The BWRC is delighted to announce the appointment of two research fellows and a project coordinator!

Sapna Advani is our research fellow for preservation and urban design.  Sapna is currently Director of Planning at Chelsea West Architects and has over fifteen years’ experience designing and planning complex urban projects in New York City and internationally. She holds a Master of Architecture and Urban Design from Pratt Institute, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Sushant School of Art and Architecture. As research fellow, she will present an original paper on waterfront planning and preservation at the BWRC’s inaugural conference in October. Her paper will describe opportunities to create reinforced connections between diverse communities and industries along the waterfront’s frontage through programmatic, ecological, recreational and cultural insertions, creating a prototype for a truly holistic world‐class waterfront destination.

Jonathan R. Peters is our Research Fellow in Economics for the BWRC. In October, he will present an original paper on current and historic economic conditions of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront. Dr. Peters is a professor of finance in the Business Department at The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York and a member of the Doctoral Faculty in the Ph.D. Program in Earth and Environmental Science at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a Research Fellow at The University Transportation Research Center at The City College of New York. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the City University of New York and his Masters in Economics from Hunter College. His work on public-private partnerships was published in 2006 by the New York State Department of Transportation. He has previously published in The Journal of Applied Finance, Transportation Quarterly, Business Horizons, Public Works Management & Policy, and most recently in the Transportation Research Record. He currently conducts research in the areas of regional planning, road and mass transit financing, corporate and public sector performance metrics, capital costs and performance management.
Dr. Peters grew up on the waterfront in New York City in a family with strong ties to both the recreational and working waterfront. His family has been active in the New York City Maritime Community for over 130 years. Dr. Peters is the brother, son, grandson and great-grandson of ship captains who work/worked in or out of the Port of New York. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Noble Maritime Collection on Staten Island.

Brendan P. O’Malley is the BWRC’s program coordinator. Brendan is a doctoral candidate in the History Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His dissertation examines the state agency that oversaw immigration into the Port of New York from 1847 to 1890, before the opening of the Ellis Island Station and the establishment of federal jurisdiction. He has given papers at several academic conferences, and recently organized a panel on state power and immigration that was accepted for the Organization of American Historians’ 2012 annual meeting. He has also delivered public talks at the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. He is co-editor of Home Fronts: A Wartime America Reader (New Press, 2008) with Michael S. Foley. As Program Coordinator at the BWRC, Brendan plans and promotes the Center’s events, facilitates outreach to relevant organizations and businesses, and assists the Director in cultivating the Center’s research agenda.

Welcome, Sapna, Jon, and Brendan!