Mariela has over 20 years of expertise in the field of urban design and behaviour research and over 17 years of Bridging the worlds of academia, practice, and entrepreneurship, Dr. Mariela Alfonzo is an internationally-renowned thought-leader and speaker, with 20+ years of experience on the nexus between urban design, behavior, and the quadruple-bottom line. For over two decades, her work has focused on quantifying how the micro-scale aspects of the built environment affect our behaviors, perceptions, and decisions, and in turn, how these impact a broad spectrum of quality of life outcomes, across individual, community, civic, and environmental domains. Dr. Alfonzo is the Founder and CEO of State of Place, an AI-driven, urban design data and predictive analytics software that helps citymakers create more just, thriving communities more effectively, cost-efficiently, and inclusively.

Over the course of her two-decades-plus career, Dr. Alfonzo was named one of Urban Land Institute’s 40 under 40 best young land use professionals around the globe in 2014; is a New Cities Foundation Placemaking Fellow; is a Fulbright Scholar; and a Research Professor at NYU Tandon’s School of Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in urban planning from UC Irvine, as well as a Masters in Urban Planning, and a BA from University of Miami in psychology and architecture