Serge Hollerbach in New York City, and at the Silvermine Arts Center and the Renaissance Workshop of Dmitri Wright in Connecticut.

Shelly taught at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York, is a trustee of the New York Restoration Project and an Honorary Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council where she served on the Board for twenty-one years. Shelly is an environmentalist, a passionate outdoors woman and an avid rock climber and skier. The outdoor scenes that she experiences often provide her with inspiration for her paintings. She is represented by Graham/Shay Gallery in NYC and ARC Fine Art in Fairfield, CT and Easthampton, NY and is currently on the Advisory Board of The Princeton University Art Museum.

Henry Obispo is a Social-Entrepreneur, Environmentalist and Eco-Gastronomer from The Bronx, the Founder and CEO of ReBORN FARMS: that gives life to a new eco-forward reality, by implementing hyper-local food systems that create access and foster community empowerment. Motivated by his sense of social responsibility, Henry's mission is to revolutionize and decentralize local food systems to serve populations long ignored and disinvested, to bring forth access and a future of food sovereignty. Using food as a tool for renewal, Henry rethinks how cities best serve their populations, developing equitable infrastructure that centers them.

Henry is also the founder of Born Juice, an ecological plant-based social enterprise, with a zero-waste model. Born Juice's mission is carbon neutrality, by focusing on hyper-local and circularity, for the betterment of the planet and humanity. Through his community engagement, as an activist and food-justicer, Henry has developed some of the most impactful food justice programs and initiatives in The Bronx and NYC. As president of the United Business Cooperative, he is an advocate of immigrant/BIPOC restaurant owners and food entrepreneurs, for a focus on economic development and ecological best practices.

Griselda Rodríguez-Solomon, PhD (Dr. G.) is a mother, wife and professor in the Department of Anthropology, Gender Studies and International Studies within the City College of New York. Griselda and her twin sister, Miguelina, are the Bruajs of Brooklyn. They design yoga workshops and academic dialogues that address the effects of racialized oppression on the health of women of color. Griselda earned her PhD in Sociology from Syracuse University and conducted extensive research on anti-Black racism among Dominicans. Her expertise on the effects of racism among Latin@s has earned her features in ABC, Univision, NBC, Pero Like/BuzzFeed and Google. Joy is her ultimate form of resistance.

Jade Vasquez is the Director of Policy and Research at Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing to families with children in NYC and the United States, where she advocates for policies that support homeless families and expand housing access for low-income New Yorkers. With over a decade of experience in anti-poverty work, including as a Peace Corps volunteer, Jade has served in government, political campaigns, and nonprofits. She earned her master’s in Global Policy from the University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Spanish from Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges.

Ayanna Wayner is an attorney and Managing Director of Fort Greene Partners LLC. She is responsible for the firm’s investments in multi-family real estate including market rate and affordable housing strategies. Ayanna is the Former Deputy Commissioner of Economic Development for the City of New Rochelle and Executive Director of the New Rochelle IDA, where she worked to usher-in a massive $6 billion downtown revitalization and redevelopment project. Ayanna has 15 years of experience in real estate and economic development having previously served as Associate General Counsel at Urban American, a $1 billion closely-held real estate investment company; the former Director of Programs for the Office of Preservation Services at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in the Banking & Institutional Investing group. Ayanna has worked on economic development internationally in Honduras with WorldTeach, the RARE Center for Conservation, and the Honduran Ministry of Tourism. Ayanna serves on the Board of World Connect and Westhab and graduated from Barnard College (BA) and Columbia Law School (JD).