Civic Leadership Program

Corey Arena is a designer at Gans and Company, where his work engages public architecture and community-focused design. He received his B.Arch from Pratt Institute, where he was co-founder and president of Pratt Student Action for Inclusive Design (SAID). He is currently Co-Steward of the Architecture Lobby NYC Chapter and helped found the Pratt Chapter, as an alumnus.

Corey was a member of the AIANY Civic Leadership Program (CLP) Class of 2020, and an Advisor to the Class of 2021, during the inaugural year of the CLP + nycoba NOMA partnership, now in its fifth year. He has been the CLP Program Coordinator since Spring 2024. He was a fellow at the Institute for Public Architecture’s Independent Project Residency in the Fall of 2023. Corey has been a guest critic at Parson’s, NYIT, and Pratt and was a member of Pratt’s Degree Project Assessment Committee for a fifth-year studio during the 2023-24 school year.

At Gans & Co., Arena’s work includes a renovation of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum Garden, which will restore exterior space for universally accessible active play in the heart of Crown Heights, and ongoing community engagement work at NYCHA campuses for the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust. His past projects with Gans and Company include post-Sandy housing, through the NYC HRO Build-it-Back program, to maintain working-class housing in Sheepshead Bay.

Betsy Daniel, AIA, LEED GA, is a community-oriented urban designer, who strives to have the built environment be inclusive, healthy, and accessible for all people. Currently, she is an Assistant Vice President (Urban Design) at NYCEDC in the Neighborhood Strategies Department, where she works on large scale planning and urban design projects in NYC for the benefit of all New Yorkers. Projects include SPARC Kips Bay, a first-of-its-kind job and education center in the heart of NYC, and Brooklyn Marine Terminal, a vision to reimagine the site with modern maritime at its core and mixed-uses, including housing and community amenities. In her past role as an Associate Urban Designer at HOK New York, Betsy worked on projects from zoning feasibilities to campus design and future district planning for projects across the United States and globally. Most notably, she helped lead a team conducting research on the future of cities in 2100 with rising sea levels from climate changes. She was a 2018 Engage Community Design Fellow for the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety and a research scholar for the Hudson Valley Initiative. During her 10-year career, Betsy aims to collectively work together to envision a brighter, environmentally just, and liveable future for our cities. She has a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University.

Tiana Howell is currently an Architectural Designer at Array Architects. Originally from Queens, New York, she received her Bachelors of Science in Architecture in 2017 from the University of Maryland in College Park, MD, and Masters of Architecture from the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York in 2020. Her graduate thesis focused on architectural representations of landmarks and spaces associated with the Black diaspora throughout the United States, with a case study on historic freedmen towns.

Howell has previous experience in Real Estate Development and Space Planning, and currently enjoys working in the Healthcare and Life Science sectors. Her interests include digital fabrication, mentorship, networking, and diversity, equity and inclusion discussions. Howell serves on the Young Professionals Committee of the Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP) New York City Chapter, is a member of nycoba | NOMA, a 2023 cohort member of the AIANY Civic Leadership Program, and currently pursuing licensure. As an Architectural Designer, Howell believes that at the core of producing a successful project is active collaboration, creative thinking, and communication. Her background in healthcare and life sciences has led to her holistic approach to design, analyzing the project at all scales, and considering the diverse needs of all who experience a space. Howell aims to utilize innovative methods and new technology, pushing the boundaries of possibilities in design. Driven by her compassion for others, she strives to create inclusive and safe spaces within the healthcare system.

Sarah Yehuda is a Public Art Manager working on public building and infrastructure projects at the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC). Inspired by the potential of public art to humanize the built environment in novel ways, she hopes to utilize her role on capital project design teams to blur boundaries between art and architecture, shaping the city’s infrastructure through the lens of artists. In her previous roles as Strategic Initiatives Fellow and Assistant Project Coordinator at DDC, she co-led the development of an Advanced Capital Planning data portal that brings together disparate data sources from across agencies to present a comprehensive picture of public building assets, enabling the city to make more informed and strategic decisions in capital project planning. Guided by community-led and human centered values, she hopes to draw connections between her interdisciplinary backgrounds in planning, web design, graphic design, and the arts, to bring creative and forward-thinking approaches to public project design. Yehuda volunteers as a Mentor for the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Mentor Program of America, and is an active member and volunteer brand strategist for the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She is a graduate of Pratt Institute with a Master of Science in Urban Placemaking & Management and holds a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art from SUNY Binghamton.