GOOD Design: Innovations in Sustainability

According to New York Times journalist Alice Rawsthorn, "If you ask a designer to name the most important issues facing design today, one is bound to be sustainability, which is design-speak for helping the rest of us to live responsibly, ethically and environmentally."

Everyday all different kinds of designers join the sustainability community using production techniques that positively impact the lives of consumer and producers. GOOD Design is an open dialogue around what sustainability design means today and how innovation is breaking the boundaries in social enterprise, fashion, architecture, and education.

Speakers include:

Debera Johnson

Debera Johnson, started her career at Pratt as a student in the Industrial Design program and returned to the department to teach and was selected to chair the ID program from 1998 until 2005.  Currently she is Pratt’s Academic Director of Sustainability and has been working across the institute to implement Pratt’s strategic commitment to link the greening of its campus with greening of its academic programs.

She is also director of Pratt’s Center for Sustainable Design Studies and Research (CSDS), a hub and open source resource center for environmental action. Deb founded and directs the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable/Social Enterprise, now under the umbrella of CSDS. The Incubator, started in 2002, supports Pratt’s entrepreneurial alumni in starting design based sustainable/social enterprises and has helped launch over 12 businesses. The Incubator also takes on numerous for profit and non-profit projects, connecting a network of faculty, alumni and students to work on world changing projects. Deb was the chair of the NYC chapter of the IDSA and is the strategic director for education for the “Designers Accord.” Recently, she established the “Sustainability Cohort” an inter-institute group of educators envisioning the future of design education.

Rita Saikali

Lebanese American designer Rita Saikali, is currently the Director of Outreach and Advocacy at Architecture for Humanity New York and a Designer at Samoo Architecture PC. Having grown up in Beirut, and lived and worked in both Los Angeles and New York City, Rita's philanthropic passions and dedication to design advocacy and education have landed her in several leadership roles, and on projects of varied scales and mediums.  At Architecture for Humanity, Rita has initiated and managed several projects including AFHnyFlyNY international design competition, among others. Working with Hoops for Hope, she designed and curated the fabrication of a prototype container clubhouse to be featured in the Spring of 2010. She has also taught the Architecture Studio for Stickball Print Media Arts in the Summer of 2008, was invited to partake in the Cooper Hewitt’s annual Teen Design Fair in the Fall of 2009.  Rita also recently invited to judge for The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in the Winter of 2010. She received her Masters of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in 2007, and her Bachelors in Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona in 2005.

Sheena Matheiken

Irish born, Indian raised and Brooklyn based, Sheena is the founder, creative director and public face of the Uniform Project. In May 2009, Sheena challenged herself to wear the same dress for an entire year and reinvent it everyday by way of accessorizing with vintage, handmade, recycled or donated goods. The project’s social mission was to raise funds for the Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit organization that has dedicated over 20 years towards the education of underprivileged children in India.

A former Creative Director at a Publicis owned interactive agency in New York, Sheena started the Uniform Project as a creative outlet to counter the apathy inducing demands of her Park Avenue advertising job. With an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, NY and a BFA in Art from Stella Maris College, Chennai, India, her experience in digital design and online media has been key to the positioning and viral success of the Uniform Project. Converging the unusual avenues of sustainable fashion and digital philanthropy, the U.P is now a growing digital platform that puts social responsibility at the center of consumer culture.

Moderator:

Emily Spivack

Emily Spivack’s work spans social innovation, culture, and fashion. She is currently the Director of Dowser, a recently launched media organization that highlights news and stories about social innovation. Prior to Dowser, Emily spent six years as the Executive Director of Shop Well with You, a national web-based organization she founded that helps women with cancer improve their body-image and quality of life. Since 2007, Emily has curated a collection of stories about clothing and memory from eBay posts for a blog she maintains, Sentimental Value. Emily serves on the board of Brown University’s Entrepreneurship Program, is an award recipient of Eileen Fisher’s Women Change the World Everyday campaign, and was one of Glamour’s Top 10 College Women. She graduated from Brown University with Honors with a degree in Art/Semiotics.

About NYWSE

NYWSE’s mission is to provide a community, tools, trainings, and resources that women need to succeed as business leaders while becoming sustainability experts, and our vision is to empower women to effect change in society at all levels, as an individual, community member, professional, student, and entrepreneur.