Zarith Pineda is an architectural, urban designer and the founder of the nonprofit design collective, Territorial Empathy, which was founded on the belief that empathy-based design is the key to solving the pressing urban issues of our time. There, the multidisciplinary and intersectional team she leads aims to support urban equity for people-in-places often overlooked, namely women, children, and the displaced. Through the understanding of systems of oppression in urban environments, diligent research, and community-based design recommendations the projects aim to create inclusive and thriving communities. Most recently, they have investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color throughout New York City raising public awareness around environmental, historic, and infrastructural inequities that contributed to the virus infecting and killing Black and Latino New Yorkers disproportionally. Other projects include free, open-source plans for affordable outdoor classrooms to facilitate the reopening of public schools during the pandemic, mapping the adverse impacts of the Family Separation Policy at the US/Mexico border, and designing sustainable infrastructure for Syrian and Venezuelan refugees. She teaches digital design techniques, urban design, and data visualization at Columbia University as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Zarith’s work has been published and exhibited in New York, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Paris, Brussels, Venice, Amman and Tel Aviv.