MATUP Class of 2014–

Chief Executive Officer at Design + Culture Lab, LLC.

Joy hit the ground running right after graduation from the MA Theories of Urban Practice Program by starting up her own collaborative design firm, Design + Culture Lab, LLC, in Portland, Oregon. Her firm focuses on serving as the glue between disadvantaged community members and urban practitioners within the construction of their environment. The firm addresses complex spatial issues associated with cultural, racial and ethnic inequality and works at the intersections of identity and place. Her firm has won many renowned awards. Her political science, racial justice and community engagement background came together through the Atlantis Urbanisms of Inclusion Program at Parsons. As a participant in this program, Joy spent a semester at the KU Leuven university in Belgium and a two-week design intensive in Vietnam.

Joy imagined an urban design process where community members would participate in the design of their environments. With her design firm, she does just that as she explores ways to grow into a practice that services places in the Midwest such as Detroit, and then also the East Coast. She has a few advices for students in the program: “be grounded in your passions;” “carve out a space for yourself;” “fail harder;” and, “take classes outside of Parsons because there is some great work in environmental psychology, theater, performing and public arts [across the university] that relates well to our work in urbanism.”