MSDUE Class 2014–

Director of Civic Design, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, Boston, MA, USA.

Immediately after graduation, Sabrina worked as a freelance designer, and for Contininuum, a global innovation design consultancy on design projects ranging from healthcare services to retirement and education. She then joined the Housing Innovation Lab as part of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. Currently, she is the Director of Civic Design in the same office.

As a Civic Designer, she has been busy prototyping innovative ideas toward reducing the cost to build, buy and own middle income housing and to address the widening gap between low-income and luxury housing in Boston. Her work ranges from policy to development, and it includes bringing together a portfolio of pilot projects for community land trusts, home buying, accessory dwelling units, density bonus and compact living to Boston at large in order to reach the mayor’s goal of ensuring Boston remains a place that everyone can call home. The work Sabrina is doing now follows on the strategic, human-centered mindset set forth during her time at Parsons. Sabrina’s interest in and drive for intersecting design and social goods in today’s urban paradigm was strengthen in the MSDUE program.

Sabrina writes: “I think the value of looking to navigate large and complex contradictions in cities made thinking about innovating within city government a worthwhile opportunity.” Sabrina’s thesis as well as the learning opportunities in the context of team-building and group dynamics proved to be extremely valuable: “The cohort I spent my two years with in MSDUE taught me to further extend my belief that there are those that will stand with you to do the things we believe are integral to making change. They reinforced my belief that through ambiguity there is opportunity for impact.”