Carolyn Whelan frames and shapes programming for signature conferences at the Urban Land Institute New York, with a focus on home affordability, decarbonization, and equity. As communications strategist, Carolyn has conceived, developed and implemented a sweeping marketing strategy, and curated and produced compelling content for ULI NY's first-ever annual report, a quarterly profile series, a monthly event recap newsletter, and a weekly upcoming events digest.
Earlier, Carolyn covered climate change, transit and cities for DrivingChange.org, and managed workflow and a global team for The Economist Education Fintech course. Carolyn's work for a range of sectors helps her design and deliver campaigns with clever and compelling messages, stories, data, and visuals, for maximum reach and impact. Carolyn's other roles include Senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, where she oversaw research programs on topics such as jobs and sustainability for the Rockefeller, Citi and UN Foundations.
Prior to this, Carolyn contributed articles to Fortune, Newsweek, The IHT and SciAm.com on topics ranging from real estate arbitrage and retirement hot spots, to women’s work in Latin America, Brazil’s looming crisis, and low-cost therapy in Argentina. She has also covered healthcare for Dow Jones Newswires in Paris, technology for Barron’s Online, and a number of geopolitical topics as a writer for PwC, the UN, Columbia Business School, EY, and the WWF.
Carolyn earned a Masters in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School and holds degrees in Communications and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She is a Columbia 2016 Ageboom Fellow and 2006 Knight-Bagehot Fellow.
Carolyn broke into journalism covering the Earth Summit. Her broad experience and exposure to many issues, countries and sources help her spot unique attention-grabbing angles on well-trodden topics for prescient campaigns, reports and programs.