Civic Leadership Program

Dyana Berthaud was born and raised in New York City as the only American in a Haitian family of six. Growing up in around other immigrant families in the culturally diverse borough of Queens has taught her a lot about adapting, adjusting, and acceptance. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Superstorm Sandy in 2012, t Berthaud’s last few years in architecture school focused on the themes of compassion and collaboration.​ ​Berthaud has held various board positions at the only NYC Student Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), allowing her to gain skills in leadership, public speaking, and diligence. Outside of school and work, Berthaud has taken these new skills and passions to volunteering with groups addressing homelessness and emergency response.

Ashly Nichole Chirayil is a designer living and working in the greater New York City region. Chirayil sees herself as a civil servant charged with bringing humane and optimistic spatial and experiential equality to members of her community. In her work, she minimizes the appearance of physical barriers and the rigid hierarchy of spaces while emphasizing transitions, particularly those between indoor and outdoor and artifice and nature. Chirayil holds a M.Arch from the University of Texas and a B.A. in Studio Art. She is a contributing member of her community and volunteers regularly with local organizations. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her spouse and dog in Washington Square Park.

Nadia Habib is an undocumented Bangladeshi American Muslim who grew up in Queens, New York. She earned her M.Arch at the City College of New York and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Stony Brook University. Habib is currently an Associate Architect at EME Group Consulting Engineers, a firm that specializes in sustainability with a focus in civil works. She believes that the field of architecture has the potential to create change for communities such as the one she grew up in. Habib is passionate about working for her community and continues to involve herself with local organizations outside of her job, helping undocumented and documented immigrants. She was formerly the publicist for the Price of Silence, a woman’s rights theater group in The Bronx.

Michael Haggerty, Assoc. AIA, AICP, is a designer and certified urban planner. His work focuses on environmental sustainability and leading the urban development process to improve the public realm. He began his career at the public art organization Creative Time in New York and subsequently practiced as an urban planner, working in cities including New York, Newark, and New Orleans as well as in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently an Associate at Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, and has also been a visiting faculty member at Pratt Institute School of Architecture since 2010. Community engagement is at the forefront of Haggerty’s teaching and professional activities. His work in participatory design and post-disaster planning has been widely recognized by, among others, the US Agency for International Development, the SEED Award for Public Interest Design, and the AIA New York and San Francisco chapters.

Quinn Lammie was born in New Orleans but grew up in the Metro Atlanta area. While attending Georgia Tech, he spent his final academic year studying at the L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette (ENSAPLV) in Paris, gaining first-hand experience in socially conscious architecture, particularly in the area of low-income housing. Not long after finishing graduate school, Lammie moved to New York City where he currently works at Murphy Burnham and Buttrick Architects. He has worked on projects including renovation efforts for the Park Avenue Synagogue, New York University, and St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s School. Lammie currently lives in Jackson Heights with his wife Kate and his dog Mowgli.

Wells Megalli is a designer with an arts and technology background and a commitment to place-based projects. After graduating from Yale, Megalli worked as a founding employee of EarthWeb, Inc., an early digital content company. Employed in the emerging digital media industry as an early conceptualizer of navigational structures for some of the first online experiences, Megalli oversaw the design of all digital content and managed a team of designers and internet developers. In 2014, she returned to graduate school at Tulane to pursue her M.Arch. In 2016 Megalli joined Deborah Berke Partners, working on The Women’s Building, a project that transformed a women’s prison into a hub for activists. She is currently pursuing licensure and raising a family while focusing on projects for mission-driven clients.

Amanda L. Miller is a practicing architect committed to the capacity of design and planning to promote and encourage social equity and justice. Her experience from commercial interiors to her current work on building exterior rehabilitation. While at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), she worked with staff and fellow students to open conversations around student needs and diversity. In 2017, she co-organized the school’s second Black in Design conference. Through her professional endeavors she hopes to continue to create opportunities for design agency and advocacy. Miller earned her Master in Design Studies from Harvard GS D and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Architecture.

Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Ofunne Mary-Ann Oganwu moved to the United Kingdom at a young age and grew up in Hackney, East London. Oganwu has further explored the world and studied widely, led by her interest in architecture, the arts, and culture. She completed a five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree at The Cooper Union, where she was awarded a merit-based full scholarship for tuition and was selected as an Irma Giustino Weiss Cultural Enrichment Fellow.

Oganwu has worked internationally on the refurbishment of buildings for music and cultural events, and on large-scale new affordable multi-family housing. She has also worked on existing buildings in New York City such as Glenwood Houses in Brooklyn, Morris High School in the Bronx, and Columbia University in Manhattan.

Oganwu is actively seeking licensure in New York State and continues to craft a practice that encompasses mentorship and education.

Jade Ragoschke is a Taiwanese unilaterally deaf architect from Chicago and a graduate of NYIT’s School of Architecture and Design. Ragoschke’s long-term interest in civic architecture stems from her involvement in parkour. After becoming a certified parkour trainer four years ago, and based on her belief that people of all ages should have spaces to express creative movement, she began petitioning for adult playgrounds. Ragoschke discovered her passion for designing for people with disabilities while working on her thesis project, a cultural center for the deaf and blind. She believes that focusing on the public realm will create the most valuable improvements to the quality of space for people with disabilities.

Hung Kit Yuen is an Associate at Perkins Eastman. He has over six years of design and construction experience on large-scale master planning; transit-oriented development; and mixed-used, and civic, and institutional projects. Yuen enjoys immersing himself into different cultures and cities; he was born in Hong Kong and has lived and worked in more than eight cities in Asia, Europe, and America. His diverse experiences provide him with a unique perspective in pursuit of more open and equitable design that aligns public and private interests of community stakeholders. Yuen received his architectural education from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania.