The Van Alen Institute announced today its next executive director will be Hayley Eber.Eber will take the helm at the urban design nonprofit following a three-year stint as acting dean of the Cooper Unions Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Eber follows the tenure of previous Van Alen executive director Deborah Marton, who announced in July 2024 she would depart from the position after five years on the job. Under Martons leadership the organization tweaked its mission and moved its operations to a former garage in Gowanus, Brooklyn.At Cooper Union, Eber centered accessibility and equity in an educational realm, a mission equally important to the community-focused work of Van Alen.Theres a lot of alignment with the missions and the ethos of the two institutions, Eber told AN. So when my term was coming to an end, this opportunity was super exciting for me to re-pivot and align with an institute that is similarly engaged in the mission.In a statement, R. May Lee, Van Alen Board Chair, said Ebers keen ability to foster a welcoming culture builds on Van Alens history of convening people across disciplines. She brings a depth of design expertise and intellectual rigor that will be invaluable as Van Alen continues its 130-year commitment to design and its impact on the public realm in New York City.Looking back at her time leading the architecture school at Cooper Union, Eber remarked on the partnerships forged between the school and local institutionsnamely the Met, Museum of Modern Art, Storefront Gallery for Art and Architecture, and a83. Under her stead, changes were made to the schools pedagogy and core coursework to promote diversity and inclusion; she also helped secure funding for fellowships, scholarships, and research initiatives. At Van Alen, Eber hopes to deepen the organizations community engagement work and foster more interdisciplinary collaboration. She hopes to relaunch the Van Alens Paris Prize, a competition from the nonprofit that champions bold ideas for civic spaces. Eber first connected with the Van Alen Institute as a practicing architect by participating in the nonprofits public space competitions.My hope is that Van Alen will be acknowledged as a leading Institute for innovative design solutions, as they once were, that addresses key local and global challenges we face today around social justice, technology, and environments, Eber added.Eber will continue working at Cooper Union through the end of the spring semester and assume her new role at Van Alen in June.