NYU Washington, DC and the New York City Urban Fellows Program, a competitive program that introduces recent college graduates to public service through a 9-month working experience within NYC municipal government, co-sponsored an early afternoon panel discussion on Amazon HQ2.
The discussion was open to current students attending NYU DC, the 25 visiting Urban Fellows, and is also open to the public. The panel included Joseph Parilla, Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, Tom Ikeler, Principal and Chief Investment Officer at P.N. Hoffman, Megan Randall, Research Analyst at the Urban Institute, and Sarah Holder, Fellow at the Atlantic's CityLab. NYU DC's current lecturer Victoria Kiechel was the moderator.
The cohort of 25 fellows hailing from universities across the nation, working within Mayoral offices and City agencies will be discussing the following topics of interest:
Why are municipalities eager to bring Amazon to their area (what would they give to get in return)?
What does the search demonstrate about the state of local economies?
What are the consequences of public tax breaks or other favorable policies for private corporations?
How might Amazon HQ2 shape future discussions about corporate expansion on the local level?
Sarah Holder is an editorial fellow at CityLab, where she covers technology, economic development projects (like HQ2), and city politics. Before CityLab, she interned at Politico Magazine and graduated from Yale in 2017, where she majored in American Studies and developed a senior project on public housing in New Haven.
Tom Ikeler, Principal & Chief Investment Officer, P.N. Hoffman
Tom Ikeler joined PN Hoffman in 2014, bringing more than 30 years of experience in establishing, growing and managing entrepreneurial divisions within institutional frameworks. His primary responsibilities include identifying and executing new strategic initiatives to expand the company’s platform, with overall responsibility for capital markets and project finance.
Prior to joining PN Hoffman, Ikeler worked with several premier U.S. and international real estate companies, including public and private operating companies, private equity firms, and global services providers. Ikeler serves on the Board of Directors, Audit and Conflicts Committees of the Resource Real Estate Opportunity REIT II, a publicly registered non-traded REIT with a $550 million equity capitalization. Ikeler earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard University and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Geography from Bucknell University.
Joseph Parilla, Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
Joseph Parilla is a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program where he conducts research on the trends and policies that shape economic performance in cities and regions in the United States and across the world. As the lead scholar on the program’s Global Cities Initiative, Joseph has conducted numerous studies of regional economic conditions, including metro-level trade, productivity, and competitiveness assessments. More recently, Joseph has led projects to economic development policy and practice in U.S. cities and regions, including helping lead Brookings’ Inclusive Economic Development Lab and directing a unique analysis on how economic development incentives align with principles of inclusive growth in four U.S. cities. Prior to his work at Brookings, Joseph was a research associate in the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities center, where he focused on housing and urban policy. He holds degrees in public policy from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy and economics and geography from Macalester College.
Megan Randall, Research Analyst, Urban Institute
Megan Randall is a research analyst in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where she works on projects pertaining to state and local finance.
Before joining Urban, Randall conducted research on several social policy topics in Texas, including state health care, housing, and tax policy. Her master’s report evaluated the effects of tax abatements on public school finance in Texas, earning the Emmette S. Redford Award from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Central Texas American Planning Association Award for outstanding independent research.
Randall graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned master’s degrees in public affairs and in community and regional planning from the University of Texas at Austin.
Victoria Kiechel (Moderator)
Victoria Kiechel, Faculty, NYU DC ; Professorial Lecturer School of International Service, American University
Victoria Kiechel has 20 years of professional experience in architecture, education, and sustainable design. A practicing architect, she works for the Cadmus Group, Inc., an environmental consultancy, and is an adjunct faculty member of the Global Environmental Politics Program, the School of International Service, American University (AU), in Washington, DC. In 2010, she was the inaugural recipient of AU’s Most Innovative Green Teacher of the Year award. At Cadmus, Vicky has worked for the US Green Building Council to develop and support the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating Systems; advises the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR commercial and industrial branch; leads consulting and review teams for buildings seeking LEED certification; and manages sustainability initiatives for clients as diverse as the Smithsonian Institution and state and local governments. She is project manager and technical lead for the 2012 redevelopment of ENERGY STAR for Buildings training resources. Her Cadmus research work includes her roles as primary author of Planning and Financing Energy Efficient Infrastructure in Appalachia, for the Appalachian Regional Commission (released March, 2012), and co-Principal Investigator of Cadmus’ Water Management and Green Building Rating Systems 2009-2010 study for the Electric Power Research Institute. Her architectural design work focuses on small-to-medium scale residential and institutional projects. For the Washington, DC Capitol Hill School Libraries Project, she designed the library for Maury Elementary School.
