Transforming Urban Mobility: Global Lessons in Livability, Social Equity, and Climate Resilience

Alison Sant is an author, urbanist, and teacher. She co-founded the Studio for Urban Projects, an interdisciplinary design collaborative that has worked for nearly 20 years at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, art, and social activism. The Studio focuses on public programming, urban prototyping, and civic dialog that aims to bring social justice and sustainability to the design of cities. In her role as partner, Sant has been a design captain for the Market Street Prototyping Festival, a designer-in-residence at the Exploratorium's Bay Observatory, and a member of the Bionic team for the Bay Area Resilient By Design Challenge. In 2016, the Studio for Urban Projects was honored for contributing to its field by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) as a member of the YBCA100. Sant is the author of From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities, named among the best books of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Planetizen. She is currently working on a new book entitled Streetlife (Island Press). Sant's writing has been featured in US News and World Report, Streetsblog, Earth Island Magazine, Next City, City Lab, Planetizen, and Fast Company. She has taught at the College of Environmental Design, the University of California Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of Art. Sant joined the Harvard Extension School in 2023 and teaches in the sustainability and environment program. Sant received a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and an MA in design from the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley.