Meet CED Alums

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Planners of Color Interest Group awarded the 2023 Edward Blakely Award to CED alum Clara Irazábal-Zurita (MArch 1994, PhD Architecture 2002). Named for the Berkeley Emeritus Professor of City & Regional Planning Edward Blakeley, the award honors an individual who has supported the cause of social justice, particularly in urban planning or development, for communities of color.

CED alum Desirée Valadares (PhD Architecture 2022) won the Phyllis Lambert Prize for the best doctoral dissertation on the subject of the built environment in Canada for her dissertation focusing on the heritage politics of confinement or internment landscapes.

Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli (BA Architecture 2002), vice president of construction at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is overseeing multiple renovation projects for the museum.

Andy Garcia talks about the ways a CED education prepared him for a career in real estate development and asset management.

Shawn Tsao (BA Architecture 2011) tells MSNBC’s Make It how he and his friends took a chance on food-delivery app Caviar after graduating from Berkeley.