Forrest Sparks

CUNY Climate Assembly Project - Program Lead

NYC CJH- Project Manager

Forrest Sparks is  Program Lead for the CUNY Climate Assembly Project (CCAP) and the Project Manager for the CUNY Climate Justice Hub. His work spans from designing democratic processes to co-create climate futures to managing the collaborative partnerships between CUNY and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA).

Forrest’s work centers on democratic design for regenerative civic, economic, and ecological systems. Forrest co-founded  The Assembly Project (TAP),  a laboratory for a more expansive and collaborative democratic system. TAP’s work includes co- designing and implementing NYC’s first city-wide deliberative participatory budgeting process, leading the CUNY Climate Assembly Project with the City University of New York, creating the course Design for Democracy at The New Schools, leading workshops with political actors in Washington State and NYC, and developing the Civic Assembly Collaborative Civic Ecosystem Model to scale the impact of participatory policy-making.

Before TAP, Forrest’s work included developing strategy for global community health worker programs with the International Rescue Committee, co-designing a sustainable food system for local solidarity economies with the University of Texas RGV, and Co-organizing and curating TEDxMcAllen. 

In his free time, Forrest is a proud sourdough dad, overly enthusiastic about volleyball and commuting around NYC on his bike, and is learning to play folk music on the guitar.

Forrest’s excitement for this work is fueled by the mission to redesign how we practice democracy in our civic institutions.

Email: [email protected]