Penn IUR Welcomes 2023-24 Fellows in Urban Leadership

Penn IUR welcomes its sixth cohort into the Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership program. Inaugurated in April 2018, the program provides an exceptional group of Penn undergraduates with the unique opportunity to engage with established urban leaders in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C. Through these experiences, students gain insights into the technical and political talent and skills of high-level public and private decision-makers who manage today’s cities and their key institutions. Past speakers have included Patrick Brett, Managing Director, Strategic Venture Investing, Citibank; Chandan Deuskar, Urban Development Specialist, The World Bank; Anne Fadullon, Director, Department of Planning and Development, City of Philadelphia; Jaime Gauthier, District 3 Councilmember, City of Philadelphia; Lorraine Grillo, Former First Deputy Mayor, City of New York; and Michael Nutter, Former Mayor, City of Philadelphia, among others.

“Through monthly meetings with public, private, and nonprofit sector leaders, the Fellows witness first-hand how the individual speakers have gained their positions, handled complicated challenges, and experienced satisfaction with successes in the course of their careers,” says Penn IUR Co-Director Eugénie Birch.

“In our increasingly urban world, this program prepares students for the challenges and opportunities that come with being leaders in cities,” says Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter.

As last year, the Fellows will have site visits to New York and Washington, D.C, where Penn IUR Advisory Board Chair, Mark Rosenberg, Principal, MHR Fund Management LLC, and Penn IUR Advisory Board Member, Melanie Franco Nussdorf, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson, will host a series of meetings with local leaders and Penn IUR Advisory Board members.

“The D.C. field trip allows the Fellows to view how congressional and national association leaders, as well as those involved in international efforts, address urban issues,” says Nussdorf. While Rosenberg notes, “By increasing their connections in New York, the Fellows meet with leaders managing a city of 8 million people. Through exposure to three cities, the Fellows gain an understanding and appreciation of the enormous responsibilities of ensuring that urbanization is both equitable and sustainable.”

The 2023-2024 Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership are:

Arnav Aggarwal is a rising senior in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology (M&T) pursuing majors in Computer Science, Finance, and Entrepreneurship. From New Delhi, India, he is passionate about urban issues across developing and advanced economies, and the use of technology to assist in such problems and capital to finance it. He credits Geoffrey West’s book, Scale, with inspiring his interest in the growth of urban centers and the pandemic’s impact on global cities.

Sameem Ahmadzai is a rising junior from Long Island, N.Y. majoring in Urban Studies and Philosophy. He is especially interested in education reform, environmentalism, and animal welfare. At Penn, he is a member of the Afghan Students Association, Muslim Students Association, and Effective Altruism. This summer, he interned at the Nationalities Service Center, where he assisted in creating open lines of communication between migrant clients and landlords and familiarizing new migrants with existing housing systems.

Mica Lin-Alves is a senior and a Civic Scholar, with a major in Urban Studies and a minor in Environmental Studies. He grew up in Providence, R.I. During the pandemic, he served as an AmeriCorps literacy tutor in Springfield, Mass. He has continued this commitment to urban education by working with Penn Libraries Community Engagement and the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children to help restore service to a growing number of school libraries on this side of the Schuylkill River. Mica is also interested in transit and land use, and interned last spring with Claflen Associates, where he researched affordable housing policy.

Emma Boockvar is a senior from New York City studying Neuroscience with minors in Urban Studies and Chemistry. Focused on the impact of urban planning on health disparities, she is currently investigating mental health outcomes in lead-exposed adolescents through the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology for her thesis. This summer, Emma interned at both the NYC Department of Health and Bellevue Hospital, helping to improve and implement asthma management interventions in the Bronx as well as evaluate the efficacy of clinical treatments for HIV at Bellevue. This year, Emma is excited to serve as co-president of GlobeMed and co-captain of the Penn Women’s Club Soccer team.

Jed Chew is a sophomore from Singapore majoring in Urban Studies with minors in Public Policy and Real Estate. He is actively involved in the Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club as well as Wharton Undergraduates in Public Policy. This past summer, Jed was based in the Bay Area where he worked on an urban design and resilience project for the San Francisco Embarcadero waterfront. He also supported Penn’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) initiative to analyze national patterns in cross-sector data integration efforts.

Erica Edman is a junior from Watchung, N.J. majoring in Urban Studies and minoring in Consumer Psychology and Urban Education. She has been interested in the arts since her first dance class at age three, and spends most of her time at Penn teaching dance with the After School Arts Program and CityStep, and performing with Arts House Dance Company. Erica spent the past summer interning at Bloomberg Philanthropies, working at the intersection of arts and cities. She hopes to eventually work in the nonprofit and philanthropy sector, focusing on cities as a catalyst to enact positive change.

Mya Gordon is a rising senior, majoring in Urban Studies with a concentration in Sociology. She attended high school in Lake Oswego, Ore., where she was active in community DEI work. At Penn, Mya is a Robeson Cooper Scholar, serves on the Netter Center Student Advisory Board and the SNF Paideia Student Advisory Board, and is an intern for the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative. Over the past year, Mya has conducted research with the Netter Center and the Andrea Mitchell Center, researching Penn's engagement with the West Philadelphia community and analyzing ways to advance community engagement practices. Over the summer, Mya was honored to intern at the National Urban League with their Education and Youth Development division.

Louis Hu is a junior majoring in Biology and minoring in Urban Studies. As a pre-medical student, he is particularly interested in the areas of public health, sustainability, and transportation. He is the Operations Manager for the Philadelphia Food Technology Project, an organization that engages high school students in STEM programming by integrating both computer and nutrition/environmental science using food technology education. At Penn, he participates in Science Olympiad at the University of Pennsylvania (SOUP) as an Event Supervisor and an Urban Initiative volunteer, where he helps organize Science Olympiad competitions and mentors competitors in schools around Philadelphia.

Annabelle Jin is a junior from Moorestown, N.J. majoring in Neurobiology and minoring in English. She is passionate about health equity from both medical and educational perspectives. As Education Lead of Penn Repro Justice, she created and organized a Menstrual Health Education Program at their partner high schools in West Philly. As a Shelter Health Outreach Program (SHOP) volunteer, she provides blood pressure screenings and connects people with free healthcare resources. She also loves reading, so you'll often find her learning more about narrative medicine, psychology, and Asian American issues.

Charles Lane is a junior from Washington, D.C., majoring in Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) with a minor in Sustainability and Environmental Management. Charles works at the Smart Surfaces Coalition, a nonprofit that supports the rapid adoption of green, porous, and reflective surfaces in urban areas to lower heat and reduce flooding. At the Coalition, he supports the development of the cost-benefit analytic tool. He is greatly interested in data- and community-driven solutions to environmental justice issues in cities.

Lynn Larabi is a senior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Anthropology. Lynn has a great passion for public service, as she has served as a White House intern at the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and as a Public Affairs Intern for the UN Foundation. She has also worked at a Seoul, South Korea public consulting firm, in which she helped develop early warning systems and community-centric programming for Leyte, Philippines. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Lynn is interested in exploring workforce development solutions in public school curricula to improve the unemployment gap and financial disparities in the city.

Melody Luo is a sophomore majoring in Political Science and minoring in Legal Studies and History. Following book banning attempts at her high school, Melody became interested in advancing educational equity and diversifying K-12 curricula, with hopes of eventually pursuing a career in education policy. This past summer, she worked with the National Asian Pacific American Woman’s Forum to expand knowledge of and accessibility to reproductive health resources for marginalized communities in New York City and helped to reduce food insecurity across Long Island as an intern for the New York State Department of Education’s Summer Food Service Program.

Shobhit Prasad is a senior from Baltimore, Md. studying Biology and Sociology. He is interested in advocating for changes that make cities healthier and more sustainable and is currently working to analyze the effects of active transportation infrastructure on specific health outcomes in major U.S. cities. At Penn, Shobhit serves as co-president of the Shelter Health Outreach Program (SHOP), a group that aims to improve healthcare accessibility and reduce health disparities among people experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia.

Shivam Shah is a junior majoring in Economics and minoring in Urban Education and Urban Studies. He has created his own course, nonprofit, and social impact organization. At Penn, he’s the Wharton Class Chair and a member of the Admissions Dean Advisory Board member. Recently, he worked with two professors, focusing his research on urban studies and food insecurity.

Timethius J. Terrell is a senior from Georgia, majoring in Psychology, with minors in Linguistics as well as Legal Studies and History. He is interested in institutional reform, housing policy, LGBTQ+ rights, and educational access. He is a former fellow with Penn’s Office of Social Equity and Community, founder of the first LGBTQ+ university student advocacy/activist group in Thailand (at Mahidol University International College), and the Executive Director of the 501c3 nonprofit Divulge Alliance.

Khue Tran is a senior from San Jose, Calif. majoring in Earth and Environmental Science and minoring in Asian American Studies (ASAM). At Penn, she is involved in the ASAM Undergraduate Advisory Board and the Vietnamese Students’ Association. In the Urban Undergraduate Research Colloquium, she began a project on Asian Americans and climate adaptation planning in New York City, which she will continue under the ASAM Research Fellowship. This summer, she interned at the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Wisconsin, developing resources for Hmong farmers and assisting with conservation practice applications.

Abigail Weinstein is a junior from Titusville, N.J., majoring in Design with minors in Environmental Studies, Mechanical Engineering, and Architecture. At Penn, Abby works in biomaterial development at Dumolab Research in the Weitzman School of Design, builds sets for numerous student-run theater productions on campus, and is on copy staff at The Daily Pennsylvanian. She has been involved in numerous grassroots- and student-led efforts to promote social and environmental equity both in and before college, and she strives to champion causes affecting the broader Philadelphia community.

Nicholas Yohn is a junior studying Finance and Business Analytics with a minor in Data Science. He grew up in the New York City metro area, and as a lifelong subway rider, he cares deeply about urban transportation and infrastructure and public finance. Since coming to Philadelphia, he has joined the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council. On campus, he dances with Penn Masti, leads outdoors expeditions with Wharton Leadership Ventures, serves on the executive board of Penn International Impact Consulting, and participates in the Joseph Wharton Scholars program.

To learn more about the program, visit the Fellows in Urban Leadership program page on the Penn IUR website.