About

Gabriela Callejas is a senior urban designer and planner with a multidimensional perspective on urban projects, shaped by over fifteen years of international experience across the public sector, private industry, and nonprofit organizations. She holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Universidade de São Paulo (FAU-USP, 2009), a master's degree in Urban Design from Columbia University (GSAPP, 2011), and is currently pursuing a doctorate at UIC Barcelona.

Gabriela’s career spans a wide spectrum of urban initiatives, from small-scale, community-based public space interventions to strategic plans, guidelines, and policies. Her early roles included collaborations with prominent international design firms such as AECOM, as well as local offices in Brazil. In the public sector, she contributed to major urban plans at São Paulo Urbanismo, coordinated social housing feasibility studies at Cohab-SP, and spent a year with the NYC Department of City Planning. During her time in New York, Gabriela also served as a Teaching Associate at Columbia University, co-leading design studios in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where students and faculty worked directly with local authorities on ongoing urban projects.

In 2014, inspired by her international experience and commitment to more just and resilient cities, Gabriela founded Cidade Ativa, a Brazilian think-and-do tank focused on promoting healthy, equitable, and sustainable urban environments. As its Director, she has led the organization’s vision and growth, managing a diverse portfolio of projects and cultivating partnerships with local governments, civil society, and international institutions. Through Cidade Ativa, Gabriela has received five awards, coordinated research efforts, developed high-quality knowledge products, organized peer learning events, facilitated multi-stakeholder engagement, and created capacity-building programs that equip local teams to deliver projects with tangible, lasting impact.

Gabriela has extensive experience collaborating with international development organizations — including the World Bank, Interamerican Development Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, WRI, EIT Urban Mobility, and the Global Designing Cities Initiative. For these institutions, she has helped translate knowledge into action, supporting cities and governments worldwide to design and implement public projects that address challenges such as sustainable mobility, child-friendly urban planning, climate resilience, and equitable public space design. Known for her ability to bridge technical expertise with collaborative processes, Gabriela works to empower cities to implement inclusive and sustainable urban solutions, translating evidence and policy frameworks into strategies that improve quality of life for communities across different contexts.