Meet the 2026 Jane’s Walk NYC Steering Committee

Daisy González, deputy director of Public Realm Partnerships, Operations & Programs at NYC DOT

Daisy González is the Deputy Director of Public Realm Partnerships, Operations & Programs at NYC DOT, where she leads inclusive, community-driven initiatives that enhance public spaces, improve mobility, and promote walkability across New York City. Through her career at NYC DOT, she has helped expand bike infrastructure, activate public plazas, and manage large-scale citywide programming. Daisy brings experience in planning, community engagement, and partnership-building, with a strong focus on accessibility, equity, and sustainability. She is passionate about creating public spaces that reflect and serve the needs of diverse communities and is proud to support efforts like Jane’s Walk that connect people to their neighborhoods. She also serves on her local Community Board and is an active advocate for transportation equity. Outside of work, Daisy enjoys running, cycling, walking in Pelham Bay Park, and exploring the city she proudly calls home.

Justine Gubar, producer, showrunner and sports journalist

Justine Gubar is an Emmy Award-winning producer, showrunner and sports journalist. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport.

Justine has lead major industry institutions and premier sports organizations, serving as the Head of Sports Emmys for the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Director of Broadcast Operations for New York Road Runners and as a producer for ESPN.

Beyond the screen and classroom, Justine, as a native New Yorker, is deeply invested in the fabric of New York City, maintaining a keen interest in urbanism, community building, and the lived environment.

Jess Joseph, co-founder of Gals About Town

Jess Joseph is an educator, writer, and tour guide. Born in Kerala, India and raised in New York City, she is driven by curiosity, connection, and meaning-making. Jess is currently a high school administrator with expertise in career development; a writer and community manager with The New York Groove (a local worker-owned publication); and the co-founder of Gals About Town, a walking tour company featured in The New York Times and CUNY Arts TV, with collaborations with MAS and PBS. She believes learning can happen anywhere, and is passionate about creating experiences that bring this to life: in classrooms, cities, creative spaces, and beyond. 

Katie Devin Orenstein, theater artist and theater worker

Katie Devin Orenstein (she/they) is a theater artist and worker in New York City whom the New York Times described in 2025 as “an effusive stranger” and in 2023 as “a recent college graduate.” They make theater to stay human and hunt for the sublime. Recent directing: You Can’t Take It With You in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; an experimental bureaucratic Hamlet in Williamsburg; Pretty Filthy at Dartmouth College, readings of new plays by Victoria Provost, August Guzkowski, and others. Assisting: Jewish Plot dir. Sarah Hughes (world premiere, Vulture’s Best Theater of 2025), Out of Order dir. Skylar Fox (world premiere, New York Times’ best of 2025), Glengarry Glen Ross dir. Patrick Marber. Writing: The Hall of Human Origins (2025 National Playwrights Conference semifinalist.) Additional Broadway: producer’s assistant on Maybe Happy Ending and Purlie Victorious. Upcoming: Computer, Enhance!, a new play about fandom as a cause and cure for insanity, co-writing and performing with Will Bruno; directing a bi-lingual English/Mandarin musical; EP’ing Matt Minnicino’s Jewish lesbian vampire project. katiedevinorenstein.com // insta @katieorenstein_

Daniel Pecoraro, historian

Daniel Pecoraro (he/they) is a historian focused on urban history of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Daniel has been part of the Jane’s Walk NYC community since 2015, and has been a licensed sightseeing tour guide in the City of New York since 2019. Daniel also serves as an Assistant Director of Programs at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, where they lead production of teacher professional development and curricular resources such as the Institute’s AP African American Studies Guide. Born and raised in Queens and a graduate of Hunter College, Daniel currently resides in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Questions? Email us at janeswalknyc@mas.org