Preston Rhea

Preston Rhea brings fifteen years of experience in telecommunications and public interest advocacy to HR&A. 

 

Preston’s work builds infrastructure with public purpose at the intersection of community-based governance and market realities. He advises public sector clients including states, cities, counties, and other authorities to build infrastructure that realizes access and adoption goals, reduces barriers to deployment of last-mile networks, supports next-generation smart cities applications, and unlocks opportunities for interconnection with public assets. 

Preston helped the California Department of Technology’s Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative Team (MMBI) to build its capacity to plan and deliver the statewide middle-mile broadband network – the single largest public broadband investment in the country. He has continued to support MMBI through establishing relationships with potential customers and local government stakeholders who will make use of the network once operations begin. 

Other notable projects include developing an assets and infrastructure strategy to activate and sustain the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting’s conduit and dark fiber network; working with the County of Los Angeles Internal Services Department to build a community broadband program that is making major interventions for broadband competition and affordability in the country’s largest County; and building a regional coalition of more than two dozen San Francisco Bay Area government agencies, community anchor institutions, and nonprofits to unite the region’s digital equity ecosystems. Preston has served as a subject matter expert on numerous other projects at HR&A including program designs for broadband in affordable housing, engagements with utilities for broadband deployments in the State of New York, and coordinating workforce and economic development stakeholder convenings for the State of Texas’ Digital Opportunity Plan. 

Prior to joining HR&A, Preston spent six years at Monkeybrains, an Internet Service Provider based in San Francisco. As Director of Engineering, Policy Program, Preston coordinated partnerships with governments to build public fiber to affordable housing, broke barriers to affordable internet in large apartment buildings, and advanced gigabit network penetration in underserved areas. Preston developed the public policy program while managing the technician team at Monkeybrains. 

Prior to joining Monkeybrains in 2015, Preston worked at Code for America developing civic engagement practices with city governments and networks of civic technologists, developed and implemented a field curriculum for community wireless network deployment at New America’s Open Technology Institute in Washington, DC, and worked at a content delivery network startup in Beijing, China. 

Preston holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Nick Hughes

Nick works with cities, developers, and institutions to create value for their communities through innovative development.

As a director based in the New York office, Nick has conducted real estate financial analysis to support transformative real estate development, advised negotiations on behalf of public and private clients, and project-managed multidisciplinary teams for large-scale projects.

Previously, Nick was at Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, supporting capital raising and portfolio management efforts. Nick earned his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business with specializations in Real Estate and Finance and received his BBA in Finance from Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business.

Harman Singh Dhodi

Harman works to make cities more equitable, accessible, and sustainable through urban infrastructure projects.

He combines his proficiency of data analytics and economic modelling with urban and real estate principles to promote sustainable infrastructure practices, economic viability, climate resiliency, and stakeholder capacity. At HR&A, Harman has supported clients with feasibility studies of infrastructure investments, identifying economic impacts from proposed infrastructure, performing geo-spatial analysis using GIS, conducting market demand for real estate by varied land use types, preparing implementation strategies, developing workforce plans, interviewing stakeholders, and recognizing equity-based challenges.

Harman has also worked on refining and adding to the firm’s methodologies, including the Infrastructure Funding Navigator (IFN), HR&A’s web platform that allows state and local governments, non-profit organizations, higher education institutions, transportation agencies, utilities, and service providers assess the potential eligibility and readiness of infrastructure projects seeking federal funding. He also synthesized the firm’s in-house approach towards digital equity mapping for the states of California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and Massachusetts which eventually informed their digital equity plans.

Jill Schmidt Bengochea

Jill helps to make communities more resilient through climate mitigation and equitable development projects.

 

Previously, Jill was a Senior Project Manager at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where she managed historic rehabilitation and ground-up developments to support inclusive economic development. As a Forefront Fellow with the Urban Design Forum, Jill researched the risks of extreme heat in New York City with a focus on public health and equity to prepare mitigation proposals for the Mayor’s Office of Resilience.

Jill is originally from Portland, Oregon where she worked on regional policy and planning at Metro before leading community engagement and program development for James Beard Public Market.

She holds a Masters in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she was a graduate researcher at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Oregon.

Ray Cabrera

Ray’s helps to ensure community collaboration in real estate and economic development projects.

For the past four years, he has worked as the Community Outreach Specialist at The Design School at Arizona State University. While there, he worked closely with faculty, students, community advocates and other stakeholders to transform design education to become more collaborative, relevant and radically accessible. Ray sought to amplify the school’s socially-embedded work in a way that centers community needs and remediates historical injustices in the built environment.

Prior to his work in higher education, Ray spent nearly ten years at the intersection of economic development and creative placemaking in Phoenix, Arizona. While Director of Downtown Environment at Downtown Phoenix Inc., he oversaw programs that enhanced the urban environment of the region’s economic and cultural heart. His major focus involved collaborating with community members and local creatives to develop and implement projects that fostered a stronger sense of place, especially in regard to trees and shade, public art and pedestrian connectivity. He began his career in economic development where he worked extensively with city officials and stakeholders on business attraction and retention plans, in addition to research related to site selection and real estate development.

Ray holds a Master of Urban and Environmental Planning and a B.S.D. in Housing and Urban Development from Arizona State University.

Geon Woo Lee

Geon Woo leverages skills in data analysis and urban design to promote climate resilient cities, clean energy initiatives, equitable real estate development, and transit equity.

 

As a senior analyst based in the New York office, Geon Woo has led inclusive climate mitigation strategies in multiple states, helped several communities create equitable transit-oriented developments, designed policies and programs to prevent housing displacement, and conducted data analysis to develop compelling insights for clients. He is passionate about climate justice, place-based economic strategies, and neighborhood preservation to create unique and resilient communities across the globe.

Prior to joining HR&A, Geon Woo interned at the Meatpacking Business Improvement District where he conducted mobility data analysis to understand the impacts of the pandemic. He has also interned at architecture firms in Seoul, New York City, and Madrid.

Geon Woo holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University, where he received Dean’s Scholarship and won the Honor Award for Excellence in Urban Planning. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in the History and Theory of Architecture from Columbia University.

 

 

Alejandra Cabrales

Alejandra provides research and analytical support to advance sustainable and equitable placed-based solutions through economic development policy, transit-oriented development, community engagement, and governance design.

Alejandra has recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors in Urban studies. While at Penn, she interned with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission where she worked under John Haak, the Director of Planning Policy and Analysis. At PCPC, she produced comprehensive case studies on declining commercial corridors and train station developments. In addition, she wrote her thesis on the correlation between displacement and transit-oriented development along the Los Angeles Exposition Line through a spatial and demographic analysis.

Marco Rodriguez

Marco specializes in knowledge economy, transit-oriented development, and economic development strategy, helping cities across the country become engines of innovation, inclusivity, and prosperity.

As a research analyst, Marco’s work includes economic policy review, demographic research, and stakeholder engagement for TOD, Affordable Housing, and International Economic Development projects.

Before joining HR&A, Marco interned at Passport Inc, where he produced reports on urban parking technology and complete streets. Prior to that, Marco interned at the Embassy of Mexico in the United States and McLarty Associates, where he conducted reports on US-Mexico economic relations.

Marco holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from Davidson College. He also spent a year at the London School of Economics, where he studied Finance and Economic Development.

Rachel Waldman

Rachel advises public, private, and non-profit clients on leveraging their existing assets, funding, and influence to promote mission-aligned real estate and affordable housing development.

Rachel was previously a Project Manager with RKG Associates where she advised public and private sector clients in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on real estate development feasibility, fiscal and economic impacts, and economic development strategies.

Prior to joining RKG Associates, Rachel was a Senior Associate at RCLCO Real Estate Advisors, where she advised both private and public sector clients on a variety of housing, real estate, and economic development decisions. Her experience ranged from working on site-specific developments to larger neighborhood and community plans. She also worked as an Associate at Promontory Financial Group, an IBM company, assisting financial institutions on risk management and regulatory compliance issues.

Rachel holds a B.A. in Economics and Geographical Sciences, Cum Laude from the University of Maryland – College Park.

Stephan Petryczka

Stephan brings 6 years of real estate development and project management experience to clients across the country.

Stephan has worked in affordable housing for much of his career. Previously, he was an Associate Project Manager for Bellwether Housing, Seattle’s largest nonprofit housing developer. At Bellwether, Stephan amassed an understanding of complex financing and construction processes working on 2 of Washington State’s largest mixed-use, mixed-income developments in history. Stephan oversaw the development of 650+ units.

Prior to his work in the Seattle area, Stephan worked in New York at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), where he developed strategies to leverage private capital toward environmental sustainability in multifamily developments. At the Housing Partnership, Stephan managed the leasing, home sale, and compliance efforts of 4 Inclusionary Housing projects.

Stephan holds a Master of Urban Planning from NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a B.A. in Political Science from SUNY New Paltz.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​