Hillary Brown

Hillary Brown, Professor Emerita at the City College, City University of New York, previously directed its interdisciplinary graduate program in urban sustainability. Her recent book: Revitalize | Resettle: How Main Street USA Can Provide New Beginnings for America’s Climate Displaced examines how our population may be shifting over the coming decades and calls for strategic planning in how we may resettle those dislodged by climate adversity. Hillary’s two previous books, Next Generation Infrastructure (Island Press 2014) and Infrastructural Ecologies, (MIT Press 2017) describe integrated approaches to regenerative, low-carbon and resilient urban system planning. As former Assistant Commissioner, Hillary was the founding director in 1996 of NYC’s Office of Sustainable Design, developing both its High Performance Building and Infrastructure Guidelines. Hillary recently served two terms as a member of the National Academies’ National Research Council’s Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE). She was a Senior Research Fellow at the CUNY Institute of Urban Systems and is Affiliated Faculty with CUNY's Advanced Science Research Center. For her leadership in sustainable buildings and infrastructure, Hillary was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2019.