Gabrielle O’Grady is a second year M.S. student studying Sustainability in the Urban Environment at the City College of New York.  The interdisciplinary program recognizes the multi-faceted considerations needed to design sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure. Her studies involve coursework in architecture, engineering, science, and social science. She completed her Bachelors of Science degree on the dean’s list in biological sciences and chemistry at the University of Connecticut.

Post undergrad Gabrielle has worked in the medical field as a clinical research coordinator and as a patient access representative. This required listening to patients’ needs, strong organizational skills, data work, understanding of study protocol, and communication between the different players. Gabrielle enjoys design and painting, being active, traveling, and getting out in nature.

She aims to use her compassion, analytical skills, and design eye to be a part of New York City’s infrastructure planning. Gabrielle is most interested in helping create designs that are not only aesthetically pleasing, structurally sound, and functional, but are also environmentally responsible, socially conscientious, and accessible to all.

Most recently, Gabrielle has received her LEED Green Associate certification. She has interned at the CIUS Building Performance Laboratory where she has worked on large data sets from the Department of Education to recommend preventative maintenance strategies and improve buildings and their energy efficiencies. She has also worked in their Building Re-tuning Laboratory studying energy information systems (EIS) and building automation system (BAS) trend charts to support building re-tuning recommendations for operators.

Gabrielle’s September 11^th scholar project will be at New York City’s Department of Transportation in the Transportation Planning and Management Division. She will be working with the Mobility Management team and key stakeholders to produce the 2020 Mobility Management Resource Guide. The resource guide is a compilation of all accessible transportation information in the New York City region. It details amenities and infrastructure improvements to improve walking and rolling accessibility.  It also includes NYC DOT’s accessible programs and services and informs readers how to access them.