Kate Ascher currently serves as the Milstein Professor of Urban Development at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where she teaches real estate, infrastructure, and urban planning courses.

She also leads a variety of strategic projects involving transportation and other forms of infrastructure as a consultant to Buro Happold Engineering, where she served as partner through 2019.

Prior to joining Columbia’s GSAPP and Buro Happold, she served as Director of Development at Vornado Realty Trust, Executive Vice-President overseeing planning and infrastructure at the New York City Economic Development Corporation under Michael Bloomberg, and Assistant Director of the Port at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Her public sector work has involved overseeing major infrastructure and master planning projects for the New York metropolitan region, including the development of energy, telecommunications, and waste plans in cooperation with community, environmental, business, and other advocacy groups. She has also been responsible for navigating and completing a series of major waterfront redevelopment projects in New York and New Jersey.

Kate Ascher holds a BA in political science from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA and an MSc and PhD in government from the London School of Economics (LSE), United Kingdom. She is the author of several books on urban infrastructure including The Works Anatomy of a City, The Heights, and The Way to Go, as well as co-author of New York Rising, an illustrated anthology of New York City’s physical evolution.

She serves on the Boards of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center in New York City. Kate Ascher joined the Board of the Holcim Foundation in January 2020.

Kate Ascher was a member of the Holcim Awards 2023 jury for North America.