FORA.tv Speaker - Brad Lander

Brad Lander directs the Pratt Center for Community Development, which works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by empowering communities to plan and realize their futures. During Brad's tenure, the Pratt Center has helped to shape a new inclusionary zoning policy in order to create affordable housing in New York City, to protect the tenure of public housing residents in Staten Island, and to create a new dialogue and strategies for how growth can be made to work for New York's low- and moderate-income communities. Brad also teaches affordable housing, real estate development, and community planning at Pratt. Before coming to the institute in 2003, Brad served for a decade as executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a community-based organization in Brooklyn that develops and manages affordable housing, creates economic opportunities through workforce development, job creation, and adult education, and organizes tenants and workers to fight for a better community. Brad's work at Fifth Avenue Committee was recognized with awards from the Ford Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, and New York magazine. Brad holds two master's degrees - one in City and Regional Planning from Pratt and a second in Social Anthropology from the University College London. He also holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago. Brad lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Meg Barnette, and their children, Marek and Rosa.