Bio

Jessica Wurwarg is the Executive Director of Real Estate and Planning; Facilities Management, at the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), leading the agency’s real estate and planning for facilities and sustainability and greenhouse gas reducing programs. She teaches about international food and water policy and urbanization at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. With a background in practice and research in urban policy and planning, focusing on food and sustainability, she worked as Managing Director of the Food Policy Center at Hunter College’s School of Public Health; Chief of Staff of External Affairs at DOT; Urban Planner at the World Bank, working on sustainable urban development; and in a number of areas at NYC’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development including disaster recovery and resiliency, affordable housing development and food policy. In 2016 Jessica received the McCloy Fellowship on Global Trends through the American Council on Germany and visited Germany looking at urban policies on sustainability. Originally from New York, Jessica has a Masters from the London School of Economics’ Cities Programme and a Bachelor’s degree, with Honors, from Brown University. She also teaches classes about cheese and wine.

Project

As people around the world begin to experience the effects of climate change, cities of all sizes are taking action in attempts to slow and mitigate these effects.  I will look at local food production in and around Olot, exploring how these foods can play a role in local economic development and the importance of sustainability in agriculture.