We welcomed the 2018 Distinguished Alumna, Ms Skye Duncan, to the College on Monday 18 November.

Ms Duncan lives in New York and her Distinguished Alumni award was presented in absentia in September so it was wonderful that she could visit and speak at the Middle School assembly on Monday.

We also welcomed some of Ms Duncan’s year-group friends along and there was plenty of laughter and chat as they caught up with one another. Ms Duncan’s parents, Mrs Jenny Duncan (a former Columba teacher) and Mr Stephen Duncan, also attended along with Ms Duncan’s niece.

Ms Duncan spoke about the importance of people and how her work as a top international urban designer is focused on improving people’s lives. She encouraged students to think broadly as they begin to consider their future careers and to always be kind.

You can listen to an interview with Ms Duncan from Kim Hill’s Saturday morning programme on RNZ here.

Ms Duncan attended the College from 1991 to 1997 and has gone on to a noteworthy international career in urban design. She has a Bachelor of Architecture with Honours from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and she graduated as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University New York in the Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design program.

Ms Duncan is an urban designer with over 15 years of experience in architecture, urban design and planning, and spent seven years working as a Senior Urban Designer at the New York City Department of City Planning in their Office of the Chief Urban Designer. There, she worked on design projects in all five boroughs involving streets, public spaces, housing, and institutional buildings, while collaborating with multiple agencies and organizations on citywide policies to make New York a more sustainable, resilient, livable, and healthy city.

Ms Duncan has worked professionally as an International Urban Design Consultant in Brazil, Colombia, Canada and New Zealand, and was an Associate Professor at Columbia University in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation for seven years.

She is presently the Director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) in New York where she has been leading a multi-year program funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop the new Global Street Design Guide and to provide technical assistance to cities around the world on safe and sustainable street design, including São Paulo and Fortaleza in Brazil, Bogotá in Columbia, Mumbai in India, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.