Youth. Creative. agency.

+ Bio

Quardean Lewis-Allen is the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit youth creative agency and innovation hub, Youth Design Center, which provides a gateway for young people in his native Brownsville community and beyond to access mentorship to tackle underrepresentation in STEAM professions, cyclical poverty, and to address the need for place-based community revitalization. He has over a decade of interdisciplinary design experience working across public and private sectors at the intersection of tactical urbanism and social activism through community-led design.

Lewis-Allen was an Adjunct Lecturer at City College of New York and NYU Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Program where he was also a Human-In-Residence Fellow. He serves on the Board of Brownsville Community Development Corporation and the Ocean Hill Brownsville Coalition of Young Professionals. He is an Emerging Leaders Fund recipient of Claneil Foundation, Crain’s Under 40, Forbes Under 30, America’s Promise Alliance’s People of Promise Awardee and an Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, amongst other accolades. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from SUNY Buffalo and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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Brittany Bellinger is a writer, arts educator, curriculum designer, and Brooklyn native. She has over 8+ years in youth development work, most notably as a Curriculum Coordinator for the Harlem Children’s Zone. She is a graduate of SUNY Empire State College with a Bachelors of Arts in Public Affairs with a concentration in Urban Planning.

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Eloy Ortega joined the YDC in March 2020 as a Visual Design instructor. He brings a passion for technology, patience and creativity to teaching in the classroom. A 2010 graduate of FIT, he combines a strong sense of design and extensive knowledge of print and web media. With over 20 years of experience in visual design, he shares life-learned lessons to prepare his students for the industry. His joy comes from seeing his students work through complex problems and leveraging their newfound knowledge to solve them.