Qianning Tang has joined Transform as a program coordinator. They will be working on the Safe Routes to Schools program, primarily in elementary and middle schools in Alameda, Fremont, Albany, and Oakland.

Qianning (pronounced Channing) emigrated to California from Guangzhou, China at the age of 12 and has lived in Oakland since then. Growing up in these cities with vastly different paces of development, context, and fabric, they found a passion for understanding our built environment and its many intersectional impacts on people and communities. 

They hold a BA in Sustainable Environmental Design and minored in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and hope to center community engagement strategies to transition decision making and organizing power into community members’ own hands. 

Qianning also wants to facilitate more community ownership beginning with engagement as the first step to understanding needs and barriers. This can look like transit safety and the Safe Routes to Schools program, for example, but can also manifest in many other critical ways where residents interact with our built environment through Transform as one of many channels and opportunities. Land is the basis of our freedom, and our ability to navigate/engage/understand our environment is a critical entry into decolonizing work. 

During Qianning’s time at Transform, they hope to build strong and trusting relationships with champions and other community workers and tap into the resilient power of healthy networks. They are excited to join Transform and start a justice- and access-focused career. 

As part of Transform’s program team, Qianning looks forward to helping youth discover the joy in walking and rolling that they have found in being a new bike rider, which has allowed them a completely new way of seeing and moving through the world. 

We are thrilled to have Qianning as part of our program team.