Deborah Helaine Morris

Deborah Helaine Morris is an urban planner and urban designer. Her work centers at the nexus of climate adaptation and social equity: more specifically, on how cities manage housing opportunity in geographies facing substantial physical risk. She advises communities and non-profits in how to incorporate climate risk and resiliency initiatives into community development and revitalization plans. Deborah has extensive experience in public administration, disaster recovery initiatives spanning from 9/11 through COVID-19, and the facilitation of climate change adaptation in affordable housing. In her recent practice in public service, as the Executive Director of Resiliency Policy, Planning, and Acquisitions at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Deborah created a new team, focused on the development of programs to lead aggressive climate change adaption in affordable housing including the recovery of housing damaged by Hurricane Sandy; climate-risk focused community planning initiatives; and the management of a property buyout program.

Deborah holds a Master’s in City Planning and Urban Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of the Arts from the University of Michigan. Deborah was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2020.