People
Meet the Executive Group, and research, professional services and governance staff of LSE Cities.
Executive Group
Ricky Burdett
Director
Professor of Urban Studies, LSE
r.burdett@lse.ac.uk
Jo Beall
Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Policy Fellow
j.beall@lse.ac.uk
Philipp Rode
Executive Director
Associate Professor (Education), LSE
Co-Director, Executive MSc in Cities, LSE
p.rode@lse.ac.uk
Centre Staff
Jo Beall
Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Policy Fellow
j.beall@lse.ac.uk
Katie Beck
Policy Fellow
k.a.beck@lse.ac.uk
Sudeep Bhargava
Researcher
S.S.Bhargava@lse.ac.uk
Estelle Broyer
Research Officer (European City Government Innovation)
E.Broyer@lse.ac.uk
Ricky Burdett
Director
Professor of Urban Studies, LSE
r.burdett@lse.ac.uk
Gianluca Cerruti
Associate
G.Cerruti@lse.ac.uk
Nuno F da Cruz
Senior Associate
n.m.ferreira-da-cruz@lse.ac.uk
Catalina Duarte
Policy Officer
C.Duarte-Sanchez@lse.ac.uk
Saraja Gantner
Researcher
S.C.Gantner@lse.ac.uk
Adriana Gaganis
Policy Officer
A.M.Gaganis@lse.ac.uk
Alexandra Gomes
Research Fellow
a.peca-amaral-gomes@lse.ac.uk
@xpgomes3
Imogen Hamilton-Jones
Policy Officer
I.Hamilton-Jones@lse.ac.uk
@ImogenHJ
Catarina Heeckt
Senior Policy Fellow
c.l.heeckt@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7107 5524
@CHeeckt
Charlie Hicks
Research Officer
C.B.Hicks1@lse.ac.uk
Hugo de Camps Mora
Research Assistant
H.De-Camps-Mora@lse.ac.uk
Oscar Nowlan
Research Fellow
O.W.Nowlan@lse.ac.uk
Ignacio Paiva
Researcher
I.Paiva@lse.ac.uk
Ben Plowden
Senior Associate
B.Plowden@lse.ac.uk
Matt Reynolds
Research Officer (European City Government Innovation)
M.F.Reynolds@lse.ac.uk
Philipp Rode
Executive Director
Associate Professor (Education), LSE
Co-Director, Executive MSc in Cities, LSE
p.rode@lse.ac.uk
Ben Rogers
Distinguished Policy Fellow
B.Rogers1@lse.ac.uk
Alessio Sardo
Senior Associate
A.Sardo@lse.ac.uk
Savvas Verdis
Senior Lecturer in Practice
Co-Director of the Executive MSc in Cities
s.verdis@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7955 6313
Nermin Abdulla
Executive MSc Programme Manager
N.Abdulla@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7955 6429
Keenan Collett
Student and Professional Development Manager
K.Collett1@lse.ac.uk
Sarah Davis
Finance Manager
s.j.davis@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7107 5155
Situ Diwan
Logistics Lead (Urban95 Academy)
S.Diwan1@lse.ac.uk
Nathaniel Gore
Programme Administrator, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
N.Gore1@lse.ac.uk
Claire Haley
Finance Administrator
C.Haley@lse.ac.uk
Meg Hennessy
Project Manager for City Teams, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
M.Hennessy@lse.ac.uk
Alasdair Heselgrave
Executive Education Administrator
A.Heselgrave@lse.ac.uk
Jennifer Ho
Executive Programme Administrator, Executive MSc in Cities
j.ho8@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7107 5232
Monika Hockenhull
Centre Manager
M.Hockenhull@lse.ac.uk
Shehryar Janjua
Impact Manager, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
S.T.Janjua@lse.ac.uk
Marie Kaune
Project Manager for Mayoral Leadership, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
M.S.Kaune@lse.ac.uk
Alba Lamberti
Head of Programme, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
A.Lamberti@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7955 6207
Maggie McNulty
Senior Communications Manager, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
M.Mcnulty@lse.ac.uk
Brendan O'Boyle
Events Manager, Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative
B.Oboyle@lse.ac.uk
Valentina Riverso
Programme Administrator, Urban95 Academy
V.Riverso@lse.ac.uk
Diva Wareing
Centre Administrator
D.Wareing@lse.ac.uk
Kate Ascher
Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Cities
Kate Ascher currently serves as the Milstein Professor of Urban Development at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she teaches real estate, infrastructure and urban planning courses. She continues to practice as a sub-consultant to Buro Happold, a global engineering firm based in the UK, where she served as partner through 2019 and founded the "Cities" team – which today works on a variety of resilience, public space and economic development projects on behalf of government and private clients across the US and internationally.Prior to joining Buro Happold, she served as Director of Development at Vornado Realty Trust, Executive Vice-President at the NYC Economic Development Corporation (under Mike Bloomberg), and Assistant Director of the Port at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In these capacities, she oversaw and delivered a variety of complex projects ranging from waterfront and park activation to transportation, real estate development and urban regeneration.
Kate holds a BA from Brown University, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and is the author of several books on urban infrastructure (The Works, The Heightsand The Way to Go), as well as co-author of New York Rising, an illustrated anthology of New York City’s physical evolution. She serves on the Boards of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center in NYC and the Holcim Foundation, based in Zurich
Michael Kimmelman
Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Cities
Michael Kimmelman is the longtime architecture critic for The New York Times. He has written widely on urban and social affairs, housing and homelessness, public space and civil society, infrastructure, climate, community development and global migration. He has reported from Gaza, Medellin, Guangzhou, Baghdad and more than 40 countries. As a columnist based in Berlin, he covered political, urban and cultural affairs across Europe and the Middle East.He is also the founder and editor at large of Headway, an award-winning, philanthropically-supported journalistic team within The Times that has focused on large-scale global challenges and paths to progress.
Kimmelman teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He has twice been a Pulitzer Prize finalist and is the author of "The Accidental Masterpiece" and "The Intimate City," among other books.
A native New Yorker, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale and Harvard. In 2014, he was the Franke Visiting Fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, where he was also a Poynter Fellow. For many years, he was the chief art critic of The New York Times.
In his other life, he is a concert pianist, who has performed as a soloist and with chamber groups in series across America and Europe.
Stephan Chambers
Director and Professor in Practice, Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship, LSE
Elisabeth Costa
Senior Visiting Fellow, Department of Psychological and Behvioural Science, LSE
Duncan Green
Professor in Practice and Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, Department of International Development, LSE
Suzanne Hall
Professor in Sociology and Deputy Head of Department, Department of Sociology, LSE
Gareth Jones
Professor of Urban Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE
Kate Laffen
Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE
Connson Locke
Professor (Education) of Management, Deputy Head of Department (Teaching and Learning), Department of Management, LSE
Elizabeth Robinson
Professor of Environmental Economics and Acting Dean of the Global School of Sustainability, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE
Andres Rodriguez-Pose
Princesa de Asturias Chair and Professor of Economic Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE
Vanessa Rubio-Márquez
Professor in Practice and the Associate Dean for Extended Education, School of Public Policy, LSE
Distinguished Policy Fellow and Deputy Director, LSE London, LSE
Tony Travers
Professor in Practice and Associate Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy, Department of Government, LSE
Will Venters
Associate Professor of Information Systems, Department of Management, LSE
Christine Whitehead
Emeritus Professor of Housing Economics, Department of Economics, LSE
Austin Zeiderman
Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE
Centre Governance
Jo Beall
Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow LSE Cities
Ricky Burdett
Professor of Urban Studies; Director, LSE Cities
Laura Dawson
Consultant, Trustee and Non-exec Director and Chief Information Officer, LSE (2017–2022)
Philipp Rode
Associate Professor (Education); Executive Director, LSE Cities
Nicholas Stern (Chair)
IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, LSE; Chair, Global School of Sustainability at LSE; Chair, Grantham Research Institute
Andrés Velasco
Dean, School of Public Policy, LSE
Executive Director, LSE Cities
Associate Professorial Research Fellow, LSE
Co-Director, Executive MSc in Cities, LSE
Senior Research Fellow, LSE Cities
Deputy Director of the Executive MSc in Cities
Edgar Pieterse
ChairSouth African Research Chair in Urban Policy and Director of the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, African Centre for Cities
Cecilia Vaca Jones
Senior Advisor to the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) and Programme Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation (2016 to 2022)
Diana Rodriguez Franca
Special Advisor on Gender and Diversity to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank and Secretary of Women’s Affairs, City of Bogota (2020 to 2024)
Emilia Saiz
Secretary General, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
Henk Ovink
Executive Director of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and first Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of the Netherlands
José Castillo
Chair of the Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art & Planning, Cornell University
Kai Wegrich
Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, Hertie School
Maria Vassilakou
Former Deputy Mayor and Executive City Councillor for Urban Planning, Traffic & Transport, Climate Protection, Energy and Public Participation, City of Vienna
Mark Watts
Executive Director, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
Yolande Barnes
Chair, Bartlett Real Estate Institute, University College London