Welcome the 2024-2025 Community Development Graduate Fellows

Each year, ANHD pairs nine graduate students with ANHD member organizations for 10 months to work on an impactful community development project in New York City, offering emerging community development leaders key training and support while building the capacity of our organizations and the movement overall.

Our 13th Fellowship cohort will be working on a range of issues including: affordable housing preservation, sustainability, and development, cooperative housing, and small business organizing through NYC.

Meet our 2024-2025 Fellows!

Atsede Assayehgen (she/her)
Columbia University GSAPP
Host Organization: MHANY Management, Inc.

Atsede is pursuing her M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, with concentrations in urban analytics and international development. She's originally from Boston, MA, where she began to build her career in community-centered organizing and grant-related research at Cambridge Community Foundation. After gaining exposure to the philanthropic sector, and helping to grow the research arm of the Foundation, she sought her degree in urban planning to learn to meld principles of data transparency, with community resource-creation and advocacy, and her academic background in design. Atsede has experience working as a research assistant for Columbia University's Department of Urban Planning and the Center for Spatial Research; as well as a graduate planning intern with STV., Inc. She has her B.A. in Urban Studies with an Architecture specialization from Barnard College. She spends all of her free time collecting runway vintage clothing, hosting pop up shops, and styling friends.

Daniela Aizencang (she/her)
New York University Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service
Host Organization: Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition

Daniela is a second-year graduate student at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, pursuing a Master of Urban Planning with a specialization in City and Community Planning. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University, Daniela worked as a Research Manager at J-PAL, a non-profit research center, leading impact evaluations of social programs from their Latin America office in Santiago de Chile. Pursuing a degree in urban planning and working with NWBCCC, she is excited to study historical power structures, amplify community-led solutions, innovate new systems, and make the built environment more livable, enjoyable, and promising for all. Raised in the Bronx, Daniela is grateful to be back in New York and using her knowledge and experience to contribute to the fight towards economic democracy.

Gisselle Morales (she/they)
New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
Host Organization: Urban Homesteading Assistance (U-HAB), Inc.

Gisselle Morales is an urban planner and advocate for equitable development, currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Urban Planning at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Gisselle’s work focuses on community-led processes prioritizing ownership and wealth-building within marginalized communities. Their past research delves into public policy and initiatives that empower residents through sustainable and inclusive urban strategies. With a background in grassroots organizing, Gisselle is a previous fellow of the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ), an institute of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Originally from Southeast San Diego, California, Gisselle relocated to New York City to attend Columbia University, where they graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and Sociology. 

Hudson Matz (he/him)
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Host Organization: Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, Inc

Hudson Matz is a graduate student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation pursuing a Masters of Science in Real Estate Development. Before graduate school, Hudson had extensive background in architecture and sustainability, working on residential and commercial projects in San Francisco, New York City, South Korea, and Senegal. At GSAPP, Hudson co-founded the Public Interest Development student club, exploring essential topics like affordable housing, transit-oriented development, CDFIs, community development, and environmental justice. As a graduate teaching assistant he supported classes in affordable housing, urban planning, real estate law, and community development financing. He intends to use the practical knowledge and experience gained as an ANHD Community Development Graduate Fellow to make direct impacts to affordable housing development and preservation and combat rapid displacement and cost to rent. 

Maritza Rico (she/her)
The New School
Host Organization: Rise Now Inc.

Maritza Rico is a graduate student at the New School in the Public and Urban Policy M.S. She was a public servant in New York City government for 5 years at the Mayor's Office and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She also is a community organizer in her neighborhood at the Astoria Food Pantry, a mutual aid network run by neighbors. Her interests are in immigration policy, community development and community organizing. She lives in Astoria with her two cats.

Miranda Alperstein (she/her)
Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
Host Organization: Cooper Square Committee

Miranda Alperstein is entering her second year as a Master’s student in City and Regional Planning at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. After several years working as an immigration paralegal at non-profit organization Lutheran Social Services of New York, she chose to pursue a graduate degree in planning to understand questions of social justice through a spatial lens. Through continued coursework, research, and work with the Cooper Square Committee, she hopes to understand and contribute to community development efforts that promote community control of resources and decision-making. Originally from Princeton, NJ, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a certificate in Latin American Studies from Princeton University. 

Saul Ruddick-Schulman (they/them)
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
Host Organization: New Destiny Housing Corporation

Saul Ruddick-Schulman is a Master of City and Regional Planning student at Rutgers University, focusing on community development. Growing up in California, they witnessed firsthand the intensification of climate-related disasters, and their interests lie in the intersection of community planning and climate change. In California, they worked with a participatory research team focusing on environmental injustice in frontline communities, and since moving east they have done research for the Workplace Justice Lab@RU and interned with the New Jersey Office of Planning Advocacy. 

Stefan Gehrman (he/him)
The New School - Milano School for Policy
Host Organization: Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation

Stefan is a second year graduate student in Public and Urban Policy at The New School Milano. His studies focus on co-creation of policy research with community members, housing policy and community development. He is from Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland and strongly values preventing displacement and organizing around healthy neighborhoods and well-paying local jobs. During his time at The New School, he has worked as research assistant to Mindy Fullilove, MD Hon AIA, and Mary Bryna Sanger, PhD. He previously served as the Economic Empowerment Coordinator AmeriCorps VISTA to MHP, an affordable housing developer in Silver Spring, Maryland and built program capacity as part of their acclaimed Neighborhoods Team. Before that, he taught ESL and worked for several years in a restaurant in Catonsville. Stefan is inspired by restorative groups such as The Gutierrez Memorial Fund, with whom he has long volunteered. He lives in North Brooklyn and is excited to be close enough to Cypress Hills to ride his bike in. 

Victor Filpo (he/him)
Columbia University
Host Organization: Ascendant Neighborhood Development

Victor Filpo proudly hails from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Harlem, and The Bronx. He is currently a second-year master’s student in Urban and Social Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. A 2016 graduate of Middlebury College, he also spent a semester abroad in Tokyo, Japan, during his undergraduate studies. Victor has worked on numerous workforce development initiatives in Latin America, including through a Fulbright fellowship in Brazil, a Princeton in Latin America grant in the Dominican Republic, and his role as a Consultant for EducationUSA, a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. He is excited to join Ascendant as an ANHD Community Development Fellow, where he will contribute to the Carmen Villegas Apartments project. Victor looks forward to exploring the intersection of community development and engagement, and to supporting initiatives that positively impact the Harlem community.