Syed Ali (MUP ’19) has been named one of five awardees in the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) 2018-2019 Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program, which supports learning and sharing about health and real estate among graduate students and ULI members. In addition to being matched with a ULI mentor based on professional interests, mentees earn the opportunity to attend the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting in Boston and the 2019 ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville, where they will experience Product Council meetings and the Building Healthy Places Interest Forum alongside their mentors.
Ali is a member of the GSD’s Master in Urban Planning program, and is determined to use urban planning and policy to help grow communities that are better connected and defy the sociospatial determinants of health and wealth. Growing up in the Bronx, Ali saw firsthand how the built environment determines health outcomes. This past summer, Ali worked with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to support comprehensive and housing-focused neighborhood planning studies. Before arriving at the GSD, he spent three-and-a-half years setting digital communications strategy for FoodCorps, a national nonprofit organization connecting kids to healthy food in school. Ali is a 2013 graduate of Wesleyan University.
Ali’s Randall Lewis Health Mentorship Program mentor will be James A. Moore, who is a principal with Jacobs, where he is helping expand the company’s international planning and urban design practice.
Read more about Ali and the other four honorees via ULI’s announcement.