Celeste Layne

Celeste Layne is an urban planner by training — software engineer by profession where she works at digital media company, theSkimm. As an educator, Celeste has developed curricula for General Assembly’s Software Engineering Immersive. Currently, she leads courses in public interest technology and programming for spatial practices as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP. The work she does as an educator feeds her practice.

Recently, Celeste joined the team at Dark Laboratory as one of the Lab Theoreticians. Dark Laboratory is a collective at the intersection of scholarship, artistic praxis, storytelling, and non-profit local community-driven engagement that centers Black and Indigenous histories and futures in New York State by way of its land. She is also on the team at AWSM, an impact-oriented, venture development organization focused on empowering diverse founders & investors designing startups for the future.

Celeste is in her second year as a Dedicated Mentor at NEW INC, an incubator for people working at the intersection of art, design, and technology, in the Hybrid Practice track.

Celeste received a graduate degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and is a co-founder of the Architechie New York Chapter, a community founded by architects and designers who now work in technology fields with a mission to bring more diverse backgrounds to the tech industry.