Philip Silva, PhD

Philip Silva, PhD, is Director, Community Impact at American Express. He is the co-founder and former executive director of TreeKIT, an initiative that helped the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation mobilize thousands of volunteers to accurately map and inventory nearly 700,000 street trees in 2015.

As an Outreach Fellow of the Design Trust for Public Space's "Five Borough Farm" initiative, Philip worked with community gardeners in NYC to co-create a kit of easy-to-use methods for measuring the positive impacts of urban agriculture. Philip has designed, facilitated, and evaluated adult learning experiences focused on leadership and the environment for the National Recreation and Park Association, the Central Park Conservancy, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Environmental Leadership Program, the Cornell Civic Ecology Lab, the Design Trust for Public Space, and many others.

He has served on the Core Consulting Team for Global Learning Partners, an adult learning service company, and as a Storytelling Trainer for BB&Co., a strategic communications consultancy. Philip holds a Ph.D. in natural resources from Cornell University, where his research focused on knowledge production, participatory research, and communities of practice in urban environmental stewardship organizations. He is a part-time lecturer in qualitative research methods at The New School.

​Philip enjoys exploring the many parks, coastlines, and historic sites of Monmouth County—often with his partner, Matt, and their dog, Fox.