Uncertain space: Data illusions and the chorography of chronic disease 

Sara Jensen Carr is an assistant professor of architecture and the program director for the Master of Design in Sustainable Urban Environments program at Northeastern University. She is a licensed architect and holds an MArch from Tulane University, and an MLA and PhD in Environmental Planning from University of California, Berkeley. Her work and research on the connections between urban landscape, human health, and social equity has been funded by the Mellon Foundation, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, and the National Science Foundation. In addition, she has been published in publications from Preventive Medicine to LA+ Journal, as well as interviewed by the New York Times, CNN, and Foreign Policy, among others, for her expertise on epidemics and urban design. Her forthcoming book, The Topography of Wellness, will be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2021.

Transdisciplinary approaches in urban health and environment: A reflection on place and fish consumption advisories in the Gulf Coast 

Lauren Drakopulos, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics at the University of Guelph. She works at the intersections of political ecology, science and technology studies and digital geographies. Her thematic focus is on social dimensions of fisheries and oceans governance, the politics of fisheries science, and the impact of new technologies on environmental governance.

Dustin Robertson is an Urban Studies PhD candidate in Tulane University’s City, Culture and Community program. His research focuses on urban democracy and public participation in the 21st century. He studies mobility and planning in cities across the Global North and Global South to ask who is able to make and influence decisions and how. 

Sarita V. Panchang received her Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of South Florida in 2019. She is passionate about social justice and environmental health, particularly through water and sanitation infrastructure access. Her research melds critical social scientific theory with public health approaches to examine community health outcomes in relation to policy and programming priorities, both in the U.S. and in the Global South. 

Meghna N. Marjadi is a PhD Candidate in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is interested in research at the intersection of fisheries science, aquatic ecology, food justice, and global food security. Her dissertation research examines migratory and reproductive patterns in river herring, an anadromous forage fish that contributes to  freshwater and marine ecosystems and associated commercial and recreational fisheries. 

Zach Koehn, PhD, is an Early Career Fellow at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University. He focuses on the potential for aquatic foods to contribute critical micronutrients to meet dietary requirements and to identify inequities in the production and distribution of these foods with respect to nutrition and livelihood security. He recently completed his PhD at the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. 

Lian W. Guo is a PhD Candidate in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Lian’s research interests include assessing the ecophysiological impacts of multiple stressors (e.g. temperature, low food availability, contaminants) on fish populations and elucidating socio-ecological interactions in fisheries. Her dissertation work focuses on the thermal ecophysiology of juvenile life stages of two river herring species to further climate-adaptive management of both species. 

What harms are we addressing? Drug enforcement as pretext for urban removal

Marc Krupanski is a senior program officer for the Open Society Public Health Program, where he leads the global portfolio focused on law enforcement, community safety, and harm reduction. In this role, he works on alternative, non-punitive approaches to drug use and sex work, and to promote community-centered health and safety. Previously, Krupanski worked as a practitioner and researcher for a range of international, national, and city organizations on issues related to security sector reform and governance, policing, and racial justice, including the Open Society Justice Initiative, DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security for Security Sector Governance, Communities United for Police Reform, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Earlier, he conducted community-based development and research projects with indigenous communities in the Americas. Krupanski holds an MA in international studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Sarah Evans is a unit manager with the Open Society Public Health Program, where she works globally to advance the health and rights of marginalized people who use drugs. Before joining Open Society, Evans was a manager for HIV and AIDS Services with Vancouver Coastal Health in British Columbia, Canada, where she oversaw a range of community-based harm reduction and addiction treatment services. Previously, she worked as the coordinator of operations for Insite, North America’s first legal supervised drug injection facility. She has also designed and implemented learning programs for adults in a variety of community settings, including a sex worker drop-in center, a community center, and a racetrack. She holds a MA in adult education from the University of British Columbia 

Planning for youth emotional health in unruly environments: Bringing a trauma informed community building lens to therapeutic planning

Jason Reece is an assistant professor of city and regional planning at The Ohio State University. His research, teaching and professional experience focuses on social equity in city planning, fair housing, health equity and asset-based community development.

Reece has worked with partner organizations in more than 30 states in the US and acted as a capacity builder for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development Sustainable Communities Initiative for four years. Reece was formerly the senior associate director and director of research for the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at OSU. 

Mobile population based care solutions from Canada and Finland

Laura Arpiainen is the Professor of Health and Wellbeing Architecture at Aalto University in Finland. She holds dual Finnish / Canadian citizenship and is particularly interested in diversity, integrated and holistic solutions for healthcare, patient and family centered care, new definitions of wellbeing and the relationship of built environments to health.

 Johanna Lilius is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Architecture, Aalto University, Finland. Her research has focused on housing and housing policy & development, (strategic) urban planning and development, suburban regeneration, urban cultures and lifestyles as well as urban entrepreneurs. She is the author of “Reclaiming Cities as Spaces of Middle Class Parenthood” (Palgrave Macmillan).