Evan Casper-Futterman, PhD is a 3rd generation New Yorker. He is the Senior Director for Planning and Education at the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative. He earned a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans in 2011 and was a White House Intern in the office of Urban Affairs, Domestic Policy Council, in the spring of 2012.He received his PhD in 2019 at the Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, studying economic democracy and development. He has taught undergraduate courses at the Macaulay Honors College at City College (CUNY) and in the Geography department at Vassar College, as well as graduate courses at Hunter College, the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and the Wagner School of Public Affairs at NYU. He is a co-founder and former board treasurer of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC and is the Secretary of the board for the Bronx Community Land Trust. He is a coalition building leader, author, educator, facilitator, and speaker on community wealth building, economic democracy, and social and solidarity economies.