Nisha Mistry, Esq., MSc. is a New York-licensed attorney and seasoned community economic development professional whose clients have included the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Brookings Metro. Her work focuses on place-based strategies for supporting economic equity in cities and metropolitan regions.

Nisha has 15 years of multidisciplinary experience spanning operational management, consulting, policy advising, applied research, and teaching. She has authored reports on urban reindustrialization strategy for the Brookings Institution and contributed, as an editor and author, to various legal and urban policy publications. Nisha founded Fulkee LLC in 2021.

About Fulkee LLC

Fulkee (meaning “spark” in Hindi) is a minority woman-owned, think-and-do consultancy that supports clients and partners working to advance high-road community economic development. The firm does this by helping them analyze and navigate regulatory, governance, and market environments and develop targeted strategies to meet their goals.

Fulkee provides consulting services and technical assistance to public, private, and nonprofit partners and clients across the U.S. Its approach to problem solving starts with a careful ear and assessment of diverse stakeholder interests and ends with measurable results. Fulkee has worked across a range of sectors and scales, from site-specific projects to metropolitan/regional initiatives.

About Nisha Mistry, Founding Principal

Nisha Mistry is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs, Levin College of Public Affairs and Education, at Cleveland State University. She teaches courses in Urban & Regional Studies and Public Administration, including a Senior Seminar that focuses on community-engaged action research. Her goal as an educator is to help students bridge classroom learning and practical experience across the diverse disciplines that shape life in cities.

Prior to launching Fulkee, Nisha was an appointed Assistant Commissioner with the City of New York’s Department of Small Business Services (NYC SBS), where she served in the agency’s Division of Economic & Financial Opportunity. At NYC SBS, she grew a team of analysts and auditors from eight to fifteen and oversaw operations that resulted in a historic high of over 9,000 City-certified minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) in 2019. This represented 145% growth in the number of City-certified M/WBEs over the previous five years and marked a major step forward in expanding the pool of procurement-ready M/WBE vendors in the NYC metro area. Nisha was also responsible for managing audit procedures associated with agency performance in the areas of M/WBE engagement and contracting, as required by NYC’s Local Law 1.

Before joining NYC SBS, Nisha served as the first full-time Director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham Law School. The multidisciplinary Center is committed to investigating the role of law and legal systems in contemporary urbanism. On behalf of the Center, Nisha developed and led a research partnership with the Urban Legislation Unit of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), which is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. While at Fordham, she also served as co-editor, with Professor Nestor Davidson, of Law Between Buildings: Emergent Global Perspectives in Urban Law (Routledge, 2017).

Nisha has worked as a Research Coordinator, as well as a Manager, at Bloomberg Associates. While working for Bloomberg Associates, Nisha contributed to project delivery for several U.S. and global cities, including Detroit and Bogota, Colombia. Her work with the consultancy focused on strategies for enhancing municipal operational integrity and equitable development, including in the areas of land banking and city contracting.

Previously, Nisha served as the City of Newark's first Manufacturing Policy Advisor, under Deputy Mayor & Director for Economic Development Adam Zipkin, and as a Mayor's Office Fellow. As a Fellow, she facilitated the formation of a Newark Manufacturing Advisory Network and Working Group representing over 30 community stakeholders and oversaw the development of Newark’s first-ever manufacturing strategy. Nisha was also responsible for advising the City and its partners on manufacturing issues in connection with citywide master planning, zoning, and redevelopment efforts.

As part of the Newark Manufacturing Initiative, and on behalf of the City, Nisha led survey and community outreach activities that amplified the experiences and insights of Newark’s industrial employers, workers, and educators. These activities framed local concerns and needs in the context of Newark’s post-Hurricane Sandy recovery. They also highlighted opportunities to improve residents’ access to family-wage jobs and strengthen regional supply chains.

Nisha has delivered presentations and spoken on panels nationally and globally, including at the Executive Master's Program in Cities at the London School of Economics, United Nations Headquarters (watch here), Fordham Law School (watch here), Ford Foundation, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Her past distinctions include serving as a Non-Resident Fellow with Brookings Metro (2012-2013) and as a Visiting Fellow at Rutgers Business School-Newark, Rutgers University (2013-2014).

She is a 2008 recipient of a Graduate Merit Award (merit-based tuition scholarship) from the London School of Economics. In 2007, Nisha was awarded a Denise Carty-Bennia Memorial Bar Award from Northeastern University School of Law.

Nisha began her career as a Staff Attorney/Law Graduate in the Civil Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, where she worked on tenant legal advocacy in Brooklyn during the subprime mortgage crisis. She has served on the Board of Northeastern University School of Law’s Alumni/ae Association.

She holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, MSc. (With Distinction) in City Design & Social Science from the London School of Economics, and B.A. in Political Science (Honors) from Barnard College in New York City. At Barnard, Nisha was a disc jockey on WBAR 87.9FM, the college radio station, and tutored children in grades K-5 at various Harlem afterschool programs, including at Grosvenor Neighborhood House.

Nisha was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1980 to immigrant parents. She attended New York public schools and speaks Gujarati, Hindi, and German. Outside of work, she is involved with community-based arts and athletics and enjoys kayaking urban waterways.