Bloomberg Data for Good Fellow

Overview

As an Immersion Fellow for the Bloomberg Data for Good Exchange, I collaborated with the Natural Areas Conservancy (NAC) to analyze patterns of accessibility to forests and wetlands across New York City. The goal was to uncover disparities in how different communities could access natural spaces and identify barriers related to transportation, demographics, and public infrastructure.

My Role

• Led data cleaning, integration, and analysis of multiple civic datasets related to transit, demographics, and public health.
• Performed spatial analysis to model accessibility to natural areas using GIS and Python workflows.
• Created data visualizations and summary reports to help NAC better understand community access patterns.
• Synthesized findings into clear narratives designed for both internal stakeholders and potential public communication.

My Approach

Building Make Women Count was grounded in community-centered design principles:

• Data Cleaning: Cleaned and integrated diverse datasets, including NYC transit systems, bike lane networks, U.S. Census demographic data, and community health survey results.
• Spatial Analysis: Used network analysis to measure travel times from different neighborhoods to the nearest forests and wetlands.
• Equity Analysis: Assessed how access varied by income, race/ethnicity, and health indicators to uncover systemic inequities.
• Visualization: Built clear, accessible maps and charts highlighting gaps in access and opportunities for improvement.

Data Sources

• NYC Transit System Data (MTA)
• NYC Bike Lane Network Data
• ACS
• Community Health Survey Data

Tools and Technologies

Impact

• Delivered an internal report that helped NAC identify neighborhoods with critical access gaps to natural areas.
• Supported strategic planning around advocacy for expanded public green space access in underserved communities.
• Build research and technical capacity by involving student researchers and community voices directly in the creation process.
• Received positive feedback from Bloomberg and NAC staff for the clarity of the analysis and its potential policy implications.