Hannah Aronson

Hannah is a 2026 graduate of MIT's Master in City Planning program and a Research Assistant for Dr. Janelle Knox-Hayes' Resilient Communities Lab. Her interests center community-driven approaches to environmental planning, spanning coastal resilience to public health. She has held graduate intern positions with the Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources at the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Pūrangakura Kaupapa Māori Research Centre in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and with the Behavioral Health Complex Needs team at NYC Health + Hospitals.

Hannah grew up in the D.C. area and graduated from Davidson College with a BA in Sociology (just like Steph Curry!). While an undergraduate, Hannah was awarded a Freeman Fellowship to work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She then spent a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied social movements and human rights. Before DUSP, she was most recently working in New York City with the Department of Homeless Services. She has also been a teacher in Richmond, VA; Nagasaki, Japan; and Chuuk, Micronesia.