Spatial Justice through Community Organizing
Lecture by Matthew Gonzales,
Director, Integration and Innovation Initiative (i3) at NYU Metro Center
Matt Gonzales and Zarith Pineda discussed the relationship between urban design and community organizing to create inclusive urban policy. Through a conversation of their research on New York City’s public school segregation and integration efforts they discussed best practices for meaningful community engagement and pleasure activism.
Matt Gonzales is an educator, an advocate, and a policy analyst. He is founder and director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative (i3) at NYU Metro Center, a project designed to support policy development and design, implementation, and advocacy for school integration. Gonzales is co-founder of the NYC Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation (nycASID), and serves as the Policy Coach for the youth-led advocacy group IntegrateNYC. As a member of Mayor de Bill Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group, Gonzales has helped to craft New York City policy on school integration, and was integral in helping draft a common definition for Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education (CRSE) recently adopted by the DOE. He has worked closely with state education leaders to design the New York State Integration Project (NYSIP) grant program and has supported districts all across New York in developing integration plans. Nationally, Matt serves on the Policy Working Group and Steering Committee for the National Coalition on School Diversity and is an Advisory Board member for Integrated Schools, a grassroots parent network committed to integrated schools. He is a former special education teacher at Bancroft Middle School in Los Angeles, and earned his Masters in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2016. He earned his Bachelor’s in Urban Education and a Special Education Teaching Credential from California State University, Los Angeles.
Organized by the Urban Design Program at Columbia GSAPP.