SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS / PRESS
2024
The Rising Urbanists conference engaged in transdisciplinary dialogue that bridges the gap between designers and the social and ecological systems we work within, with a particular consideration for spatial justice and equity.
Ifeoma Ebo has been selected as one of the fifty 2024 United States Artists in the Architecture + Design category.
This spring, The Architectural League spotlit projects by recipients of the Independent Projects grant program in a series of lunchtime conversations exploring completed and in-progress work.
In this video, architect and artist Ifeoma Ebo and writer and participatory designer Antoinette Cooper talk about their project Reparations in Public Space. A trauma-informed community engaged design process, this project will result in speculative design ideas for reimagining sites across New York City that hold trauma for Black people. Led by Ebo and Cooper, the work and resulting exhibition strive to change spatial narratives to transform spaces of trauma into spaces of healing and liberation. The project poses the questions: What does it mean to practice repair, and how do we reconcile spaces that hold the energy of trauma? What is the process of healing and how is it articulated through the design of the spatial environment?
2023
Can we democratize city planning? DemocracyNext launches an International Task Force
Research and Innovation at City College
The Architectural League and NYS Council for the Arts
Latitude Regenerative Real Estate Annual Convening Keynote Address. As we look to the future of real estate development, the process of place keeping takes on even greater importance. In order to truly thrive, heal, transform, and grow in the 21st century, it is essential that we prioritize BIPOC voices and leadership. Supporting BIPOC communities in cultivating relationships and preserving ties to the land in ways that are enriching, capacity building, and empowering is crucial to regenerative placekeeping and promoting greater equity and justice. In this session, we will explore the concept of place keeping and its relationship to regenerative development
APA's Urban Planning and Design Division: Interested in a career in Urban Design? Three experienced urban designers--Jason Beske, Senior Urban Designer at Stantec Urban Places, Jeff Shumaker, former Chief Urban Designer of New York City, and Ifeoma Ebo, Urban Designer/Planning Strategist--offer helpful advice to students, those interested in becoming urban designers, and planners interested in learning more about urban design.
The College of Architects and Landscape Architects of Puerto Rico 2023 annual convening. This keynote lecture will explore various principles and practice of using design to address equitable access, and environments of safety and well-being particularly for communities of color. The session will inspire attendees to consider intersectionality in design and what it means to design truly inclusive and empowering spaces.
2022
2022 Interview for the Danish Architecture Center’s “Let’s Talk Architecture” podcast
2022 Interview with Curbed Magazine
Real Matter 22 Lecture Series - North Carolina
2022 Interview with Architectural Record
2022 Interview with on the American Building Podcast
2021
This September 2021 panel features Ifeoma Ebo, urban designer, strategist and founding director of Creative Urban Alchemy; Peter Holtgrave, Senior Director of Public Health, Infrastructure and Systems, National Assn. of County and City Health Officials; Atalaya Sergi, Director, AmeriCorps Seniors. The panel is moderated by Danielle Arigoni, Director, AARP Government Affairs --Livable Communities.
Boston Architectural College Fall Lecture Series August 2021
This lecture used history, theory and projects centering community engaged design to explore how to shift power through design.
Cities and Spatial Justice | March 29, 2021 | REIMAGINING BLACKNESS & ARCHITECTURE
In this public program co-organized with the BlackSpace Urbanist Collective, architects and designers discuss important questions like, "How do we reckon with the past to build our future?" Urban designer Ifeoma Ebo is joined by Justin Garrett Moore, Peggy Shepard, and members of the Black Reconstruction Collective, including Sekou Cooke, Felecia Davis, Yolande Daniels, and Mario Gooden.
Congress for New Urbanism 29. Design for Change, May 20, 2021
National Building Museum Climate Action: Climate Justice and Social Equity: May 2021
Green Building United July 2021 New Gravity Housing Conference
Keynote speech at the September 2021 Downtown Madison annual convening. Presented case studies of inclusive and equitable housing and public open space interventions.
FROM THE MAY 2021 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.
Designers and advocates reckon with the uneasy history of safety in environmental design.
Moderator for October 2021 event hosted by the Newark Museum of Art:
The Moral Pandemic: The Urban Environment and its Impact on Black and Brown Communities
June 2021 Mayor’s Virtual Seminar
In this seminar, mayors explored proven strategies for improving community well-being and safety and addressing injustices through design. Based on her experience consulting with city governments and civic institutions around the world as Founding Principal with Creative Urban Alchemy LLC, Ifeoma Ebo built off of her 2020 presentation and shared key insights into a capacity building placemaking program for community safety. Mariela Alfonzo, CEO of State of Place, also hared how integrating community-driven approaches with data-driven placemaking can equitably and efficiently enhance quality of life.
September 2021 Joint UK Institute of Civil Engineers and WSP event - Designing for Intersectional and Inclusive Space and Place
Everybody has a different experience of space and place, and how they use it. As engineers and designers, how can you ensure you are co creating equitable spaces and infrastructure that are inclusive to all?
This event provided a forum to consider intersectionality in design and what it means to design truly inclusive spaces. From the ‘why’ to the ‘how’, our illustrious speaker faculty discussed how to serve the needs of all communities.
Lecture at the MIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning April 2021
Lecture entitled “Landscapes of Contested Power” exploring how the built environment has been and can be used as a medium for shifting power dynamics.
2020
Design for Everyone: An Intro to Urban Planning and Design
SVA Interior Design: Built Environments INSIDE THE BOX: Lectures on the future of living Fall 2020: We Can Do Better! Designing A More Thoughtful City Ifeoma...
Keynote Address: AIANY, ASLANY, APANY 2020 PlanScapeArch Conference
Syracuse Architecture Fall 2020 Lecture Series - November 20, 2020 online.
Historically, zoning and building codes have contributed to the concentration of low-income ...
Mayors Institute on City Design 2020 Mayors’ Virtual Seminar: Safe Places, Active Spaces – A Design-Based Approach to Community Safety
September 2020 Equity by Design Panel hosted by AARP.
2019
The City of Helsingborg’s 2019 H22 Summit: Helsingborg, Sweden
Ifeoma Ebo, Director of Strategic Design Initiatives, New York City, and Greg Saville, Director, AlterNation LLC talks about strategies to build resident capacity in a community design and safety program. The successes and challenges of facilitating a co-creation process between community and government
2019 Conscious Cities Festival: New York
Conscious Cities is a movement focusing on people-centric environments that are aware and responsive using Tech, AI, and Science Informed Design. In 2019 presented relevant work in a collaborative workshop on Social Resilience.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa: 2019 CoCreate Design Festival: Cape Town, South Africa
Cocreate DESIGN FESTIVAL Cape Town 2019 was an initiative from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa. It aimed to celebrate and examine the power of design and tackle the current socio-economic and environmental challenges in the African context. Designers, academics, policy makers, activists, entrepreneurs and citizens were invited to this collaborative public forum to learn, engage, network and empower African cities to be resilient. Presented New York based Initiatives to address social resilience through community engaged design and capacity building.
The City of Seoul: 2019 Social Problem Solving Design Forum: Seoul, Korea
2018
Architect, planner, crime fighter? Ifeoma Ebo is a strategist in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), which has made design a critical part of its work to improve public safety and the functioning of the criminal justice system in New York City. Ebo talks to Urban Omnibus about the project in progress and the relationship between design, safety, and social justice.
2017
IOBY June 2017 Interview
Center for Active Design recently sat down with one of our favorite NYC practitioners who’s advancing these issues on daily basis. Ifeoma Ebo, Director of Strategic Design Initiatives at the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice (NYC MOCJ), shared her insights on how public spaces can become a launching point for enhancing neighborhood safety—and how community engagement offers the key to success.
2017 J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture: Monumental Matters: Public Spaces & Collective Memory
The New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (nycobaNOMA) and the AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee collaborated in “Monumental Matters: Public Spaces & Collective Memory,” presented as the 2017 J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture, an annual series of design talks in memory of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA, NOMA. “Monumental Matters” was an open dialogue that focused on movements and public space, exploring the multiple narratives of history and how our sense of history changes
2016
Interview in 2016 Article in NEXTCITY Magazine: Designing a Police Station That Serves the Community
Interview in 2016 article on NYC DDC website: Designing for All - How the City’s Libraries are Built for Equity