Deborah Helaine Morris is an urban planner and urban designer. Her
work centers at the nexus of climate adaptation and social equity:
more specifically, on how cities manage housing opportunity in
geographies facing substantial physical risk. She advises communities
and non-profits in how to incorporate climate risk and resiliency
initiatives into community development and revitalization plans.
Deborah has extensive experience in public administration, disaster
recovery initiatives spanning from 9/11 through COVID-19, and the
facilitation of climate change adaptation in affordable housing. In her
recent practice in public service, as the Executive Director of
Resiliency Policy, Planning, and Acquisitions at the New York City
Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Deborah
created a new team, focused on the development of programs to lead
aggressive climate change adaption in affordable housing including
the recovery of housing damaged by Hurricane Sandy; climate-risk
focused community planning initiatives; and the management of a
property buyout program.
Deborah holds a Master’s in City Planning and Urban Design from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of the Arts from
the University of Michigan. Deborah was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design in 2020.