Building Community-Engaged Research @Yale Series!

Suzi Ruhl

Senior Research Scientist in The Child Study Center

Suzi Ruhl is a lawyer and epidemiologist with non-profit, government and academic experience. Ruhl joined the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center, as Senior Research Scientist in 2020, where she also serves as Director of Policy for the Elevate Policy Lab at the Yale School of Public Health. Her interests are to strengthen child, maternal and family mental health and social support, and equitably build individual and community resiliency by tackling highest priority conditions created by health, economic and environmental challenges. Prior to her Yale appointment, she served as Senior Counsel at the US EPA in the Office of Environmental Justice. In this capacity, she served on the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJIWG) as founding Co-Chair of the following: National Environmental Policy Act Committee, Rural Communities Committee, Subcommittee on Place Based Efforts. She helped co-create and served as a founding member of the Natural Disaster Subcommittee. She also so-developed the environmental justice focus of the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities as founding Co-chair of Team EJ. Prior to her federal government service, Ruhl held key positions with the Environmental Law Institute, including Senior Attorney, Director of Public Health and Law Program, and Co-Director of Brownfields Center. Prior to these management positions, Ruhl served on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Law Institute. Ruhl launched her career by founding the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, Inc., (LEAF) a public interest law firm established to serve communities bearing the burden of pollution, disease, poverty and crime. She served as President and General Counsel.

Alan Plattus

Professor; Founding Director of the Urban Design Workshop, YSOA

Alan Plattus began teaching at Yale in 1986 after serving on the faculty of Princeton University for seven years. He is the former director of the School’s Ph.D. program and the founding director of the Yale Urban Design Workshop and Center for Urban Design Research (YUDW), which he founded in 1992 and which undertakes research and design studies for communities throughout Connecticut and the metropolitan region. Current YUDW projects include planning for a Heritage Park along the Thames River between New London and Groton, Connecticut, and resiliency planning for Bridgeport and the Connecticut coast funded by HUD’s Rebuild by Design program. Plattus also directs the School’s China Studio, a collaboration between Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Yale School of Architecture, and recently led a Yale and international team to develop plans for a Peace Park along the Jordan River on the Israeli-Jordanian border. He has served on the boards of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the Journal of Architectural Education, and Architectural Research Quarterly, as well as the Connecticut Main Street Center and the New Haven Preservation Trust. Plattus received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.Arch. from Princeton University.

Andrei Harwell

Senior Critic; Director of the Urban Design Workshop, YSOA

Andrei Harwell, AIA is an architect, urban designer, and Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture, whose practice and teaching emphasize the strategic value of architecture in responding to contemporary challenges facing American and world cities, towns and regions. He currently directs the Yale Urban Design Workshop, the School of Architecture’s community design center, and maintains an independent architectural practice.

Andrei has contributed to award-winning projects ranging from the design of individual buildings and public spaces to neighborhood, downtown and regional plans. His recent work has focused on the integration of buildings, infrastructure, and the natural environment at the neighborhood scale, exploring how design can connect people and their communities, contribute to economic, social and environmental resilience, and create a strong sense of identity.

Prior to arriving at Yale, Andrei practiced in the New York office of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. He holds an M.Arch from Yale and a B.Arch from Carnegie Mellon University.

Colleen Murphy-Dunning

Program Director, Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability, Urban Resources Initiative (URI); Lecturer in Urban and Community Forestry

Colleen Murphy-Dunning is the Director of both the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology and the Urban Resources Initiative at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE). Colleen partners with faculty to lead a field based module on urban ecology for all incoming YSE graduate students. Prior to coming to New Haven in 1995, she taught agroforestry at the Kenya Forestry College and reviewed natural resource operations in Papua New Guinea for the Rainforest Action Network. Colleen received her B.S. in Public and Environmental Affairs from Indiana University, and M.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University.