The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has selected nine innovators in the fields of art, architecture, activism, curation, policy, and transportation shaping urban environments as the 2020 Loeb Fellowship. Each year, Harvard GSD invites these midcareer practitioners to engage in a year of research on its campus in Cambridge, Mass., where the fellows will consider “how their work might advance equitable social futures,” according to a press release from the university.
The incoming class of fellows, made up of six women and three men from around the world, will join a network of over 450 Loeb alumni that include artist Theaster Gates, architecture critic Inga Saffron, and architect Phil Freelon, FAIA.
Pedro Gadanho
Director of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon, Portugal
From the GSD: Pedro Gadanho is an architect, a curator, and a writer, as well as Director of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, Portugal. Previously he was curator of contemporary architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where he coordinated the Young Architects Program and curated exhibitions such as 9+1 Ways of Being Political, Uneven Growth, and A Japanese Constellation. He has edited the BEYOND bookazine and the ShrapnelContemporary blog, and contributes regularly to a variety of international publications. Gadanho holds a Master of Arts in art and architecture from the University of Kent, and a PhD in architecture and mass media from Porto University. Among other writings, he authored Arquitetura em Público, a recipient of the FAD Prize for Thought and Criticism in 2012.
Most recently, Gadanho launched the ongoing international collaboration “Eco-Visionaries,” an extensive curatorial project on the impact of the climate crisis; after iterations at MAAT, at Bildmuseet in Sweden, at HeK in Switzerland, and at Laboral in Spain, the project is now having new presentations at Matadero in Madrid and the Royal Academy in London.
Elizabeth Kay Miller
Executive Director, The Community Design Collaborative, Philadelphia
From the GSD: Elizabeth Kay Miller (Beth) is the Executive Director of the Community Design Collaborative, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that strengthens neighborhoods through design. Founded in 1991, the Collaborative coordinates pro-bono preliminary design services and amplifies the importance of community-engaged design.
Since 2001, Miller has worked with the Collaborative’s board, staff, and volunteers to leverage pro-bono design assistance and deliver responsive Design Grants to nearly 1,000 nonprofits throughout greater Philadelphia. In 2005, Miller also launched Infill Philadelphia, a proactive design initiative to reimagine underutilized assets, convene conversations, and deliver pragmatic design solutions. Topics addressed include affordable housing, food access, commercial corridors, food access, industrial reuse, green storm-water infrastructure, play space, and sacred places.
Miller served on the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 2011 to 2016 and the Design Advocacy Group from 2005 to 2011. She holds a Master’s in Government Administration from the Fels School of Government at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College.
Deborah Helaine Morris
Executive Director, Resiliency Planning, Policy, and Acquisitions, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, New York
From the GSD: Deborah Helaine Morris is an urban planner focused at the nexus of climate change and social equity. Most recently, as the Executive Director of Resiliency Policy, Planning, and Acquisitions at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Morris created a new team, focused on the development of policy and programs to lead aggressive climate change adaption in affordable housing with a focus on flood risk mitigation. This work includes the development of flood resiliency standards for new affordable housing in waterfront communities; long-term community planning initiatives, including the creation and implementation of the Resilient Edgemere Community Plan; and the management of a $90-million property acquisition and buyout program as part of the city’s Build it Back program.
Morris has prior experience working in planning and economic development, both as a senior consultant for Appleseed and with the Alliance for Downtown New York. She received a Master’s in City Planning and Urban Design from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Michigan. She was raised in Queens but currently calls Brooklyn home.
Eleni Myrivili
Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Urban Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation, Athens, Greece
From the GSD: Eleni Myrivili most recently served as Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Resilience, and Climate Change Adaptation for the City of Athens, a position she has held since December 2017. There, she has led the Urban Nature Directorate, comprising 400 staff and a million-dollar annual budget, and has introduced climate adaptation guidelines through the design and policy-making of new actions and procedures. She also produced the first digital database of Athens’s Natuinal Garden, as well as the city’s first digital database for monitoring and managing green spaces. She has also served as an Elected Council Member for the City of Athens, with deep commitment to urban sustainability and resilience. She has also curated and produced a variety of public projects and media programming, and is an Associate Professor at the University of the Aegean.
Myrivili earned her Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University, a Master of Arts from New York University, and a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University.
De Nichols
Director of Design and Social Practice, Civic Creatives, St. Louis
From the GSD: Through a multidisciplinary creative practice, De Nichols mobilizes global change-makers to activate ideas that address civic and social challenges within their communities. Based in St. Louis, Nichols serves as the Social Impact Design Principal of Civic Creatives, a design-strategy agency that develops interactive experiences, tools, and initiatives to help communities engage issues of civic disengagement, youth development, social inclusion, food access and security, and arts & cultural policy. As a cultural producer, Nichols organizes artists to develop digital media and visual artwork that extend the impact of her design practice. She has been deemed a national Ideas that Matter recipient, a two-time Clinton Global Initiative innovator, and a St. Louis Visionary. Most recently, she was named a 2017 Citizen Artist Fellow of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and 2018 Artist Fellow with the Regional Arts Commission in St. Louis, MO.
Within her community, Nichols leads as the youngest member of the Board of Directors for Forward through Ferguson. She previously served the Board of Directors for Creative Reaction Lab, which educates and equips Black and Latinx youth to foster design-based approaches to racial issues within schools and neighborhoods across the United States. Nichols is an alum of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.
Wolfgang Rieder
Founder, FibreC, Maishofen, Austria
From the GSD: Wolfgang Rieder is an Austrian entrepreneur and CEO of Rieder Group, founded in 1958, which he has led on a transformative journey, and into its third generation, since joining in 2003. He considers what he calls “the currently disrupted design value chain” and initiatives like zero-waste buildings and cities as keys toward encouraging the building industry to become more resourcefriendly—or, in the words of Phineas Harper, to “challenge contemporary material culture and our compulsion for durability.”
Contributing and giving back are of paramount importance for Rieder. As such, he sees engagement with leading design and architectural schools as part of his societal responsibility. Among other activities, he has served as a member of the External Advisory of Board for Harvard’s Master in Design Engineering program since its founding in 2016. From the start of his career, Rieder has been committed to innovative solutions that anticipate the needs of future generations of designers; the promotion of young talents in architecture and collaborations with established artists are fundamental to his work.
A graduate of the Vienna University of Economics, Rieder lives with his family on an organic farm in Maishofen, Salzburg and on Vancouver Island.
Andrew Salzberg
Head of Transportation Policy and Research, Uber, San Francisco
From the GSD: Andrew Salzberg is an urban planner passionate about building the sustainable transportation systems of the future. Over the last three years, he created and held a unique global role at Uber, focused on making the ride-share application a positive part of the future of urban transportation. Involving research, partnerships, and product development in over 65 countries, his work included creating Uber's first team focused on partnerships with public transportation agencies, creating Uber's first team focused on environmental sustainability, leading the development of Uber's first data sharing tool for government agencies, and spearheading Uber’s support for “congestion pricing” around the world.
Before that, Salzberg was Uber’s senior operations manager in New York City. Prior to joining Uber, Salzberg worked at the World Bank as a member of a team that developed a multi-billiondollar lending program for China’s transport and urban development. While there, he was admitted to the World Bank’s highly selective Young Professionals program.
Salzberg holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from McGill University and Master’s in Urban Planning from Harvard GSD. As a graduate student, Salzberg worked at Transport for London through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Transit Lab. He sits on the board of advisors of the Eno Center for Transportation. He currently lives in San Francisco, California.
Paloma Strelitz
Co-founder and Partner, Assemble Studio, London
From the GSD: Paloma Strelitz is a co-founder and partner of Assemble, an award-winning, London-based architecture and urbanism practice whose mission is to realize buildings, enterprises, and organizations that support creativity, collaboration, and active citizen participation. Assemble’s social focus and impactful approaches were recognized in the receipt of the 2015 Turner Prize, the UK’s foremost art award. Most recently Strelitz led the design and delivery of the new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, which opened in September 2018 as a major new cultural venue for London.
Her work as a designer, strategist, educator, and advocate reflect her passions for innovation, urban equity, and civic agency. Following her appointment in 2017, Strelitz has served as a Mayoral Design Advocate, supporting the Greater London Authority’s manifesto for “Good Growth by Design” in the Mayor of London’s team.
Strelitz regularly speaks in the UK and internationally, both as keynote presenter and as participant on expert panels. In its 2017 listing for International Women’s Day, Dezeen named her as one of 50 inspirational women in architecture and design, and in 2018, Open City selected her as one of the foremost 25 women shaping London.
Strelitz studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art. She is currently undertaking the inaugural Future Cities Residency of Design Indaba in Cape Town.
Michelle Joan Wilkinson
Curator, Architecture and Design, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C.
From the GSD: Michelle Joan Wilkinson is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), where she is expanding the museum’s collections in architecture and design. She co-curated two inaugural NMAAHC exhibitions: A Century in the Making: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture and A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond. In 2018, she served as lead organizer for the museum’s three-day symposium, “Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now.”
Prior to NMAAHC, Wilkinson spent six years as Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. She has also worked at the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. As fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership in 2012, Wilkinson completed a shortterm residency at the Design Museum in London. Her research on architectural heritage in the Anglophone Caribbean has been presented to international audiences in Suriname, England, India, and the United States. Wilkinson’s most recent efforts explore issues of representation in architectural renderings.
Wilkinson holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD from Emory University.
