Global Walkability Correspondents Network

Annika Lundkvist // Network Founder // Warsaw, Poland

Annika is the founder of pedestrianspace.org & the Global Walkability Correspondents Network. She is a Fellow of The Schumacher Institute and a PhD student based in Warsaw, researching walkability in the 15-minute city context & urban resilience. She is passionate about gardening & photographing the city.

Raluca Hurmuz // Chapter Support

Raluca is an urban designer and architect from Timisoara, Romania, passionate about exploring the complexities of cities and their impact on human well-being. With her love for reading and travelling, Raluca is also aware of and deeply concerned about the climate crisis. She is committed to using her knowledge and expertise to promote sustainable mobility and bring people closer to nature in cities. Raluca currently lives and works in Ireland and is key in supporting the development of chapters at GWCN.

Vanny Mwamba // Global Chapter Adviser // Cincinnati, OH, USA

Vanny is originally from Congo DRC and a process engineer at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. He is a passionate advocate for walking. He founded Urban Hikers to promote walking for health and community building, and serves as the organization’s Chief Hike Evangelist. Vanny also produced a long-form documentary called Why We Walk, which explores the cultural and scientific benefits of walking. His goal is to inspire people to make walking a part of their daily lives.

Sara Amare Gebremeskel // Regional Hub Lead: Africa

Sara is a passionate landscape and urbanism expert with extensive research and project experience in park and street designs, and comprehensive urban planning. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Architecture, City and Design at Università Iuav di Venezia in Venice, Italy. Her research focuses on rethinking streets through pedestrians, exploring the forms of pedestrian resistance, and exposing hints for urban design. 

She is also the founder of MerebabtatStreet, a platform for research and consultancy services in landscape and urbanism for cities, streets, and public spaces.

Nahom Teklu // Chapter Lead: Addis Abeba, Ethiopia // Regional Hub Lead: Africa

Nahom is a young and visionary architect and urban strategist whose work is shaped by designing for humanity through working on architecture, researching urbanization, exploring urbanism, and directing curation for lighting greater positive impact on the socio-spatial justice, and livelihood worthy of human dignity.

Read Nahom’s content here

Visit the Addis Abeba chapter here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gwcn-addis-abeba-chapter/

Rodrigo de Carvalho // Regional Hub Lead: South America

Rodrigo is an architect who currently works with Urban Planning in Brazil for the city of Vitória. He believes that it’s in the cities where public life comes alive and uses his own experience walking and cycling to work to advocate for mobility as a goal to make cities more sustainable and environmentally friendly. He lived in the countryside of the state of Minas Gerais for five years and later in Rio for almost 3 years before moving back to his hometown, Vila Velha, in the Vitória metropolitan area. He is passionate about helping to increase the walkability goals in South America

Cori Dahl // Chapter Lead: Chicago, IL, USA // Regional Hub Lead: North America

Cori is passionate about advocating for pedestrian rights and public transportation in the Chicago, Illinois USA. She spends her time going for walks, spending time with friends, and documenting pedestrian life in Chicago.

Email the Chicago chapter at: gwcnchicago@gmail.com 

Visit the Chicago chapter here: https://www.instagram.com/gwcnchicagochapter/

Lorenzo Mele // Chapter Lead: Toronto, ON, Canada

Lorenzo is a sustainability, demand management and active design specialist. He is the Principal of Attivo Designs in Toronto, Canada and is committed to advancing the connection between health, transportation, and our built environment by working with partners, clients, and community to creatively animate our environments to influence healthier and sustainable behaviours.

Visit the Toronto chapter here: https://www.instagram.com/gwcntorontochapter/

Carlos Ruiz // Chapter Lead & Social Media Coordinator: Toronto, ON, Canada

Carlos is an avid walker and cycling enthusiast based in Toronto. With a background in Political Science and teaching, he believes walkable cities play a vital role in the development of local economies, the environment and public health as well as contributing to the strengthening of democratic values. Carlos is a strong advocate of changing the car-centric culture of North America and strongly believes in education as the most important tool for positive change.

Read Toronto, Canada & Bogotá, Colombia Correspondent Carlos’ content here.

Visit the Toronto chapter here: https://www.instagram.com/gwcntorontochapter/

Jamie Trufin // Chapter Lead: Phoenix, AZ, USA // // Regional Hub Lead: North America

Jamie is an urbanist dedicated to strengthening community bonds and forging meaningful connections within his city, one step at a time. Holding a degree in Sustainability and Urban Planning from Arizona State University, he is deeply invested in enhancing urban livability. Jamie is a champion for safer, more walkable streets and advocates for sustainable development.

Visit the Phoenix chapter here: https://www.instagram.com/gwcnphoenixchapter/

Visit Jamie’s site with video & content on urbanism here: https://urbanavenues.city/

Divantha Ekanayake // Chapter Lead: Kandy, Sri Lanka // Regional Hub Lead: Asia

Divantha is an Urban Planning Enthusiast who currently works as a Sustainability Consultant. He thinks that urban planning is the best tool we have to achieve sustainable development goals and should be at the forefront of sustainability and climate discussions.

Read Sri Lanka Correspondent Divantha’s content here

Visit the Kandy chapter here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gwcn-kandy-chapter/

Arghyadip Hatua // Chapter Lead: India // Regional Hub Lead: Asia

Arghyadip is a passionate advocate for walkability and sustainable transportation in India. Born in Kolkata, the ‘City of Trams’, he has always been fascinated by the potential of public transport and urban policy to transform our cities. As one of the leads for the India Chapter for GWCN network, he is dedicated to promoting walkable and livable communities across the country. Currently based in Ahmedabad, he balances his corporate career with his passion for walkability, often exploring heritage walks and neighborhood strolls in his free time. His goal is to reframe the conversation around walkability, highlighting its importance in creating sustainable, equitable, and vibrant cities for all. Argho notes “Join me in this journey to reclaim our streets and make India a walking paradise!”

Email the India chapter at gwcnindia@gmail.com

Santhana Selvan // Chapter Lead: India // Regional Hub Lead: Asia

Santhana is an experienced IT Professional and passionate cyclist in Hyderabad where he has a role to play called Bicycle Mayor of Hyderabad from BYCS, an Amsterdam- based social organization. He is also the lead for the Bicycle Mayors Network in India!

He has been working for Public Health via Cycling and advocacy of Active Mobility (Walking, Cycling and Public Transportation) in the city of Hyderabad for many years, in the best interests of Hyderabad.

Email the India chapter at gwcnindia@gmail.com

Merve Özhan // Chapter Lead: Turkey, Istanbul // Regional Hub Lead: Europe

Merve is an urban designer with focus on mobilities with a background in architecture. She is passionate about children and youth and their sustainable practices in the city. She has lived in cities like Berlin, Paris and Brussels. Before moving back to Istanbul, which is her hometown, she lived in Aalborg, Denmark for almost 5 years.

Ayşe Umay Gezer // Chapter Lead: Mersin, Turkey

Ayşe is a Graphic and UX/UI designer with a background in architecture. She creates content related to user experience and believes that sustainable mobility and environmentally friendly designs can improve the living standards of all humanity.

As a designer, she works in the field of micromobility and advances her activities. While the product continues its economic activities, we work on a voluntary basis with new graduates or professional designers and software developers studying at various universities. Many professionals and academics from various disciplines continue to support their volunteers.

Ömer Kılıç // Chapter Lead: Ankara & Gaziantep, Türkiye

Ömer is an industrial engineer and IT project manager based in Türkiye. He has played a pivotal role in numerous information technology projects, contributing to a collective user base exceeding 60 million individuals. His journey is marked by innovation, leadership, and a deep understanding of the evolving landscape of technology & sustainable world. As a founding member of the Fintech startup NudgeLab and active mobility impact initiative aantbee.com, he continues inspiring progress starting from himself.

Misha Mittal // Chapter Lead: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Misha is a Senior Manager – City Advisory at Expo City Dubai, who’s all about making cities fair for everyone. With a background in architecture and a large inter-sectional experience in the public and private sectors, she uses her skills to unveil disparities in our cities. Misha is super passionate about walkability – making it easy for everyone to walk around. She looks closely at cities to find out what’s not working and how to fix it. Whether it’s designing public spaces or planning neighborhoods, she makes sure everyone can get around easily in the most efficient and environmentally responsive manner. She intends to bring walkability to every city she works with as part of her job, creating spaces where everyone feels connected and included. Her mission goes beyond conventional planning, as she strives to bridge the divide and create resilient, inclusive urban spaces for all.

John Warren // Chapter Lead: University (Thematic chapter)

John Warren is an urban communicator with a keen interest in mobility futures, platform urbanism, and smart + sustainable cities and communities. Growing up in the slums of Manila, he realized his desire to challenge the urban status quo in the Philippines. During his years in journalism, his beat revolved on critical urban issues about migrants, the informal economy, gentrification, natural disasters, and land and water conflicts. As of 2024, John is pursuing his master’s degree in Transition, Innovation, and Sustainability studies across multiple European cities, including Lisbon, Dublin, Stuttgart, Poznan, and Vienna. He is leading GWCN’s first thematic chapter- the University chapter.

Read content by John here