Dr. Vanessa L. Deane is the founding principal of Pinchina. She is also the Director of Urban Planning at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU Wagner) where she is Assistant Clinical Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service.
Dr. Deane’s research praxis is rooted in the political economy of disasters, primarily in small island developing states. In light of a changing climate and rising instances of natural hazards, she is currently exploring the postcolonial adaptive capacity of select francophone nations facing current and imminent disaster threats. She was a Visiting Professor of Urban Planning at Sorbonne Université in 2022.
Her prior work includes a comprehensive analysis of Haiti’s institutional development challenges, which were further accentuated by the 2010 earthquake. She won the 2021-2022 “Outstanding Decentralization Paper Award for Latin America and the Caribbean” for this contribution. Other accolades include the NYU Wagner 2020 “Professor of the Year” award, which she earned just one year after joining the faculty.
She obtained her Ph.D. in Public and Urban Policy from The New School and her Master of Urban Planning from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with her Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies and in American Studies, along with double minors in Education Studies and in Social Justice and Social Policy.
Dr. Deane is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and is also a Public Voices Fellow of The OpED Project.