Barbara Knecht

Barbara Knecht is a project leader at the Urban Farming Institute of Boston. Barbara has over two decades of experience in urban development and design.

Barbara started their career as an urban consultant in 1992. Her work focused on housing development, service and employment programs for homeless families and adults, universal design, neighborhood planning, research, and program evaluation. In 2004, they became the director of design at the Institute for Human Centered Design. At IHCD, they worked to promote social justice through design.

In 2010, Knecht joined Strategies for Cities as a Kruckemeyer & Knecht fellow. In this role, they worked on a comparative academic program investigating systems of cities through the lens of people, planning and politics. Barbara also served as faculty for the Politics & Development program.

Knecht has been with the Urban Farming Institute since 2012. In their current role, they lead the farm site development team. Under their leadership, UFI has developed numerous urban farms across Boston.

Barbara Knecht has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Barbara also has a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. Barbara is currently a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University.

Barbara Knecht reports to Patricia E. Spence, President & CEO. Barbara Knecht works with Sabrina Pilet-Jones - Assistant Farm Manager, Tristram Keefe - Farm Enterprise Manager, and Nataka S. Crayton - Operations Manager.