Bernardita is passionate about urban livability, walkability, and sustainability. As a Human Ecologist and Environmental Planner, she has directed over 35 environmental and sustainable development studies for multibillion infrastructure investment projects in the US and abroad. Bernardita has been involved in multi-sector stakeholder negotiations representing international, private, government sectors and indigenous communities.

Several of her projects won awards for excellence in engineering through the application of geographic information systems to map environmental impacts and place-based environmental solutions. As a UN Fellow, she studied the slum crisis in the Philippines, promoted shelter as a human right, and proposed a socialized mass housing strategy as an alternative to the World Bank’s affordability-based model to solve the housing crisis.

Two years ago, Bernardita launched Walkspan. Her interest in walkability and urban livability is deeply rooted in her years of environmental work in the transportation and urban sectors.  She now dedicates her career toward unfolding the power of place by leveraging the largest repository of data on the walking environment through AI-driven metrics.

Bernardita holds PhD and Master’s degrees in Environmental Science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York.