Jose guides cities and civic leaders in developing programs, policies, and strategies that advance community affordability, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship.
Working with state agencies, municipal governments, regional planning authorities, foundations, and community-led organizations, he specializes in strategic transitions and comprehensive planning that connect economic policy, technology, climate action, and community development. Jose’s approach combines rigorous technical analysis with civic engagement and coalition-building, enabling clients to center community voice while building the partnerships and resources needed for robust implementation.
Jose’s electoral transitions work designs civic engagement processes that translate community input into actionable policy frameworks for incoming administrations. Through large-scale participatory surveys and structured planning workshops, he brings together government leaders, nonprofit providers, and philanthropic partners to develop implementation roadmaps around resident priorities. This helps new administrations balance time-sensitive operational decisions with longer-term strategic planning, ensuring they can assume essential functions while building the community engagement and policy foundations that drive their initial years in office.
Integrating multiple policy areas—climate, land use, housing, economic development, and technology—into cohesive frameworks defines comprehensive planning work that addresses complex urban challenges. Jose emphasizes identifying and resolving long-term planning tradeoffs, particularly where energy, housing, economic development, and conservation needs intersect. From leading Pittsburgh’s first just transition-focused citywide plan to advising Massachusetts on statewide land use strategy, he demonstrates how integrated planning can advance equity alongside environmental and economic goals while developing financial strategies that ensure implementation.
Within climate work, economic development and community resilience integrate into energy transition strategies through renewable energy planning, decarbonization initiatives, and adaptation frameworks that prioritize environmental justice communities. Jose guides fossil fuel facility conversions to renewable energy hubs and designs resilience hub networks that deliver multiple benefits—preserving affordable housing, creating career pathways, and building community capacity that expands green economy opportunities.
Innovation-driven economic development focuses on building tech and innovation ecosystems that expand career pathways and advance regional transformation. Jose’s work spans innovation district planning, comprehensive economic strategies, and institutional design that connects anchor institutions, technology companies, community organizations, and government agencies. From supporting Houston’s evolution into an energy innovation hub to developing Miami-Dade’s Innovation Authority blueprint, he demonstrates how strategic planning can accelerate tech sector growth while creating accessible pathways into innovation economy careers.
Governments increasingly need help harnessing emerging technologies through AI and technology policy while managing risks and ensuring accountability. Across cities in North and South America, Jose guides municipal leaders in creating monitoring systems for AI effectiveness, building partnerships with civic tech communities to enhance open data initiatives, and designing data trusts that enable secure information sharing among education and workforce networks to improve long-term outcomes.
Cultural industries serve as leading indicators of broader economic shifts, making creative and cultural policy essential to understanding the future of work. Recent projects developing New York State’s creative worker policy framework, leading San Francisco’s community-driven monuments audit, and advising creative unions on repurposing real estate holdings for member housing demonstrate how policy development, cultural preservation strategies, and innovative approaches to expanding access to benefits and affordable space can build long-term community stability.
Jose earned his Master of Fine arts from Queens College (CUNY) and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pennsylvania.
- Program Director of NYCx for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation
- Community Organizer, Curator and Program Director, Queens Museum
- Co-Founder and Partnerships Director, Fame Theory, Inc.
- Economic Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Projects
HR&A Advisors is co-leading Pittsburgh's first citywide comprehensive plan, a two-year initiative establishing policies that will guide how the city will grow and change through 2050. Working closely with the Department of City Planning and a team of local and national partners, we are helping Pittsburgh set clear goals for housing, jobs, transportation, land use, and climate resilience.
HR&A Advisors partnered with Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) to strengthen the economic security and long-term sustainability of New York’s creative workforce. Through policy analysis, strategic advising, and institutional design, HR&A helped CRNY shape a statewide advocacy agenda aimed at advancing equitable conditions for artists and cultural workers. The engagement culminated in the creation of a Policy Playbook and an Organizational Blueprint to guide long-term action and investment.
HR&A led the design and execution of NYC Speaks, a public-private partnership between the City of New York, a civic coalition of New Yorkers from all 5 boroughs, community-based organizations, and philanthropy, that engaged everyday New Yorkers in shaping the policies and priorities of the incoming mayoral administration. NYC Speaks conducted the largest policy survey in NYC history, capturing responses from more than 62,000 New Yorkers across every residential zip code.
The Long Island City northern waterfront currently hosts the Ravenswood Generating Station, the largest fossil fuel plant in New York City, providing over 20% of the City’s local power capacity. After Rise Light & Power committed to transforming it into a renewable energy hub, the Office of the Queens Borough President brought on HR&A to lead “Reimagine Ravenswood,” a community-driven site reuse, neighborhood improvement, and workforce development planning process to guide a just transition to an inclusive clean energy economy in western Queens.
