It began…
at MIT, where Jess studies city planning. She brought it to life with the wonderful CoLab Radio. It started off as a reflection on the way the city takes a personal shape and size based on a person's experiences. It became a podcasting project about fear, identity, and urban life.
Jess Myers | Producer & Host
Jess Myers is an urbanist, podcaster, and editor focusing on urban planning and architecture. In 2017, she received a Master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also holds a B.A. in Architecture, with minors in Urban Studies and French, from Princeton University. Jess is the series editor of Taking Freedom, a social justice book series, which will be published by a coalition of the Service Employees International Union and MIT’s Community Innovators Lab. She is also the co-steward of the Architecture Lobby’s New York chapter, an activist architecture group that seeks to raise political consciousness amongst architectural workers and improve working conditions in the field. In the past, Jess has worked in diverse roles—archivist, translator, consultant—in both New York and Paris, within cultural practices that include Bernard Tschumi Architects and the Pompidou Center. Her personal interests and research engage multimedia platforms as a means to explore the culture and the urban condition.
Adélie Pojzman-Pontay | Co-Producer
Adélie Pojzman-Pontay is a journalist and podcast producer based in Paris. She produced and hosted Emotions —a 50-minute bi-monthly show exploring why we feel what we feel and what our feelings tell us about us as human beings and about the world we live in— for Louie Media, a French podcast production company. She graduated from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2015, which she attended thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. During her career, Adélie has worked in Jerusalem, in Naples, Florida for the Naples Daily News and as a reporter in Santiago, Chile, for a local news radio station. While working on season 2 of Here There Be Dragons in 2016-2017, she worked as an editor at BuzzFeed France. Adélie works in French, English and Spanish.
Uthman Olowa | Student Assistant
Uthman Olowa is a Master of Architecture candidate at the Rhode Island School of Design. He graduated from Binghamton University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. In the immediate years after graduating, Uthman served in AmeriCorps programs, City Year and Public Allies, sparking his commitment to revitalizing Black and Brown communities through design. In his spare time, Uthman enjoys reading, getting lost down a YouTube rabbit-hole, or creating artwork.
Evelyn Ehgotz | Student Assistant
Evelyn Ehgotz is a Master of Architecture candidate in her final year at the Rhode Island School of Design. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in architecture from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan in 2020. Evelyn’s studies have focused on digital and physical relationships as well as representation methodologies. For HTBD, she provides support for grants and funding sources and helps to manage the website.
Alia Varawalla | Student Assistant
Alia Varawalla is a Master of Architecture student at the Rhode Island School of Design. She graduated from OCAD University in Toronto in 2018 with a Bachelor of Design in Environmental Design. Alia has design experience working on large corporate office renovations at the Bank of Montreal and more recently within the hospitality and retail design sectors at Restoration Hardware. Her passion for travel and exposure to different countries, environments, and cultures influence her approach to design.
Hengrong Ni | Student Assistant
Hengrong Ni is a Master of Architecture candidate in his final year at Rhode Island School of Design. Originally from Chengdu, China, he was influenced by architect Jiakun Liu, who focuses on social reality and a respect for local context and vernacular craftsmanship. He received B.A. in Zhejiang University in 2019 and has been exploring the intersection with computational design, architecture ornaments, and postmodern architecture theories in RISD. He loves cycling, reading, and DotA.
Kimberly Ayala Najera | Student Assistant
Kimberly Ayala Najera is a Master of Architecture student at Rhode Island School of Design. Southern California is home for her, where she graduated in 2013 from University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in International Development Studies. Kimberly works primarily on the newsletter and email correspondence.
Bilal Ismail Ahmed | Student Assistant
Bilal Ismail Ahmed is a Master of Architecture student in his final year at Rhode Island School of Design. Originally from Karachi, Pakistan, he received a B.A. in French at University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. Bilal has interned at MGA Partners, a Philadelphia architecture firm, and designed at several student-run publications. Bilal manages HTBD’s website.