Larae is a science communications professional. For AMS Institute, Larae tells the story behind the research, how technological innovations are used to create more resilient, regenerative, and just cities. She writes about the full breadth of AMS Institute’s mission: how cities become more circular, lay the foundations for climate resilience, succeed in the energy transition, optimize our food systems, foster smart mobility on roads and waterways, and steward responsible digitization.
This involves conducting interviews with the researchers, engineers, civic leaders, and partners who are actively designing urban solutions — and translating their collaboration for policymakers, journalists, citizens, and fellow researchers who need to understand how their work benefits everyday life in practice.
Her work appears on the AMS Institute website, in the annual Impact Digest, through strategizing our overarching message to the public, and in press outreach to journalists covering urgent urban questions — from the housing shortage and dangerous summertime heat to electricity network congestion and equitable access to green energy.
The inner workings of cities have been a recurring theme. After years of television and newspaper reporting covering city politics in the United States, she moved to Europe to obtain a master's in Political Science (specialization International Relations) from the University of Amsterdam, where she developed a keen interest in the history and landscape of Mokum and its surrounds. She later edited and co-wrote the Amsterdam municipality's first handbook for private-public partnerships in the city's emerging tech startup ecosystem — an early signal of where her interests were heading.
As an environmentalist at heart and lover of Amsterdam, Larae hopes to always somehow contribute to this convergence of academic research, policy, and sustainable urban planning.
“My ecological and social conscience fuels a belief that science-backed policy can help solve many challenges cities face.”