Ayse Yonder

Ayse Yonder is professor emeritus of city planning and former Chair of the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. She brings a gender and an international perspective to the program’s focus on participatory planning and social, economic, and environmental justice issues. This is informed by her activist work with grassroots women’s organizations, and especially the Huairou Commission, an international network of grassroots organizations, since the mid-1990s. She has provided technical assistance to grassroots groups at the local level and support to their international advocacy efforts around the United Nations on issues of community-led development, access to land and housing, and disaster resilience. She is also a founding member of the Collective for Community Culture and Environment, LLC, an all- women-owned consulting business and interdisciplinary professional network in NYC. Her publications and practice focus on community development, disaster and resilience planning, informal settlement regularization, and recently, the care economy.

Istanbul Technical University, Diploma in Architecture
University of Pennsylvania, MCP
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D in City and Regional Planning