Andrew is passionate about helping communities tap into the opportunities that stem from emerging economic trends and figuring out how existing community assets can be reimagined as engines of equitable economic development.
Andrew carries a background in economic development strategy consulting, district-scale planning, and public policy research. He excels at many forms of quantitative, qualitative, and geospatial analysis, leveraging these skills and his collaborative ideation capabilities to support and advance a variety of community wealth-building initiatives.
Andrew’s recent projects include leading Urbane’s work to formulate an investment strategy and fund-like structure for the National Black Food and Justice Alliance’s newly formed Resource Commons, an initiative that seeks to reclaim farmland for community ownership and stewardship as well as cultivate restorative food systems that serve communities of color. He has also regularly played a significant role in the feasibility assessments that Urbane has conducted for several community anchor real estate projects, helping clients take an approach to “feasibility” that looks beyond the traditional, profit-maximization ethos.
Currently, Andrew is primarily focused on leading Urbane’s green economy practice, which helps partners understand how the transition to clean energy and a decarbonized built environment can create community wealth.
Andrew’s work prior to joining Urbane includes conducting economic analyses in support of district-scale master plan development and implementation processes, assessing the economic impacts of public infrastructure and anchor institution development projects, and formulating governance models and programming strategies for public spaces, community facilities, and commercial districts and corridors. As a graduate student, Andrew led and constructed the research approach for a capstone project team that was contracted by the NYC Department of City Planning’s Staten Island office to study and craft a development framework for the borough’s northern and western industrial waterfronts.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Anthropology from George Washington University and a Master of Urban Planning from New York University. He is also an alum of the Fund for the City of New York’s Community Planning Fellow program, which offers second-year graduate students an opportunity to conduct planning projects on behalf of the City’s community boards. There, Andrew designed and completed a comprehensive study of Brooklyn Community District 14’s economy that offered analysis and recommendations to guide future land use decisions, capital budget requests, and other policy and programmatic initiatives.
