Plan Dulce Podcast

Plan Dulce Host Vidal F. Márquez (he/him) interviews Shalem Aboody‑López (they/them/theirs), Founder of Pueblo Studio about their journey of using artmaking and storytelling as a vehicle into their planning practice.  Shalem Aboody‑López is a Cultural Strategist, Community Planner, and Artist working at the intersection of community power‑building, liberatory storytelling, and transformative publi...

Nos preparamos para concluir la serie de Empoderamiento de Profesionales Administrativos de abril, reconociendo el trabajo esencial que realizan los empleados administrativos, incluyendo secretarias, asistentes y personal de apoyo. Además, retomamos esta serie destacando los múltiples roles clave que desempeñan como enlace para fomentar redes de apoyo comunitario en el lugar de trabajo, en diversa...

For our final spotlight in the Administrative Professionals Empowerment Series from April on recognizing the ongoing essential work of administrative staff, including secretaries, assistants, and support professionals. We finish this series by highlighting the multiple key liaison roles they play in nurturing community support networks within the workplace, multiple communities, and their immediat...

El Día de los Profesionales Administrativos 2026 se celebra durante el mes de abril para reconocer la labor esencial del personal administrativo, incluyendo secretarias, asistentes y profesionales de apoyo. Para nuestra Serie de Empoderamiento de Profesionales Administrativos, Michelle E. Zuñiga, PhD, AICP (ella) y Haydee Urita-Lopez (ella) de Plan Dulce entrevistan a Cecilia Lamas (ella), Asisten...

Administrative Professionals Day 2026 is celebrated during the month of April to recognize the essential work of administrative staff, including secretaries, assistants, and support professionals. For our Administrative Professional Empowerment Series, Plan Dulce Hosts Michelle E.  Zuñiga, PhD, AICP (she/her/hers)  and Haydee Urita-Lopez (she/her/hers) interview Cecilia Lamas (she/her/ella), Commi...

Administrative Professionals Day 2026 is celebrated on Wednesday, April 22, to recognize the essential work of administrative staff, including secretaries, assistants, and support professionals. It is also celebrated all month in April. For our Administrative Professional Empowerment Series, Plan Dulce Hosts Michelle E.  Zuñiga, PhD, AICP (she/her/hers)  and Haydee Urita-Lopez (she/her/hers) inter...

Plan Dulce Hosts Vidal F. Márquez (he/him) and Haydee Urita-Lopez (she/her/hers) interview Norma E. Fernandez (she/her), CEO of Everyone On, a national nonprofit advancing digital opportunity by expanding access to affordable internet, reliable devices, and practical digital skills. Join us for this two-part conversation in English and Spanish as we learn about what it means to create digital incl...

Plan Dulce Hosts Michelle E.  Zuñiga, PhD, AICP (she/her/hers) and Vidal F. Márquez (he/him) are joined by Michael Méndez, Ph. D., MCP (he/him) and Deyanira Nevárez Martínez Ph. D.(she/her), educators, researchers and planning practitioners to discuss Latino Urbanism, environmentalism and the hottest topic of the year, Bad Bunny. Join us for this tag-team conversation as we learn and reflect on th...

Plan Dulce Host Bryan Lima (he/him) is joined by Álvaro D. Márquez (they/them/theirs), an artist, researcher, and philanthropy professional in Los Angeles County. They discuss Álvaro’s personal life experiences in education, art making, research and inquiry into history and cartography and how it all informs their practice creating visual art through printmaking, fiber-art, installation and sculpt...

Plan Dulce Host Stefanie Esteban (she/they) is joined by Christian Llamas (he/him), an emerging planning professional in Los Angeles. They discuss his experiences with design and technical skills coming out of school and jumping right into planning careers in the private and public sector.  Bio and Links: A recent graduate with a Bachelor of Science in the field of Urban Studies and Planning with...

Plan Dulce Host Michelle E. Zuñiga, AICP (she/her) is joined with Cristina Garcia (she/her), founder of Latinxs in Sustainability (LiS) for a live recording at LUGARES 2025, the annual virtual conference focused on bringing diverse Latiné voices across the nation and their contributions to planning in our communities. L.U.G.A.R.E.S. is Latinidad, Unity, Gente, Advocacy, Resiliencia, Equity, Spaces...

How do you build a city that's truly fair for all its residents? Plan Dulce Podcast Host Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño, AICP talks to Andre Soucy, a Transportation Planner for OakDOT, whose mission is to secure the funding for projects that prioritize equality in transportation. He breaks down how cities secure multi-million dollar grants and explains his work managing Oakland's equity-driven Capit...

Plan Dulce host Vidal F. Márquez (He/Him) speaks with Norena Limón (She/Her) from the Casita Coalition to discuss the California housing supply crisis and her journey raised in the Inland Empire, working at the Obama White House, going to Harvard and becoming a CEO in policy advocacy in California.  Bio and Links: Noerena Limón brings over 16 years of experience working at the nexus of government,...

Pride Series: The Power of Communities. Stefanie Esteban (She/They) speaks with Andres David Veliz (all pronouns) from the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Senior Services team in this Pride Month episode of Plan Dulce . Together, they explore what it means to design cities where queer and trans elders can age with dignity. Drawing from his work creating affirming programs across senior housing sites, An...

Stefanie Esteban (She/They) speaks with Alex Shippee, a queer Latino transit planner working in Southern California’s Inland Empire region (commonly known as the IE). In this conversation, they talk about his capstone research on heat, bus shelters, and dignity in public space; as well as his current work in transit planning; and a public art initiative he helped launch that centers community, col...

Stefanie Esteban (She/They) is joined by their fellow Masters of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) graduates from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona to explore their experiences in the Master’s program, advocating for anti-displacement and gentrification community organizations and growing as queer Latine professionals in today’s political climate.  Marcos Molina (He/Him/His) is an L...

Stefanie Esteban (She/They) chats with Norma Sánchez (They/Them/Elle) about their relationship-building powers to connect the LGBTQ+ community with educational programs and social services in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles.  Norma Sánchez’s Bio: Norma Sánchez (They/Them/Elle) is a nonbinary queer punk community advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles. Norma has worked with...

Special episode! Live recording at the 2024 Latinos and Planning LUGARES Conference. Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño and Matt Gomez chat with Dr. Christine Marin, Professor Emeritus and Archivist-Historian at Arizona State University, about growing up in a copper mining town and the influence this had on her relationship with labor and union organizing. Dr. Marin speaks about the importance of supporting stu...

Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño chats with Kat Sibel on Indigenous People’s Day about her life’s journey of twists and turns reflecting on her Peruvian ancestral roots and how Andean and Quechua knowledge and values informed her work and research looking at both sides of public health and environmental science.  Kat Sibel (she/her/ella) is a passionate, bi-cultural Community Climate Resiliency Coordinator fo...

Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño speaks with Jose Antonio Gordillo Martorell- tuning in from Sweden, about democratizing decision making for museums and other cultural institutions to elevate children's pespectives. Dive in and learn how re-priotitizing play, "dancing with the system" and expanding our idea of public participation to include children of all backgrounds can introduce groundbreaki...

Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño speaks with Ursula Troncoso- tuning in from São Paulo, Brazil- about her path into architecture and planning and her insights into meaningfully engaging young children in community engagement and urban design projects. Ursula Troncoso leads Ateliê Navio, an architecture and urbanism office focused on cities, childhood, and education. She holds a postgraduate degree from the Po...

Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeño chats with Paul Fericelli about his work in disaster recovery and climate resilience at federal agencies like FEMA and the EPA, growing up in Puerto Rico, and the role mentorship has played in their professional journey. Paul Fericelli's Bio and Links: Paul Fericelli is an Environmental Engineer with the federal government. With over 10 years of experience, Paul has worked acr...

In this episode we'll hear from Vidal Marquez, Edna Ely-Ledesma and Adrian Diaz about their successful mobile workshop at this year's national planning conference which took place back in may in Minneapolis Minnesota. The workshop, Puentes: Bridging Healing and Revitalization in Latine neighborhoods, took participants to the East Lake Street Corridor, the largest Hispanic/Latinx neighborhood in th...

Keyanna Ortiz-Cedeno chats with Danielle Zoe Rivera, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California Berkeley. Rivera's research examines policy and design for environmental and climate justice. Her work uses community-based research methods to address the impacts of climate-induced disasters affecting low-income communities. Her current wor...

Julio shares his experience growing up near La Oroya, one of the most polluted cities in Peru, and going on to study architecture to pursue his interest in large scale solutions that impact people's every day lives. He shares his experience spearheading the Green Building Council in Peru as the only LEED AP in the country and his most recent project, Planning 2050 , a dashboard platform where...