Ishaan
Barrett

Ishaan is a current Senior at Columbia University majoring in Urban Studies and Political Science. Originally, from Washington, DC, Ishaan attended the Maret School before moving to New York for college.

His research broadly engages with questions in architectural theory, economics, public policy, and urban affairs. Ishaan’s previous work centers on contemporary urbanism in DC and New York; mayoral governance in New York City; architectural design and urban planning; and public policy analysis and immigration law.

Ishaan has been featured in the New York Review of Architecture and published in URBAN magazine at Columbia University GSAPP, the Harvard Urban Review, the Columbia Policy Journal, Pidgin Magazine at the Princeton School of Architecture, and The Barnard-Columbia Urban Review of which he was the former the Editor-In-Chief. He is former President of Columbia Global Research and Consulting, a social impact consulting group at Columbia University that works with nonprofits around the world concentrating in government, education, and public health.

Currently, Ishaan works as a Columnist for the Columbia Daily Spectator and the Columbia Political Review. He has previously held positions at the New York Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), FTI Consulting Inc., and has been selected for numerous competitive research fellowships within and beyond Columbia.

Ishaan serves as the Founding Partner and Principal of the Urban Equity Institute (UEI), a close-knit global think tank dedicated to tackling pressing, interdisciplinary social issues through innovative research. At UEI, is also the Co-Director of the Democracy and Public Policy Practice (DPP) which leads policy work and research on democratic governance and policy reform. He also Co-Directs UEI’s Policy Intelligence Lab (PILab) that develops public sector scholarship using Machine Learning and AI-assisted research.