akemi sato
is an architect, and urban planner focused on projects rooted in the local communities. She holds a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor in Architecture degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City.
Akemi has extensive experience leading the design and management of urban projects in various cities throughout Latin America and the US. Her work includes master plans for Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez, Acapulco, Mazatlán, Valparaíso, Mocoa, San Salvador, New York, and New Milford. She has also coordinated urban design and planning projects through all development stages—from funding to implementation and evaluation. Such projects range from a strategy to recover a gorge ecosystem in Mexico City to a playbook to revitalize San Salvador’s Historic Center.
Akemi has also co-founded and led several digital initiatives, including an SMS-based mental health service for natural disaster survivors in Perú and Puerto Rico, a platform for post-earthquake aid coordination in Mexico, and MapatonCDMX, a gaming app for mapping Mexico City’s informal transit.
Alejandra Ríos
studied Architecture at Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico. She holds a European Master in Landscape Architecture degree studying at three universities: the Edinburgh School of Art and Landscape Architecture, l'École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage du Versailles, and l'Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona. With AZ Medi Ambient i Paisatge, she collaborated on developing urban and regional projects, such as Parc Litoral, a section of Barcelona's waterfront renovation, and the International Consultation on the Roads of the Future in Grand Paris. The consultation developed economically sustainable proposals to improve Paris's metropolitan road network operation, reducing pollution linked to road traffic and integrating highways into different urban, rural and natural areas. In 2014, she participated in a participatory and documented research for Crossroad Safety in Mexico City with LabCDMX. As an active member of the Urban Planning Association in Quintana Roo State, Mexico, she has advised the municipal planning authorities on the content of territorial and urban sustainable development plans to address climate change and hydroclimatic risk through nature-based solutions.
Marina gonzáleZ magaña
is a project manager with experience in inter-institutional collaborations between government and civil society. She implements local, national and global strategies with key partners to ensure the sustainability of the projects. Her strengths are problem-solving, strategic planning and inter-institutional coordination. Her passion is to make cities more livable, equitable, and safe through human centre design and participation. She is a Program Management Associate in the California Partnership for Safe Communities where she works in cities to reduce violence by strengthening communities and law enforcement through systemic and institutional change. She was the Director of Policy and Implementation in Mexico at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) for the "Building Effective, Resilient, and Trusted Police Forces" Project. She led the relationship with local and national government and the implementation of "Focused Deterrence of Violence," the scaling up of procedural justice training, and the Integral Model of Citizen Security. Marina is part of the Open Government Fellowship of the Organization of American States and a trained facilitator for the MIT DLC's Diploma in Transformative Leadership. She studied Political Science and Public Management at ITESO University and did her master's in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Glasgow in Scotland thanks to the scholarship granted by the United Kingdom Chevening