Marcel is the Director of Land Use at Regional Plan Association. He oversees long-term research projects on housing, economic development, climate resiliency, and land use. He combines systemic thinking with design, spatial analysis, and data visualization to support the organization’s planning and advocacy efforts at both the regional and neighborhood levels.

Prior to joining RPA, Marcel was a Senior Project Manager at the Municipal Art Society of New York, where he helped inform positions regarding citywide policies and precedent-setting land-use decisions. He currently teaches water management at Pratt Institute’s Graduate School of Architecture. Marcel also has experience in stormwater and waterfront infrastructure planning, having worked with Insight Civil Engineering, Community Boards 9 and 10 in the Bronx, and various architectural design firms in the city. Previously, he was a graduate research intern at the New York City Department of City Planning, the Fund for the City of New York, and the not-for-profit organization New Yorkers for Parks.

Marcel has participated as a guest lecturer at the Mellon Forum on the Urban Environment at Princeton University, Pace University Land Use Law Center, New York University Guarini Center for the Environmental, Energy & Land Use Law, at the Council of State Governments - East annual conference meeting, and OECD’s Local Development Forum (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

He holds a master’s degree in Urban Environmental Systems from the Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) and a bachelor’s from the School of Architecture and Design, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. He is a recipient of an American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) research honor award, a drum machine aficionado, and above all, a proud parent.