“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminister Fuller
About Nupur
Nupur is an expert on spatial innovation and healthy communities in historically disinvested communities. She is an urbanist for healthy communities and a bridge builder and translator in the fields of urban planning and public health. She encourages and believes in the power of conversation, connection and collaboration to build healthy, equitable and just communities for all.
For over a decade, she has developed and implemented strategies to support residents, communities, and neighborhoods to challenge power structures to build just, strong, and equitable cities. Two examples are her work centering youth in village political systems in rural India, and her work in developing a citizen planning institute for public housing residents in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Her work has been featured in the American Journal of Public Health, CityLab, National Public Radio, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
Nupur was actively involved in shaping two organizations that have redefined what it means to center community and health in their work. In 2015, she worked with Rebuild by Design, an innovative design competition, to strengthen coalition building efforts in seven communities after Hurricane Sandy.
In 2017, she was the founding Director of Neighborhood Health at the Center for Health Equity, housed at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. There, she developed the concept of the Neighborhood Health Action Centers, secured mayoral funding, and oversaw the integration of new staff with the existing Health Department structure in key neighborhoods throughout New York City.
Nupur lectures, teaches and moderates discussions on health equity, building healthy communities, and healing spaces.
She is a member of the American Planning Association, an Urban Design Forum’s Forefront Fellow, board member of the University of Orange and founding board member of Made in Brownsville. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (BA in Growth and Structure of Cities), Columbia University (Masters in Public Health), and New York University (Masters in Urban Planning).