Gilda Haas
Core Faculty, MA in Urban Sustainability
Biography
Gilda Haas is an organizer, educator, and urban planner who has been helping grassroots organizations build economies from the ground up for thirty years. She has also taught economic development at UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning for over 25 years, where she was also the founding Director of their Community Scholars Program.
Haas recently transitioned out of her position as the founding director of Strategic Actions for A Just Economy (SAJE), an economic justice and development organization that is dedicated to building economic power for working-class people in Los Angeles. SAJE’s achievements include leading the effort to negotiate the “Staples Agreement” between the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice and the Anschutz Entertainment Group; creating the nation’s first welfare-to-work bank account; and organizing the autonomous Figueroa Corridor Community Land Trust.
