Brock Hicks Email & Phone Number

Nairobi County, Kenya

Nairobi/Somalia

Working with the Danwadaag Durable Solutions Consortium (under the Solutions and Resilience pillar at IOM), the USAID Scaling Solutions project, and UN-Habitat on the intersection of humanitarian and developmental responses to climate- and conflict-driven displacement in Somalia. Collaborating closely with national ministries and city governments, developing contextualized and adaptable resources for state and city governments to develop displacement-sensitive urban plans and territorial development strategies.

Nairobi County, Kenya

A collective of researchers and consultants focused on climate resilience. Co-developing proposals; exploring partnerships.

Provide advisory, research and project management services to government, NGO, grassroots CBO, and private sector clients on integrated & inclusive planning, urban resilience, locally-led adaptation, urban upgrading, stakeholder engagement, and community-led research & planning.

Produced educational content at the intersection of climate change, startups, and fundraising for a leading provider of non-dilutive financing.

Nairobi, Kenya

Led a research project in partnership with the Akiba Mashinani Trust to learn from the Special Planning Area in Mukuru, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, about strategies for locally-led, inclusive and multisectoral upgrading for climate resilience in informal settlements. Produced a comprehensive online guide, accompanied by seven short videos, aimed at local governments, civil society partners, and funders working in cities across Africa. Coordinated project partners (international and local NGOs, local government staff, grassroots leaders); developed the research design and schedule; developed pragmatic work plans and managed the day-to-day fieldwork and other research activities; conducted 20 interviews and 8 focus groups with Mukuru residents, local government leaders, and civil society and academic partners; administered a survey for Mukuru residents with 183 responses; managed the transcription process and processed interview and survey data. Reviewed existing documentation, reports and articles; mapped stakeholders and processes; reviewed other relevant case studies. Inventoried practices for collaborative, multisectoral planning and their benefits and challenges. Assessed the current status of the process; outcomes for residents; successes, challenges and limitations; opportunities to strengthen climate resilience planning; and considerations for replicability. Synthesized lessons and wrote overview articles, Guides, Methods, and video scripts; managed video production teams comprised of Mukuru youth from Know Your City TV; conducted on-camera interviews. Coordinated the local validation and peer review processes. Designed the Guide's structure and managed the graphic design and illustration process.

Kenya

Led an exploratory research project on climate-displaced people living in Kenya’s informal settlements. Established partnerships with stakeholder civil society, government, and international organizations. Developed the research design and proposal. Established relationships with community leaders; conducting participant observation in affected communities. Conducted exploratory interviews in Nakuru and Baringo counties. Also supported AMT on projects in the Mukuru Special Planning area including community-led data collection in response to massive evictions and demolitions and school feeding programs.

San Francisco Bay Area

Managed the design, development, and deployment of software features for UrbanFootprint’s flagship SaaS applications, supporting customers to map, measure, and analyze more than 5,000 projects in over 700 cities across the U.S. Coordinated across design, solutions, marketing & engineering teams and a diverse customer base (600+ users from the planning, mobility, utility, government, research, municipal finance, and real estate industries). Recruited, supervised and mentored staff across teams. Helped build strategic partnerships with key NGO, GO, data, consultant and investor firms.Led resilience solutions projects with state agencies & front line organizations for Covid-19 response, assessing climate risk, social vulnerability and infrastructure & mobility challenges. Engaged customers to assess product fit, administer surveys, and facilitate feedback sessions to inform product roadmap and feature design. Played a pivotal role on the product team as urban planning expert during a critical growth period that led to $11.5M in Series A funding and 3x growth in ARR (and 5x growth in 2020). Lead product strategy initiatives and market and competitive analyses. Helped identify and prioritize key market opportunities that informed long-term product vision, roadmap, and pricing and packaging.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, worked with state agencies and front-line organizations in Louisiana, California, and Georgia to develop tools, data, and analytics for assessing social vulnerability, economic stress, and food and housing security—this aided decision-makers to allocate limited resources where most needed, advocate for federal relief resources, and to inform policies to confront the unemployment and eviction crises.

San Francisco Bay Area

Managed consulting services projects for regional land use planning initiatives. Clients included the World Bank, county and city governments, and NGOs across California, the Midwest, and China. Led proposal development, work planning, resourcing and budgeting; coordinated interdisciplinary consulting teams. Facilitated planning workshops with community, government and other stakeholders. Led the development and deployment of advanced geospatial models for estimating the effects of different urban development patterns on climate, resource consumption, land use and accessibility metrics.

San Francisco Bay Area

Taught the undergraduate course Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Course content included basic and intermediate concepts of GIS and framing, development, and presentation of spatial research questions. Developed curriculum, delivered lectures, guided research projects.

Los Angeles, California, United States

Led a research project on the sociospatial effects of charter schools on Los Angeles neighborhoods. Wrote a comprehensive research report. Created longitudinal and spatialized datasets; analyzed urban neighborhood change via advanced geospatial methods and descriptive and multivariate statistics.

Los Angeles, California, United States

Assisted in land use research, GIS mapmaking, and the preparation of text and graphics for the South Los Angeles New Community Plans (Land Use Element). Designed cross-cultural outreach materials in Spanish and English.

Los Angeles, California, United States

[FALL 2014 + 2015] Led two discussion sections of 30 students each for a course on the economic geography of globalization. Planned discussion activities geared towards critical analysis of course content. Synthesized lecture and text topics for weekly reviews. Used data to drive instruction.

Los Angeles, California, United States

Analyzed Mexican census data for research on segregation, land regularization, housing policy, urban spatial structure, and household formation. Edited scholarly articles for publication.Contributed to an OECD report to guide policy on international best practices for infill development in Mexico.Conducted interviews with Mexican public agencies and wrote a literature review on the titling of property and land regularization processes in Mexican cities; the resulting scholarly article was published in the Journal of Peasant Studies.

San Francisco Bay Area

Interviewed US quinoa importers and produced a comprehensive literature review for a development report on quinoa production and trade in Bolivia. Conducted interviews, compiled data, and wrote news articles for Food First publications.

San Francisco Bay Area

Translation of capacity building materials, grant proposals and grant reports from FSD’s Latin American NGO partners (Spanish to English and vice versa).

Honduras, Central America

Designed and managed multiple community development and food security projects. Wrote grant proposals and administered funds. Delivered technical skills trainings and developed training manuals. Supported local organizations and led the formation of women’s groups for food security projects.Managed a regional improved stoves initiative in collaboration with an international NGO. Stoves installed in 670 homes across 28 communities. NGO leveraged the initiative to expand to communities region-wide.Developed curriculum and led trainings for a region-wide program for agroforestry certification and income diversification projects. Collaborated with an intermunicipal organization to train public officials and coffee farmers from 13 departments.

Maui, Hawaii

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Master'S In Urban And Regional Planning

Activities and Societies: ⦿ Staffing Working Group (2014/15): reviewed cases of professors up for promotion in the Department of Urban.

B.A. In International Studies, Anthropology & Spanish

Activities and Societies: Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society

[In]City Summer Institute, Urban And Regional Planning

Semester Abroad In Chile (All Coursework In Spanish), Culture, Development & Social Justice

Semester Abroad In Argentina (All Coursework In Spanish), Buenos Aires Universities Program