Talia Kaufmann

PhD in Public Policy

Graduated in 2022

Talia Kaufmann has a PhD student in Public Policy in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, with a concentration in Urban and Regional Studies. She collaborates with International organizations, local and municipal governments to develop data-driven tools for decision-makers in city planning. Her goal is to illuminate spatial inequality in access to services and provide policy makers with the tools to improve the quality of life of underserved urban communities. Her research tackles questions such as: how many commercial/recreational/public amenities should be added to a given neighborhood or city and where should those amenities be most needed? And, how far should an urban resident walk/drive/take public transport rides to reach the closest park or supermarket from their home?

Talia is trained as an Architect (B.Arch, Tel-Aviv University) and a City Planner (MCP, MIT). Before joining MIT for her Master degree, Talia served as a city planner and a planning information manager at the Tel Aviv-Yafo City Planning Department in Israel. Her research got international recognition by institutions as the World Bank, the OECD, the Government of Israel and more.

Talia has been collaborating with the OECD for the past 3 years. She worked closely with the urban indicators team at the organization during summer and fall 2018 as an experiential fellow in Paris, France. At the OECD, Talia wrote a report titled ‘Measuring accessibility to services across cities: A framework for accessibility indicators by walking, driving and public transport’. The report demonstrated the potential of using Google’s fine-grained amenity data for accessibility indicators and was presented at the OECD Workshop on Modernising Statistical Systems for Better Data on Regions and Cities. Talia continues to work with the OECD to expand this framework and produce indicators for decision-makers.

Talia’s current collaboration with the Government of Israel is dedicated to implementing accessibility metrics in decision-making processes. As an experiential fellow, Talia is working with The Israel Planning Administration (IPA) that is responsible for all spatial planning efforts throughout the country. The fellowship project goal is to incorporate Talia’s data-driven metrics in a tool for regional plan submission to produce plan evaluation and ‘accessibility insights’. This experiential opportunity is valuable to demonstrate how essential data-driven metrics can be for planning practices and support Talia’s dissertation work.

More Student Paths

Charles T. Wallace-Thomas IV

Charles took "Sustainable Renewable Energy Development in the Global South" with Professor Shalanda Baker, which pushed him to further question systems as they exist, no matter their entrenched in society.
He did community service as part of the Ujima Global Leaders Program through the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. He worked on the Timebank team, helping give back to local communities.
Charles split his time for his first co-op between the Center for Economic Democracy and the Boston Ujima Project, where he analyzed studies on community needs, including infrastructure and childcare.
He was one of the co-creators of the #BlackAtNU campaign and advocated for racial literacy courses and a restorative and transformative justice center on campus.
Charles made his own research project- a macroeconomic index to measure democratic participation in municipal economies, partnering with NU, the Columbus Foundation and the Center for Economic Democracy.
He worked at the Participatory Budgeting Project as a Program Associate, helping city systems and other organizations actively decide how to invest money across different spaces.
Charles graduated in 2022. ..

Casey Greenleaf

Casey took Global Markets and Local Cultures. After traveling, she better saw how the coursework mirrored real life, and knew her education was preparing her for the world.
She went on a DOC to Argentina and Uruguay, and become highly proficient while living in Buenos Aires and visiting the glaciers of the Patagonia region.
Casey completed her first co-op at the Museum of Fine Arts as a community arts program assistant. She gained valuable hands-on experience assisting in arts classes for local communities.
She joined the Sociology & Anthropology Student Association during her third year. It allowed her to get to know her fellow students and mirrored the small school experience she loved.
Casey studied abroad in Nepal for her capstone thesis. She lived alone for a month while she researched and wrote about the lived experience of climate change in the lower Himalayas.
She worked for the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, founded by Professor Sarah Wylie. She produced promotional videos, developed a virtual research event, wrote event programming, and more.
Casey graduated in 2020. ..

Sunita Pfitzner

Sunita took Revolution, Civil War, and Insurrection, taught by Professor Risa Kitagawa. The course invited students to question the motives behind acts of violence against governments.
She traveled on a Dialogue of Civilizations to Jordan and Egypt; while there she grew interested in Middle East politics and the Arabic language.
Sunita worked at the Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney, Australia, where she analyzed data on the corruption of police forces in Mexico.
Sunita was a member of the International Relations Council and traveled abroad with the club to compete in Model Arab League, Model NATO, and Model UN conferences.
Sunita conducted research with Berna Turam, developing a greater understanding of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. She also researched the feminist response to Covid-19 with Val Moghadam.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2022.
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Yasser Aponte

Yasser was in the Foundation Year program at Northeastern. The program was a rigorous deep dive into core subject classes that helped Yasser bridge the gap between his high school and college experiences.
He took Issues in Cities and Suburbs with Professor Erin Graves in Fall 2018. As someone deeply invested in urban life, he found the course was an enlightened look at the problems endemic to cities.
Yasser joined the Boston Beer Company as a Program Operations and Event Assistant for his first co-op. He worked on inventory, public relations, brewery events, and workspace organization.
He implemented community gardens all over Boston on deserted plots of land during his time as the Northeastern Campus Director for the campus’ United Nations Millennium Fellowship.
Yasser maintained a farm in Dorchester for The Food Project. He harvested crops, distributed produce through donations and food markets, and worked on overall logistics.
In 2020, Yasser won the Community Service Leadership award, given to students who show exemplary community engagement. He was recognized for his work at The Food Project, Northeastern Crossing, and more.
He graduated 2022 with his Bachelor’s in International Affairs and Religious Studies and his Master’s in Security and Resilience Studies, through Northeastern’s PlusOne program...