Larisa Ortiz is a nationally recognized urban planner and retail strategist with nearly 30 years of experience advancing downtown revitalization and commercial district strategy across the United States. She is a former New York City Planning Commissioner and currently serves as Managing Director of Streetsense’s Public and Nonprofit Solutions Team. Larisa holds a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she specialized in city planning and urban economics. Her work focuses on the intersection of retail, land use, and economic development in post-pandemic cities. She is the author of the forthcoming book Storefront Streets: The New Science of Urban Retail.