Pre-Congress Opening Plenary Speakers




Naomi Hoogervorst
Naomi Hoogervorst is a programme management officer at the Planning, Finance and Economy Section at UN-Habitat headquarters. The Section covers normative and operational work on urban and territorial planning at all scales including urban design and public space, urban finance, and local economic development. Previously, Naomi served with UN-Habitat as an urban planner in Afghanistan and at the Urban Lab at the headquarters managing the Global Future Cities Programme. Before UN-Habitat, Naomi has experience from the private sector, and Non-Governmental Organisations in managing programmes/projects and as a technical expert within architecture and urban development on neighbourhood, city, and national level. She holds a master's degree in Architecture, Urbanism and Building sciences from the Technical University of Delft (NL).  



Marianne Lefever 

Marianne is an architect and expert in sustainable and healthy urban development with approximately 15 years of experience in Europe and North America. In her work she combines foresight, systems thinking and co-creation skills with substantive expertise on health, climate change and inclusive design. Marianne has a unique knowledge of the architectural and urban planning process through her experience as a designer, engineer, in real estate development and through close cooperation with various governments. She currently supports the Dutch urban design studio PosadMaxwan in achieving more sustainable, healthy, and inclusive cites. Marianne is also a thought-provoking public speaker. And has spoken at TEDx conferences in LA and the Toronto area as well as private corporate events.  



Isabelle Anguelovski

Isabelle is the director of BCNUEJ, an ICREA Research Professor, a Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator at ICTA and coordinator of the research group Healthy Cities and Environmental Justice at IMIM. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Studies from Science Po Lille and a Master's in International Development at the Université de Paris 1 Sorbonne, pursued a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Harvard University and obtained a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT before returning to Europe in 2011 with a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship.

As part of collaborative and individual international research projects, she studies how environmental injustice is materialized and contested. Currently, her focus is on four main research areas: 1) The politics of the green city as a growing global planning orthodoxy; 2) The social and racial manifestations and impacts of green gentrification for historically marginalized residents; 3) Urban planning for health and wellbeing, with a focus on health equity and justice; and 4) Justice and inclusivity in climate adaptation planning, including distributional and procedural insecurities produced by adaptation plans, interventions, and land use configurations and regulations.




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