Larry H. Padilla ’94 MSRED
Regional Vice President, Caribbean office for The Michaels Organization

Mr. Padilla is currently the Regional Vice President of the Caribbean office for The Michaels Organization, one of the nation’s largest multi-family developers and operators, responsible for overseeing all aspects of development activity, including acquisitions, planning, land-use approvals, and development financing for Puerto Rico the US Virgin Islands and Southeast Florida.

Throughout his career, Larry has held roles in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, giving him a unique perspective on the multi dynamic forces that impact any project. Over the years, he has led award-winning development, investment, acquisitions, management and construction initiatives averaging over $4 billion dollars in multi-asset and mixed-use projects. Prior to joining Michaels, Larry served as the Senior Director of Real Estate and Development Finance for the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, responsible for the agency’s property dispositions, land development, affordable and work force housing initiatives, and community finance functions. Larry also served as the Chief Operations Officer at the Charlotte Housing Authority, Chief Development Officer for Transom Development/SunTrust Bank, Chief Operations Officer for a real estate development and construction conglomerate in Puerto Rico, and as Director of Development for a community builder in Harlem, New York. He has also consulted as a Special Assistant to the HUD Secretary, and contributed to national housing strategies to the National Economic Council, office of the Vice President of the United States.

Larry holds a Master’s in Real Estate Development and Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Architecture and Environmental Design from the University at Buffalo, as well as certifications in Project, Property and Construction Management.

He currently serves on the Puerto Rico Homebuilders Board, the US territory’s most influential construction, builder and development advocacy group and is an active member of ULI’s South East Florida and Caribbean committee.

Hala Abukhodair ’20 MSAUD

Hala Abukhodair is from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She earned a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia GSAPP , following her Bachelor of Engineering focused in Architecture.

As an architectural engineer and now an Urban Designer with more than four years of experience working in the construction industry, Metro projects, and Municipal Urban Regulations across Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. At Columbia, her efforts included being part of the Program Council, the School’s shift towards greater emphasis on sustainability in the curriculum, and was a wonderful ambassador for GSAPP and the University community and a recipient of the Campbell leadership award by Columbia Alumni Association.

Dalal Musaed Alsayer ’10 MSAUD
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Kuwait University

Dalal Musaed Alsayer is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Kuwait University. Her research lies at the intersection of architecture, environment, and development in the context of Arabia during the twentieth century. She is the co-author of Pan-Arab Modernism 1968-2008: History of Architectural Practice in The Middle East (Actar, 2021), the co-founding editor of Current: Collective for Architecture History and Environment, and is also the co-chair of the Architecture and Environment interest group at the European Architectural History Network (EAHN). She received her Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Kuwait University; a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University; a Master of Design Studies from Harvard University; and a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She was an Academic Visitor at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford for the academic year 2022-23.

Gauri Bahuguna ’20 M.Arch
Spatial Analyst, SITU

Jessica Betz Abel ’17 MSHP
Conservator, Penn Museum

Jessica Betz Abel is a conservator at the Penn Museum working on the reconstruction and reinstallation of the Egyptian architectural collection . She was previously the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in  Conservation at The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. She has also worked as a conservator at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Additionally, she has served as the archaeological conservator at Gordion, Turkey and Samothrace, Greece. Jessica was selected as the runner-up recipient for the 2018 Murtagh-Graham Prize awarded by US/ICOMOS. She earned an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, specializing in architectural conservation, as well as a BA in Art History and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado.

Diane Branch ’03 MSRED
Vice President of Real Estate, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

As the Vice President of Real Estate at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Diane Branch manages nearly 400 parcels, representing more than 1,900 acres of developed and undeveloped land in the city of Williamsburg and the counties of James and York. Her experience includes senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, where she handled leasing transactions for Fortune 500 clients, and associate vice president at Howard University, where she managed the universities real estate development. Before Howard University, Branch served as the District of Columbia’s project manager for The Gallery Place and Mandarin Hotel Increment Financing Bonds.

Brian Dollar ’03 MSRED
Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development, ACRUVA Community Developers

Dr. Brian Dollar, DPPD, is a Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development with ACRUVA Community Developers (ACRUVA) in its South Florida Headquarters. Dr. Dollar joined ACRUVA in 2023 and brings more than 25 years of experience in real estate development, affordable housing, asset management, portfolio management, finance, strategy, and operations.

His primary areas of expertise include real estate development, acquisitions, and advisory transactions nationally. Throughout his career, Dr. Dollar has sourced and closed deals in excess of $1 billion for several private, public, and governmental entities.

Previously, Dr. Dollar served as a Real Estate Development Executive for Atlanta Housing with its Real Estate Development and Planning Department and Director of Real Estate Strategy within the Office of Policy, Strategy, and Innovation.

Before that, Dr. Dollar worked for Wonderful Real Estate Development, Rockefeller Group Development, GE Capital Real Estate, MetLife Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield, and Lend Lease Real Estate Investors in various transactional capacities.

Dr. Brian holds a Doctorate from The University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy, a master’s in real estate development from Columbia University in New York and Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Brian is an active member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), serving on its National Reuse & Redevelopment Product Council, a member of the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties (NAIOP), a member of the Columbia University Real Estate Development Program Alumni Board, and member of Columbia University GSAAP Board of Alumni Directors.

Dr. Brian currently lives in South Florida with his wife (Aleksandra) and two young children, Brian Jr., and Elle. Outside of work, Brian is enthusiastic about and heavily involved in community service, international travel, and F1 racing events.

León Duval ’22 MSAAD
Founder, Espiral
Coordinator of Professional Practice and Alumni, Architecture School of the Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile)

Coordinator of Professional Practice and Alumni, Architecture School of the Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile)

León Duval is a Chilean architect who works through the spatial possibilities of the discipline, engaging in inter and transdisciplinary relationships, and teachings, researching and design, both individually and collectively. He understands architecture as a political affair of the built environment and beyond the building itself. He stands that the Global South needs to be equally built and taught. In his practice, he cares for humans and more-than-human relationships, ecologies, and Latinx identities. His search focuses on counterpower images, extractive landscapes, Latin American identity, popular culture and domesticity.

León graduated as an architect in 2009. He holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia GSAPP in 2022, where he was the recipient of the Avery Scholarship, the William Kinne Fellows Traveling Prize, and the Honor Award for Arguments in Design. He also holds a Master’s in American Aesthetics from the Aesthetic Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, graduating with maximum distinction in 2020. León co-founded the Chilean architecture firm Espiral in 2011 and co-founded the interdisciplinary applied-research collective Colectivo de Palabreo in 2022. Since 2022, he has been the coordinator of professional practices & alumni of the Architecture School of the Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), where he also teaches Design Studio and Research Seminar.

Alex Hudtwalcker Rey ’20 MSAAD
Principal Architect, Alex Hudtwalcker Arquitectos

Alex Hudtwalcker is a licensed architect and professor, graduated from UPC School of Architecture in Lima, Perú (2011). In 2020 he obtained a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University in New York, where he received the Honor Award for Excellence in Advanced Architectural Design. Alex has been involved in the practice of architecture for nearly 10 years, where he has collaborated with peers locally and internationally, as it is the case of Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York.

Since 2016, he has co-instructed different architecture studios and material workshops at both UPC and the University of Lima School of Architecture in Lima, Peru. He is currently leading the Seminar of Urbanism and Territory at the Master in Architecture and Advanced Projects (MAPP) at the Graduate School of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He has participated as panelist in academic events and lectures in NY and Lima. He has been invited jury at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Alex is currently based in Lima where he allocates his time between his private practice, teaching and doing research.

Cecily King ’15 MSRED
Founder, Kipling Development

Cecily King is the founder of Kipling Development, a real estate development and consulting firm. Since graduating from GSAPP’s MS in Real Estate Development program in 2015, the majority of her work has been centered in Detroit, MI.

Throughout her real estate career, Cecily has held roles in the public, private and non-profit sectors that have given her a varied perspective of the deal table, including serving as a Development Director for the City of Detroit’s Housing & Revitalization Department. As a consultant, her clients have included non-profits, private developers, institutions, and universities around the country. She began her career as a structural engineer with a set of clients that ranged from high-net-worth individuals to universities.

Cecily earned her BSE in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Princeton University and her MEng in Structural Engineering from Lehigh University. She also holds her MS in Real Estate Development from Columbia University where she is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the program.

James Kolker ’86 M.Arch ’84 CC
President Emeritus and CAA Representative
Senior Director of Facilities and Planning, St. Paul’s School

James Kolker, FAIA, LEED AP, is Associate Vice Chancellor and University Architect at Washington University in St. Louis, responsible for stewardship of the university’s campuses, leadership of campus planning, and for the design and development of all capital projects. Prior to his position at WashU, he was a Principal at Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, where he worked on a wide range of academic and civic projects, including Dartmouth College, the University of California Santa Barbara, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom and Storm King Art Center. He is a board member of Columbia Alumni Association and a member of the Missouri Botanical Garden Visitor Center Steering Committee. In 2018, Kolker was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Marina Otero Verzier ’13 MSCCCP
Head of the MA Social Design Masters, Design Academy Eindhoven

Dr. Marina Otero Verzier is an architect and researcher. In 2022 she received Harvard’s Wheelwright Prize for a project on the future of data storage. Her winning proposal Future Storage: Architectures to Host the Metaverse examines new architecture paradigms for storing data and how reimagining digital infrastructures could meet the unprecedented demands facing the world today.

Since 2020 Otero is the Head of the MA Social Design Masters at Design Academy Eindhoven. The program focuses on design practices attuned to ecological and social challenges. From 2015 to 2022, she was the Director of Research at Het Nieuwe Instituut, where she led initiatives focused on labor, extraction, and mental health from an architectural and post-anthropocentric perspective, including “Automated Landscapes,” “BURN-OUT, ” and “Lithium: States of Exhaustion.” Previously, she was Director of Global Network Programming at Studio-X, Columbia GSAPP.

Otero has curated exhibitions such as ‘Compulsive Desires: On Lithium Extraction and Rebellious Mountains,’ at Galería Municipal do Porto in 2023, ‘Work, Body, Leisure,’ the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018, and ‘After Belonging,’ the Oslo Architecture Triennale in 2016. She has co-edited Automated Landscapes (2023), Lithium: States of Exhaustion (2021), A Matter of Data (2021), More-than-Human (2020), Architecture of Appropriation (2019), Work, Body, Leisure (2018), and After Belonging (2016), among others. Otero studied at TU Delft and ETSA Madrid and Columbia GSAPP. In 2016, she received her PhD at ETSA Madrid. Her PhD thesis Evanescent Institutions (2016) examines the emergence of new paradigms for institutions, and in particular the political implications inherent in mobile and transient structures.

Tzen-Ying Jenny Ling ’88 MSAAD
Co- founder, Origo Workshop
Associate Professor in Resilience Thinking, Tamkang University

Tzen-Ying Jenny is a licensed architect who combines her position as Co- founder of Origo Workshop,  the leader of the CReS Lab and Associate Professor in Resilience Thinking at Tamkang University. She practiced in New York after graduating from Columbia University before moving to Taiwan, Tzen-Ying worked with the central government and held position as the client rep in various large-scale development projects. Following this she founded her practice AJL which explored and designed small to large scale projects. She has been invited as a jury critic, lecturer and tutor in numerous institutions. Tzen-Ying is currently based in Taipei where her practice and research received several design awards and accolades.  Her work focused on the resilience integration in the design process. She is best known for projects, 921 memorial and “Green Elf” vertical green modular units series; as co-founder of ‘Origo Workshop’, Jenny has developed a “Living lab” modular system for housing and temporary events. The Origo system has received shortlisted design merit in several design and pitch competitions; in 2022, Jenny has been selected as a member of Academy of Women Entrepreneurs by the US State Department.

Sonal Shah ’08 MSUP
Executive Director, Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities
Founder, The Urban Catalysts

Sonal Shah is the Executive Director of the Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities and the founder of The Urban Catalysts, advising multiple stakeholders – governments, development banks, philanthropic organizations and think tanks on sustainable, equitable city planning and transport.

Over the last 15 years, Sonal has worked across 10 states in India, South and Central Asia, Middle East, and the United States focusing on sustainable, gender equitable cities and transport. Sonal was responsible for introducing India’s first gender sensitive urban planning guidelines and revising India’s national urban street design guidelines (IRC codes) to make them people-oriented.

Sonal has led projects supported by the World Bank, AfD, UK Aid, ADB, IKI, Oak Foundation, Gates Foundation, GIZ and Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has taught at numerous institutions such as the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Anant National University, KRVIA, Academy of Architecture and the JJ School of Architecture.

Sonal graduated from the MSc Urban Planning program from Columbia University. She was featured in the Alumni Spotlight in Fall 2013-14, and in the Remarkable Women in Transport 2020 by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. She was also part of the NITI Aayog’s WEP-UNDP program on Innovative Finance.

Parul Sharma ’15 MSAUD

Parul is an architect and urban designer with a decade of experience in urban development, mobility, architecture and placemaking in India and the US. She is passionate about creating inclusive and equitable cities through community participative design and simplified communication.

This year she founded City Scanner, a startup developing a mobile app and tech platform based on AI and crowdsourced data, to improve the navigation and mobility experience of cyclists and other vulnerable road users. City Scanner was selected as a finalist for Columbia Venture Competition’s Urban Works India Challenge 2021; was part of the StartMeUP Bootcamp by Columbia SEAS; and was selected for Columbia Venture Community’s female founders incubator, Project Two.Eight.

Parul holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from GSAPP, Columbia University, where she received the Kinne Traveling Fellows Prize. She has a Bachelor of Architecture from Indraprastha University, New Delhi, India.

Meghan Taylor-Steshyn ’20 MSRED
Senior Program Officer, Mission Real Estate Development
 

Meghan Taylor-Steshyn serves as a Senior Program Officer for the Mission Real Estate Development initiative with the Philanthropies team at Trinity Church Wall Street. In this role, she works with international and domestic partners from the Anglican Communion and faith-based communities to identify opportunities to develop income producing properties that would increase financial capacity and further their social impact. She has been an adjunct assistant professor at GSAPP for Pre-Development Analysis.

Before joining Trinity, Meghan worked in commercial interior design and architecture in Austin, TX, where she was the lead designer Boys & Girls Club “Home Club” and Oracle’s Waterfront Campus interiors. She holds a Bachelor of Design in interior design from the University of Florida and an MS in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and is a licensed Interior Designer.

Michelle Young ’12 MSUP
Founder and Publisher, Untapped Cities, LLC,

Michelle Young is the founder of Untapped New York, a web magazine about New York City’s secrets and hidden places. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University GSAPP where she is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture leading the Urban Studies studio.

Ruth Benjamin ’10 M.Arch Past Alumni Board President
Gustavo Berenblum ’91 MSAAD
Deborah Bhatt ’05 MSRED
Heidi Blau ’83 M.Arch
Amy Boyle ’08 MSUP
Stanford Britt ’72 M.Arch
Barbara Campagna ‘86 MSHP
Angela Cavaluzzi ’86 MSAUD
Lori Cardeli ’07 M.Arch
Dean DiSimone ’99 M.Arch
Jonie Fu ’06 MSAUD Past Alumni Board President
Phillip Gesue ’96 MSRED
Kate Gillespie ’88 MSUP
Hannia Gomez ’84 MSUD
Matthew Gross ’05 MSRED
Richard Handler ’08 MSHP
Sara Hart ’84 M.Arch
Naomi Hersson-Ringskog ’09 MSUP
William Kenworthey ’00 MSAUD
Michael Latham ’00 M.Arch
Tiffany Lau ’09 MSRED
Elizabeth Leber ’95 M.Arch
Dominic Leong ‘03 MSAAD
Ryan LeVasseur ’11 MSRED
Sharon Liebowitz ’91 M.Arch Past Alumni Board President
Carol Loewenson ’79 M.Arch
Allison Lyons ’10 MSHP
Julie Maddox ’06 MSHP
Pierpaolo Martiradonna ’05 MSAAD
Donald Matheson '03 MSRED
Belen Moneo ’91 M.Arch
William Morache ’14 MSHP
Angela O'Byrne ’87 MSRED
Deike Peters ’95 MSUP
Joseph Peters ’03 MSRED
Jennifer Romeo ’12 M.Arch Past Alumni Board President
Dan Shannon ’86 MSAAD Past Alumni Board President
Andrea Sreshta '11 M.Arch
Peter (Ned) Stoll ’77 M.Arch
Sharon Sutton ’73 M.Arch
Daniel Sze ’76 MSAUD
Troy Therrien ’09 M.Arch
Rachel Villalta ’12 M.Arch
Stephen Yablon ’82 M.Arch
Hisham Youssef ’89 M.Arch