People

Lew Epstein Founder / CEO / Lot₂₁

Backstory: Wood, Tree, Forest, World

My affinity for wood began long ago.
From plain-sawn planks to sliced rare veneers, I was inspired by how this natural resource was so beloved across the built environment.

For the love of wood –– I became a furniture designer and woodworker, honed my craft and built my first company soon after.

Small works we produced in multiples sold to design boutiques and renowned retail stores. Large bespoke furniture was handcrafted for prominent corporations.
Wood mattered to everyone.

Before a decade passed, wood mattered in an unexpected way. And I became conflicted. While presenting images of a beautiful boardroom table we produced, a client asked me a simple yet profound question, “How was the wood harvested?” Although I knew the wood’s species and tree’s origin, I knew little about its harvesting or how this impacted its forest and local community. Facing all these questions, I felt responsible for something more than the wood itself because I was the interim guardian in its ‘chain of custody’. Completing the picture required understanding something bigger, more comprehensive, with more systemic roles to play. Now, stewardship mattered more.

To become better informed, I immersed myself in what was then an emerging forestry stewardship movement. Thereafter, I began contributing to reforestation projects that replenish these natural resources for new generations to benefit from too. Years later, I switched from small batch to large-scale manufacturing when I joined Steelcase (SCS) and its leadership. The difference in scale enabled me to launch a broader sustainable tree-planting program that greatly expanded our reforestation effort.

Today such efforts are dwarfed by the scale and velocity of climate change.

These accelerating conditions need a more collective, rapid, and bold response. After decades of leading Steelcase global brands, in 2021 I pivoted to dedicate my time to climate action. At first, I imagined focusing on reforestation. But the science informs us there isn’t enough land to plant enough trees that can draw down the excess CO₂ emissions trapped in our atmosphere. Reforestation remains a vital part of a climate action plan, but we need a more diversified portfolio of solutions to help restore our climate. A greater sense of stewardship is needed again, with a more comprehensive set of actions. Only now it’s to tackle climate change.

Beyond the wood, trees, and forests is a world that’s waiting for us to respond.

Our response needs a holistic climate restoration plan with grounded optimism and greater confidence in what we can achieve together. To that end, Lot₂₁ was created to advance climate action by helping more of the design community decarbonize the world.

Design touches every person on the planet. Climate change does too, which is why it’s a great time to join our lot now.

Shaun Fynn Founder / StudioFYNN

UK-born Shaun Fynn is a visual storyteller, designer, strategist, and author based in New York. A keen observer of culture and everyday life, his work crafts stories of resonance and empathy for brands, institutions, and culturally focused projects. He founded his design and brand development agency StudioFYNN over 20 years ago and has evolved a multi-disciplinary design and research practice embracing diverse forms of visual communication.

A graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, he has lived in the UK, Italy, India, and the US. His award-winning work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center in New York City, the Chicago Athenaeum, and the Weserburg in Bremen, Germany. He is the recipient of numerous awards and has been featured in Fast Company, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian.

He is the photographer and author of Departures: A Journey With India (Oro Editions/Goff books November 2022) and Chandigarh Revealed/Le Corbusier’s City Today (Princeton Architectural Press / Mapin 2017). He is also a contributing photographer and writer to Back to the Office: 50 Revolutionary Office Buildings and How They Sustained (nai010 publishers November 2022).

Fynn has been a visiting lecturer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, and is currently an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City. In 2015 he was nominated a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr. Erica Dodds Climate Restoration Expert & Educator

Erica Dodds, Ph.D., serves as Turn Forward’s Head of Team Impact and Operations. She has worked in the climate space for seven years, spending most of that time as the COO of a climate restoration advocacy nonprofit.

Previously, Erica’s career focused on evaluation and international development. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Evaluation and an M.A. in International Development Administration.

Erica’s lifelong interest in poverty reduction led her to study abroad in West Africa, intern with an NGO in rural India, and work for the Evaluation Office of the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

Seeing the impact of climate change on poor and marginalized communities drives Erica’s commitment to effective climate action today.

Nic Goldsmith Founding Director / LS Group at Silman

Nic Goldsmith FAIA LEED AP
 
Nic Goldsmith is the Founding Director of the Lightweight Structures Group at Silman a TYLin Company. Previously he was the Principal of FTL Design Engineering Studio a leading design firm specializing in membrane construction systems where Mr. Goldsmith has helped pioneer lightweight technologies over the past forty years into an art form. A graduate of Cornell University, Mr. Goldsmith’s work has been greatly influenced by Bucky Fuller, Felix Candela and Pritzker Prize winning Frei Otto with whom he apprenticed in Germany for three years.
 
Mr. Goldsmith designed FTL’s legacy projects including the Carlos Mosley Pavilion for the Metropolitan Opera, the Rosa Parks Transit Center, ASU Skysong, the DKNY Headquarters, and the Sun Valley Pavilion. He spearheads the firm’s innovation including the Cooper Hewitt’s “Under the Sun” exhibition with the first integrated PV tensile structure; an air lock for NASA’s Space Shuttle and the first wood clad cable net in the US.
 
Mr. Goldsmith has been a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Design Studio of University of Pennsylvania for fourteen years, an adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute, Cornell, Columbia University and Visiting Professor at Innsbruck, Austria. He has given a wide range of lectures on lightweight structures worldwide and was the Chair of the Fabric Structures Association. He has been featured in innumerable publications including an Architectural Monograph titled: FTL: Softness, Movement & Light, published by Academy Editions and his new book Mass to Membrane published by ORO Editions.
 
Awards include the 2021 AIA Twenty-five Year award, the Dupont Benedictus Award, the IDEA Bronze Award, over ten Regional and National AIA Design Awards, over 25 IFAI awards, the 28th Bard Award in NY, the Waterfront Center’s Award in Cincinnati and the State of Florida’s Governor’s Design Award.

Julia Huebner MBA Candidate / Harvard Business School

Julia is an incoming MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. She brings international M&A, private equity operations, and brand turnaround experience to the classroom.

Currently, she works for Tilia LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm that invests in a safer and more sustainable food supply chain. In her role, she contributes to the firm’s strategy and playbook for organizational transformation. She also helps drive value creation activities within portfolio companies.

Previously, she worked domestically and internationally for Steelcase, a global B2B office furniture manufacturer. Her contributions include project managing the integration of a Spanish subsidiary within Steelcase’s European footprint and activating Steelcase’s small and mid-sized enterprise (SME) strategy in the U.S. via a brand repositioning.

Julia graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, where she studied History and Human-Centered Design. As a Board member for Lot₂₁, she contributes to strategy, fundraising, and operations.

Alan Scott Director of Sustainability / Intertek

Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C, O+M, WELL AP, CEM, EcoDistricts AP

Alan is a registered architect and sustainability specialist with over 35 years of experience and a lifelong commitment to the living systems of planet Earth.
Early in his career in traditional architectural practice, he nurtured his budding passion for what came to be known as sustainable design, as he volunteered his time to build knowledge in his field as chair of the AIA Portland Committee on the Environment (COTE) and in other forums.

Since 2000, Alan has creatively applied his skills as a facilitator, consultant, collaborator, and teacher in support of high-performance, sustainable built environment projects in North and South America. His project work focuses on boosting new and existing building performance, decarbonization, occupant health and wellness, and resilience. Alan regularly presents on these topics at conferences and in webinars. Alan’s career commitment to advancing the practice of sustainable design was recognized in 2011 with his elevation to the AIA College of Fellows, and induction in the inaugural class of LEED Fellows by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). 
 
Alan believes deeply in giving back to advance environmental and social progress.
He served for 9 years on the board of Solar Oregon, including one term as board president, to build knowledge and adoption of renewable energy at a grassroots level. Alan currently serves on the board of EcoSchool Network, recently elected president, an organization dedicated to empowering parent volunteers and inspiring student leaders to initiate sustainability projects in their schools. He also serves on the board of Design Museum Everywhere, with the mission to inspire social change through the transformative power of design.

Additionally, Alan is currently volunteering as Vice-chair of the USGBC’s LEED Resilience Working Group and serving on the AIA Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Group and the USGBC’s LEED Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group.

Lisa Light Founder / Ideogram, Inc.

Lisa Light is a writer and editor, brand consultant, and creative advisor. In addition to her studio Ideogram, she is a founding partner in The Djinn Dept., a strategic branding agency based in Seattle. Through all her work Lisa helps people and businesses uncover their purpose, then articulates their unique story through strategy, naming, messaging, thought leadership, and books. 
 
In her practice Lisa moves between art and science, covering workplace and home design to industries including technology, sustainability, medical innovation, nutrition, and education. Her training in fine art, design, and poetry helps her bridge the worlds of word and image—giving form to ideas that are usually felt but not seen.

Chris Domina Partner / IDEO

As a partner and creative leader at IDEO, Chris Domina collaborates closely with clients and IDEO teams to bring bold new initiatives to market and transform organizations to be future-fit. A strong believer in the power of brand, Chris helps companies develop brand offers and experiences, the capabilities to deliver them along with the impact they create inside an organization and out in the world.

Based in San Francisco, Chris is a founding member of IDEO’s brand practice, and has helped to scale it across IDEO’s nine locations. For nearly two decades, he has led design teams as they build brands and create more agile, creative organizations.

Since he joined the company in 2001, Chris has partnered with clients across industries — including financial services, health, and retail — to help them become more human-centered, purpose-driven, and experience-led. He does his best work when he’s shoulder-to-shoulder with clients, helping them see and design the future of their organizations and the paths that will lead them there.

Chris is on the Board of Directors for Project Color Corps, a non-profit that believes in the power of color as a change agent to infuse a sense of well-being and energy into urban neighborhoods and schools nationwide.

Prior to joining IDEO, Chris was the director of design and a member of the executive management team at Metro, a furniture manufacturer and subsidiary of Steelcase. An industrial designer by training, he was responsible for the overall strategy, design direction, and new product development, and he has been awarded numerous patents. Though he has spent the last 25 years in California, Chris remains a Midwesterner at heart.

Chris Neidl Impact Director / Rethinking Removals

Chris Neidl is the Impact Director for Rethinking Removals, a London-based think/do tank accelerating the growth of the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) sector through research, analysis, and policy advocacy. 

Prior to entering the CDR field in 2018 he spent fifteen years in the renewable energy sector, serving in diverse high-impact roles as a policy analyst and advocate, business development specialist, and project manager in North America, South Asia, and East Africa.

In 2019 Chris co-founded OpenAir, a global volunteer collective launched in 2019 to advance carbon dioxide removal through member-driven advocacy.

Chris has also served as a consultant, advocate, and subject expert for Carbon180, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Boulder County Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience, the Carbon XPRIZE, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management; and as a founding board member of the Direct Air Capture Coalition and the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition. 

Chris is an upstate New York native. and long-time Brooklyn resident currently based in Austin, Texas.

Lauryn Menard Co-Founder / Creative Dir. / PROWL Studio

Lauryn Menard is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of PROWL. 

Her professional background has spanned the worlds of furniture, footwear, future forecasting, and material innovation in a global arena. She has worked with brands of all sizes such as Adobe, Nike, Apple, Google, Specialized Bikes, Concreteworks, Coalesse, MASH, Facebook, and others. Lauryn is also a professor of BioDesign
in the MFA Design program at CCA.

Baillie Mishler Co-Founder / Design Dir. / PROWL Studio

Baillie Mishler is the Co-Founder and Design Director of PROWL.

Her design roles at industry-leading companies such as Steelcase and Coalesse have instilled in her strong skills and detailed attention in industrial design, furniture production, color-material-finish development and specification, brand communications, and interior design.

Beth Dickstein Founder / CEO / bde&co

Beth Dickstein formed bde in 1996 after her role as Executive Publisher of Metropolis Magazine. In 2022, rebranding it to bde&co. acknowledging its services as a full-service agency for public relations, social and digital media, events, research and influencer marketing. bde&co. works with leading companies in the field of design, travel and food such as: Frette, FLOS, Homo Faber, Ligne Roset, Lissoni NY, Heller, etc. The firm covers clients from all over the world.
 
In 2018, bde&co. formed a strategic partnership with 14 Septembre, a like-minded agency with offices in Paris, Lyon, Milan, & London.
 
For over 20 years, Beth consulted for ICFF® on identifying new talent and securing participation of industry giants. In 2012 she co-founded Be Original Americas, a non-profit advocacy organization to inform, influence and educate on the value of original design. The organization has developed CEU accredited courses for design & architecture, works with U.S. Customs & Border Protection to identify copies and invests in a new generation of designers with a Student Fellowship, which, when virtual during the pandemic, attracted more than 3400 registered students from over 30 countries.
 
She is a frequent speaker on design, authenticity and marketing.

Emily Gordin Healthy Materials Fab. Manager / Leerform

Emily is a Brooklyn-based industrial designer and researcher. She manages healthy materials fabrication at Leerform Fabrication & Design, specifically focusing on developing materials and systems to repurpose local hemp waste.

Additionally, Emily is a part-time faculty member at Parsons School of Design, where she teaches bio-design and materials courses.

Jon Otis Founder / Principal / Object Agency

Jon Otis is the Founder and Principal of O|A – Object Agency founded in 1999. O|A is a multidisciplinary design studio and design strategy agency, whose work ranges from interior architecture and design, exhibition design, branding & visual communications, product design, web/ media design, and strategic consulting.

O|A clients have included: Sundance Channel, Nike/ESI Design, General Motors, Mercedes NA, Corning Museum of Glass, Vitra Design Museum, George Nakashima Woodworker, Edelman Leather, National Basketball Players Association, Tarkett/Tandus, Bentley Mills, & various residences for private clients.

Jon Otis is also a tenured Professor at Pratt Institute where he has taught for 26 years. He earned his BA from Moravian College, and MS Design from the University of Massachusetts. Otis’ credentials include having been awarded Fulbright and Lusk Fellowships to Italy where he spent three years working with Ettore Sottsass’ design studio. He has also lived and worked in Copenhagen, Denmark for six months.

Otis was honored by being named a 2009 Design Intelligence Most Admired Educator, the 2017 IIDA Educator of the Year, and was awarded the 2020 Robert Herbstman Memorial Leadership Award from Moravian University.

Additionally:

• Vice President, International Board of Directors IIDA (International Interior Design Association)
  Serving from 2018 – 23
• Trustee – IIDA Foundation (International Interior Design Association) 2020 – 24
• Co-Chair IIDA Equity Council 2021 – 23
• Board of Directors, IDCEC (International Design Continuing Education Council) 2022 – 24
• Co-Founder dxdf – Diversity by Design Fund (IIDA Foundation)
• Advisory Board, IIDA Advocacy Council 2023 – 24
• IIDA Annual Educator’s Roundtable (fifth year participating)
• IIDA Annual Industry Roundtable (fourth year participating)
• Pratt Creative Xchange – Director/Lead Research Investigator exploring funded projects with inter-disciplinary student teams.

Deidre Hoguet Director / Applied Research / Designtex

Deidre Hoguet is Director of Applied Research at Designtex, a Steelcase company dedicated to the creation of sustainable and innovative surface materials.

In this role, Deidre leads the research and development of next generation materials for Designtex and brings research-based insights to the design practice at the company. Deidre also investigates material flows and implements systems that benefit the circular economy.

Deidre currently serves as Chair of the Association for Contract Textiles’ Product Declarations group and as a company representative to the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. Deidre is an author and provider of accredited training courses for architects and designers on topics related to innovation, materials, and sustainability, and guest lectures regularly for students of New York School for Interior Design and Pratt Institute.

In civic life, Deidre is an ongoing delegate to the New York City Council’s Participatory Budgeting delegation.

Verda Alexander Co-Founder / Studio O+A

As the co-founder of Studio O+A, Verda Alexander has spent 30 years in the design industry redefining workplace and looking ahead to the future of work itself. Verda’s work focuses on expanding the conversation around design, climate activism and art. Combining a multi-disciplinary career with a passionate commitment to improving lives through design, her typical contribution to a project is to question received wisdom, test basic assumptions and look beyond conventional solutions to a more creative path. 

Verda’s experimental projects for O+A, range from pop-up installations on the future of the office to a mobile design lab partnering with communities across California. She recently completed an open-source toolkit called “The Eco Playbook,” to challenge designers at her firm and across the industry to put planet and people first in the design process. As editor at large for Metropolis Magazine, Verda intends to advance new thinking around sustainability, equity, and regenerative design.
  
Named by Contract Magazine Designer of the Year with Primo Orpilla in 2012, Verda is also a member of Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of Fame. In 2016 Studio O+A received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Interior Design.

Karen John Founder / CEO / Heartwork

Karen John is the founder and CEO of Heartwork (www.heartwork.com). Heartwork is a designer and US-made manufacturer of flexible, modern office furniture for those who love what they do.

With Master’s degrees in Industrial Design, Manufacturing Engineering, and Business, Karen is inspired by the intersection between the three disciplines and their collective potential to change how we live and work for the better.

Dinky Asrani Intern / Lot₂₁

Dinky Asrani is a graduate student in the Strategic Design and Management program at Parsons School of Design. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design with a minor in Public Spaces from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India.

Her work is research-based and materials-focused which fosters value-driven growth and tangible impacts. Dinky is motivated by in-depth research coupled with hands-on experience, which is manifested in a variety of her projects — products, interiors, built environments, experiences, and strategies — across multiple industries.

She is passionate about pursuing climate action, upcycling, and recycling projects, while her sustainability practices inform and drive her thrifty, distinctive, and functional approach toward design. 

Karen “K” Magnusdottir McComish Intern / Lot₂₁

Karen “K” Magnusdottir McComish graduated from Barnard College in May 2023 with a combined major in Sociology and Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies, a concentration in Feminist/Intersectional Science and Technology Studies, and a minor in Environmental Science.

Prior to Lot21, they worked as a Science Writing Fellow at Barnard College and as an intern at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. K is passionate about fiber art, community-shared agriculture, circular economy, and the potential for climate change to be a catalyst for a just infrastructural transformation.