Racquel Forrester

Racquel Forrester is the Associate Director of Civic Engagement at Gallatin, and leads programming and community engagement initiatives at the Urban Democracy Lab. Previous to this role, Racquel worked at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service leading the NYU Urban Initiative, a provostial effort to reinforce NYU’s scholarly strength. A Brooklyn native, Racquel is deeply committed to advocating for and empowering New Yorkers. She’s worked alongside several nonprofits to lead local community initiatives in Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, and advocated for the preservation of job-intensive land use in industrial zones. Racquel also organized resilience initiatives post-Hurricane Sandy in Brooklyn’s waterfront communities, with research published in Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City’s Jamaica Bay. Racquel has a Bachelor’s from Rutgers University and a Master’s in Urban Planning from CUNY Hunter College. She recently completed Columbia University’s Executive Education Program for Developing Leaders in nonprofits.