Trained as both an engineer and as an architect, Felecia Davis is known for her rigorous investigation of Architextiles. Or rather, using digital soft fabrication and computation, Davis studies the intersection of architecture and textile production in the pursuit of constructing inhabitable space.

As Principal of her own firm, Allison Grace Williams’s execution of commercial, civic, and corporate projects allows her to lead by example; Williams’s designs seamlessly integrate urban context, history, climate, and cultural demands with her personal and professional design agendas.

Landscape architect, author, and program director of landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington, Diane Jones Allen creates work committed to environmental justice, sustainability, and the cultural significance of landscape while advocating for the transformative potential of design.

Toni L. Griffin is the founder of Urban Planning and Design for the American City, based in New York. Through the practice, Toni served as Project Director the long range planning initiative of the Detroit Work Project, and in 2013 completed and released Detroit Future City, a comprehensive citywide framework plan for urban transformation.

Co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention (ds4si). His interests focus on the research and development of design tools for marginalized communities to address complex social issues. With over three decades of experience in community practice, Bailey brings a unique perspective on the ethics of design in relation to community engagement, the arts and cultural action.

Raised in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia by parents who vastly expanded his understanding of the world through travel. This early exposure to people of different cultures led to his interest in cultivating genuine relationships and discovering the inherent differences and similarities that define people and communities.

A Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, designer, creative technologist, and researcher who is passionate about exploring the relationships between various forms of design and the human experience.

An out-of-the-box thinker who pushes hard for equity and inclusion for those that are undervalued and overlooked. Her goal is inclusion, by creating and supporting additional pipelines that enhances the city's innovation mix by focusing on women, housing, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Jerome Harris is a graphic designer originally from New Haven, Connecticut and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Harris holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University and a BA from Temple University. Harris is the Design Director of Housing Works, a non-profit organization fighting the HIV/AIDS and homelessness crisis in New York City.

Billy Almon is a designer and storyteller who highlights the connection between nature, technology, and design. Over the last 3 years Billy has been traveling around the world exploring how biological strategies are being used to inspire solutions to human challenges through the process called Biomimicry.

Denise Shanté Brown is a holistic design strategist, mental health advocate, creative healer and feminist entrepreneur co-designing possibilities for health and healing in Baltimore.

Nia K. Evans is the Director of the Boston Ujima Project. Her educational background is in the areas of labor relations, education leadership, and policy. Her advocacy includes a focus on eliminating barriers between analysts and people with lived experiences as well as increasing acknowledgement of the value of diverse types of expertise in policy.

Charles is a third-year student at Northeastern University studying Economics and Mathematics with a minor in Psychology. At Northeastern, Charles is the Director of Northeastern Students Against Institutional Discrimination (SAID), a coalition of student activists confronting institutional marginalization by empowering students to become better organizers through political education and direct action.

Adolphus Opara (Lagos, Nigeria). Opara’s work is induced by encounters with people and their daily effort to exist amidst obstacles that define and situate their individual locality. Opara uses visual storytelling to better understand as well as to show his connection to the issues that confronts him daily. Opara’s work has been widely exhibited at many international venues including the Tate Modern in London.

Through a multidisciplinary creative practice, De Nichols mobilizes global changemakers to activate ideas that address civic and social challenges within their communities. Based in St. Louis, MO, De Nichols serves as the Social Impact Design Principal of Civic Creatives, a design strategy agency that develops interactive experiences, tools, and initiatives to help communities engage issues of civic disengagement, youth development, social inclusion, food access and security, and arts & cultural policy.