2025 Design for Freedom Summit

I, Amar Lal from the Banjara community, endured a childhood marked by poverty, child labour, and displacement. My family, lacking land or resources, lived a nomadic life, moving for survival. As a child, I worked in stone quarries and roadside digging, sustaining injuries and hardship.

In 2001, with the intervention of a child rights activist from India, I was given an opportunity for education and a new life. Over time, I became an advocate for child rights, participating in programs like the World Congress for Education, Bal Vyapar Virodhi Yatra (Anti Child Trafficking March), and international events such as the World Children’s Prize in Sweden.

I also held leadership roles, including being elected President of the National Bal Panchayat (National Children’s Assembly), where I championed child education and anti-child labour campaigns. After completing my education, I pursued law, graduating in 2018.

Now practicing at the Delhi High Court, I specialize in child labour and abuse cases while continuing my work as a child rights activist. Going ahead, I want to make sure that no child is caught in the vicious cycle of forced or child labor and that they are given the opportunity to enjoy a life full of rights and possibilities.

Grace Forrest is the Founding Director of Walk Free, an international anti-slavery organisation. Walk Free produces the Global Slavery Index, the most comprehensive dataset on modern slavery, used to inform global laws and policies, partnering with businesses, governments, and frontline organisations. In collaboration with the United Nations, Walk Free develops the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, providing the world’s first global consensus on the scale of modern slavery.  

Grace serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. She is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Australia, and previously served as a board member for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Freedom Fund.

In 2024, Grace became the first Australian woman ever to receive the Roosevelt Foundation’s “Freedom from Fear” medal.

Sharon Prince is the CEO and Founder of Grace Farms Foundation. Prince commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning SANAA architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa to design Grace Farms, which has become widely known as a global humanitarian and cultural center located in New Canaan, Connecticut. The Foundation’s interdisciplinary humanitarian mission is to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom, a new movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. 

Since opening, Grace Farms has garnered numerous prestigious awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the AIA National 2017 Architecture Honor Award and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. For her work launching Design for Freedom, Prince was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business 2022 for “cleaning up construction” and the AIA NY and Center for Architecture recognized her with the NYC Visionary Award.

Alan co-founded MASS with classmates at the Harvard Graduate School of Design to build a more just and beautiful world. Under his leadership, MASS has garnered international acclaim for its innovative approach to addressing global challenges through design.

Alan regularly teaches advanced architecture studios, including at Harvard and Yale, where he was most recently the Louis I. Khan Visiting Professor. As a sought-after speaker, Alan has presented at universities, conferences, and events around the globe. He has authored books, op-eds, and essays, as well as produced films, focused on the role of architecture in catalyzing social change. Chris Anderson, chief curator of TED, described his TED talk as “a different language about what architecture can aspire to be.”

He lives in a house he designed in Cambridge, MA, with his wife and three children, who provide him with regular design critiques. Before architecture, he tried many other fields but is mainly asked to tell stories about a stint as a commercial fisherman in Alaska.

Alan holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College.

Sustainability collaborator, facilitator, and visionary. Annie doesn’t just want to talk about sustainable impact, she wants to facilitate action and create large. scale, global change.

She enables this market
transformation through her role as CEO for mindful MATERIALs Inc. Over the last decade, Annie has become a trusted executive leader in sustainability for corporate, government, and nonprofit entities. Annie offers a unique blend of business and technical expertise that compliments her over 15 years of sustainability marketplace experience. She knows a truly sustainable world will not be achieved by just one person. She is passionate in working with people and building relationships to catalyze sustainable change. Her expertise and experience allow her the ability to provide unparalleled strategic advice to quickly enhance and increase the robustness and productivity of various sustainability standards, certification organizations, businesses, and nonprofits with a personal mission to drive industry collaboration and acceleration of collective action to scale global impact reduction.

David Keith, FAIA, is Chief Executive Officer and Design Principal at Hanbury, guiding a team of 165 professionals across seven offices from Virginia to Michigan. His leadership and design vision have shaped a diverse range of academic and civic projects, including the Karsh Institute of Democracy—a Design for Freedom Pilot Project—as well as the Virginia African American Cultural Center and AtlanticPark in Virginia Beach. Since joining Hanbury in 2017, Keith has steered significant growth, earning statewide and national awards for design, sustainability, and innovation. He cultivates strategic collaborations with national and international partners, bringing together a broad range of perspectives and expertise to deliver meaningful impact. By engaging closely with contractors and suppliers, Keith promotes shared understanding that enhances constructibility, economy, precision, and project quality.Keith’s career is distinguished by his involvement with the Virginia Tech College of Architecture Arts and Design Advisory Board, his elevation to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects and receipt ofAIA Virginia’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2020—acknowledgments of his design excellence, integrated approach, and leadership in the profession

Justin Den Herder’s love of trees and poetry have informed his 17-year career as a structural engineer at T.Y.Lin. He cares deeply about the impact of the built environment on the natural world and leads the firm’s sustainability, mass timber, and computational design communities of practice. He oversees the firm’s Building Equity Initiative which offers pro-& lo-bono design services to public and non-profit programs.

Justin has collaborated on more than 500 projects. He is especially fond of the challenges associated with adaptive reuse projects and takes pride in designing public projects–libraries, museums and other civic institutions. His class at Cooper Union at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, titled ‘Structural Poetics’ explores the creation of efficient, elegant, equitable structures

Kim Yao, FAIA, is Principal of Architecture Research Office (ARO), a New York City firm united by their collaborative process, commitment to accountable action, and social and environmental responsibility. ARO’s diverse body of work has earned the firm over a hundred design awards including the 2020 National AIA Architecture Firm Award. Kim is a lecturer at MIT and has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; the School of Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design; and Barnard College. She has lectured throughout the United States and abroad. Kim has been awarded the AIA New York (AIANY) Medal of Honor and the Beverly Willis Foundation Mentorship Award. She was President of AIANY in 2020 and serves on the Board of the Center for Architecture. She holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Columbia College: Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University.

Leticia Hill of the Gaag’yals KiiGawaay (Skedans) Clan, grew up in HlGaagilda Skidegate. Leticia is the current Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Haida Enterprise Corporation (HaiCo) as of November 2024. She joined HaiCo in July 2023, bringing 14 years of experience from the Council of the Haida Nation, where she served as Chief of Staff. In her role as HaiCo’s Chief Operations Officer, Leticia has been instrumental in shaping strategic initiatives, driving operational excellence, and enhancing human resources practices. She has closely collaborated with outgoing Chief Executive Officer Candace Dennis, benefiting from her mentorship to strengthen her leadership capabilities. Alongside her executive responsibilities, Leticia is pursuing an Indigenous Business Leadership Executive MBA (IBL EMBA) from Simon Fraser University.

Lindsay Baker is a movement leader, speaker, author, and podcast host working nationallyand internationally to transform the building industry for a regenerative future. As CEO o fLiving Future, Lindsay advocates for a world where everyone lives in buildings that are safe, healthy, decarbonized, and affordable.

A lifelong environmentalist and building scientist, Lindsay has spent her career leading and scaling impactful initiatives, partnerships, and programs across sectors. She was a Senior Fellow at RMI, taught at UC Berkeley, and serves as a board member and advisor to numerous nonprofits and climate tech startups, including The Clean Fight and SPUR.

Lindsay is a published author and frequent speaker on subjects including climate action,the regenerative building movement, and social impact in the building industry. She holds aBachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College and Masters Degree inArchitecture and Building Science from UC Berkeley. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, andnow lives in Oakland, California with her partner and their many precious houseplants

Myrrh Caplan is the SVP of Sustainability for Skanska USA Building. In this role, she leverages Skanska’s global and domestic initiatives to protect the environment and ensure the resilience of the communities they build in. She oversees their talented, enthusiastic sustainability team, located throughout the country, who help clients meet and exceed their sustainability goals/certifications, advance industry and client outcomes through innovation and research, and identify opportunities to manifest more value-add solutions. Myrrh and her team play an important role in helping Skanska meet its own target of climate neutrality across its entire supply chain by 2045 and to build healthier, more resilient communities, and are recognized by clients for their expertise in carbon strategy, Living Building Challenge, LEED, and general organizational consulting. She was named a 2022 LEED Fellow and carries accreditations and expertise across multiple other sustainability programs such asLiving Building Challenge and WELL. Myrrh has applied this knowledge in advising on nearly 300 projects.In 2023, she co-created and chaired the AGC Task Force to create standardization of reporting and reducing carbon emissions within construction (published in April of 2024). Sheco-Chairs the board of mindfulMaterials, serves on several industry committees, and participates in various research

Nat Oppenheimer leads TYLin’sBuildings Sector and has extensive experience in the areasof new construction, renovation, and historic preservation. He is principal in charge formuch of the firm’s institutional, private residential, and educational work. Nat is a boardmember of theArchitectural League of New York. Since 2013, he has been an activeparticipant of the Industry Advisory Group for the US Department of State Bureau ofOverseas Building Operations. He is also part of the Grace Farms Design for Freedominitiative.

Nina Cooke John’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Dwell, NBC’s Open House, the Center for Architecture’s 2018 exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture and PBS NewsHour Weekend.

Born in Jamaica, Nina has always been inspired by the creativity she witnessed in her homeland: the art of people transforming everyday hardships and limitations into innovative solutions through multiple spheres of life. She imbues the spirit of transformation and innovation into every design project, from the structure of a home’s interior to the streetscape of a city block.

Nina began her professional career designing houses in Connecticut, Arizona and Virginia with the architecture firm Voorsanger and Associates. She went on to work on large cultural institutional projects like the New York Botanical Gardens master plan, the Clinton Library and the Biltmore Theater at Polshek Partnership (now Ennead)

Orrin Quinn serves as the Western Canada Manager at the Forest Stewardship Council(FSC) Canada, where he champions forest certification and promotes certificate holders’ responsible management practices and wood products. Prior to this role, Orrin spent three years as President of KPMG’s Forest Certification Services Inc., overseeing forest certification, carbon auditing, and consulting services across North America and Indonesia. He also held the position of Director at Ecotrust Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a conservation-based economy. There, he supported First Nations in developing land use practices and established a substantial certification group that included 55 wood processing facilities and several forestry woodlots.Earlier in his career, Orrin was the Forestry Extensions Officer at the University of Northern British Columbia, where he managed forest ecology research projects in collaboration with master’s students, forest companies, and funders. He also provided consulting services to industry, government, and First Nations on silviculture, forest development, and technical training. Orrin’s academic credentials include a Forest Resource Technologist Diploma, a Bachelor’s in Natural Resource Management, and a Master’s in Business Administration. He is also a Registered Professional Forester in British Columbia.

Sara Bellefleur serves as the Vice President of Supply Management for the Commercial Segment at Assa Abloy Americas where she is a key executive leader responsible for overseeing the end-to-end supply chain strategy, procurement processes, vendor management, and logistics to ensure operational excellence and cost efficiency. With 13 years of experience in Opening Solutions, Sara is a true visionary with a collaborative approach to working with cross-functional teams focusing on innovation and continuous improvement.
Sara has a proven track record in strategic leadership, procurement and supplier relationship building, inventory and logistics management, operational excellence, compliance and risk management.

Before being promoted to her current role, Sara served as Senior Director, Supply Management for the Access & Egress Hardware Group at Assa Abloy where she was leader for all supply chain activities across five manufacturing sites and nine warehouses. Sara holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Hartford and a Bachelor’s degree inEngineering & Management from Clarkson University. Outside of work, Sara enjoys music, reading, and anything outdoors

Sarita Herman is the Supervisory Team Leader for the Historic Preservation Team in CapitalConstruction & Renovations at the University of Virginia. In addition to managing capital projects at UVA, Sarita oversees the project management team in charge of the University’s UNESCO WorldHeritage Site. Notable projects Sarita has worked on include a major renovation to UVA’s iconic Rotunda, the construction of the University’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, theContemplativeCommons building completed in 2024, and the Karsh Institute of Democracy currently under construction in the University’s Ivy Corridor development area.Sarita also serves on Board of Directors for Ivy Creek Natural Area and Historic River View Farm, a 219-acre nature conservation area sited on a historic African American farm. Sarita has a BA in Art History from Hollins University and an MA in Architectural History from the University of Virginia.

Siddhartha is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and storyteller based in India. Hededicated over a decade of his career to Industrial Design and Photography with theNorway-based non-profit organization Laerdal Global Health. Subsequently, heembarkedon his independent creative journey. Siddhartha’s areas of passion include climate change,sustainability, and human rights. Through his work, he endeavors to challenge conventionalnorms and contribute to the realization of his vision of a unified world.

Suchi Reddy is an architect, designer, and artist based in NYC. In 2002, she founded Reddymade, which focuses on public art installations, large-scale commercial spaces, and residential projects ranging from single-family homes to interiors and prefab architecture. Guided by her mantra “form follows feeling,” Reddy’s architectural and artistic practice is informed by her research on neuroaesthetics, which examines the impact our environments have on the brain and body.

Reddymade’s most celebrated projects include the first flagship Google retail space in New York, rated LEED Platinum; “me+you,” an interactive AI and light sculpture currently on display at Michigan Central Station in Detroit, and first unveiled in 2021 at the Smithsonian in DC for the Futures exhibit; a minimalist home in Salt Point, New York, with artist Ai Weiwei; “Look Here,” a solo exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.; X, a temporary sculpture in the center Times Square; “A Space For Being,” a collaboration with Google, Johns Hopkins, and Muuto during Salone del Mobile measuring the impacts of neuroaesthetics; an award-winning hybrid prefab home in Los Angeles; and The Connective Project in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, featuring 7,000 yellow pinwheels carrying messages and images from the surrounding communities.

Reddy has presented and lectured on the firm’s work at numerous venues including Bloomberg’s CityLab 2023, The Salk Institute for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture’s annual conference, the WSJ Future of Everything Festival, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin.

Reddy teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and serves on several boards, including the Design Trust for Public Space and Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Adam Thatcher is co-founder and CEO of Grace FarmsTea & Coffee. He envisioned the model of a nonprofit-owned business after learning about the innovative social enterprise structures possible under the IRS code while getting his MBA at NYU. Prior to Grace Farms Tea & Coffee, Adam served as the Director of Operations and Sustainability for Grace Farms Foundation from 2015–2020. With a passion for ethical and environmental sustainability efforts, Adam led Grace Farms’ LEED Silver Certification for Operations + Maintenance. Before joining Grace Farms, Adam served as the Director of Food and Beverage at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski resorts in Lake Tahoe, California. In 2014 Adam was named of the 10 most impactful leaders in the ski industry under the age of 30.

Brigid Abraham is the Design for Freedom Senior Project Manager. To this role, she brings a duality of experience in both architecture and information science. Brigid uniquely combines her education and passion for architectural research to further the movement of Design for Freedom, eliminating forced labor in building materials supply chains.

Before joining Grace Farms, Brigid was the Director of Research at Pickard Chilton, a global design architect in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to Pickard Chilton, Brigid worked in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Division of the New York Public Library and in interior design for Eve Robinson Associates in Ma
nhattan. She is a licensed architect in the state of New York and certified as a LEED Green Associate, WELL Accredited
Professional and Fitwel Ambassador.

Elaine is the first International Lead for Design for Freedom. In this role, Elaine is establishing Design for Freedom hubs in both the U.K. and India and is spearheading the next iteration of theDesign for Freedom Toolkit, a comprehensive resource for design and construction professionals to implement ethical, forced-labor free materials sourcing strategies into their practices. Elaine is also instrumental in the rigorous application of Design for Freedom Principles to Design for Freedom Pilot Projects in India. 

Emily Altman is Director of Arts Operations, Publications and Exhibits at Grace Farms Foundation. Emily brings almost 20 years of arts management experience to this role, from both for profit and non-profit arts institutions. Throughout her career, creating a connection with audiences through art and communicating the importance and power of the arts has been a central goal.

She started her career at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, working directly with the Senior Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Collections and other departments on the collection management and exhibition management of the Museum. After MoMA, Emily became Exhibitions Manager at Christie’s, New York, where she led exhibition installations with all auction departments, in advance of the public auctions. After Christie’s, Emily’s career shifted into visual arts education, where she directed the Visual Arts Program at the Darien Arts Center, and most recently managed the Education and Public Programs at the Katonah Museum of Art.

Karen has spent the last twenty years building a career in the philanthropic, not-for-profit,and private sectors–leading innovative solutions at the crossroads of the respectivefields. Her broad-based experience and deep expertise have given her apassion forcreating social impact, driving change, and delivering results.

Prior to becoming Grace Farms Foundation’s first West-Coast based Senior ProgramOfficer to expand awareness about Grace Farms Foundation’s work and Design forFreedom, a new movement to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supplychain, Karen was the Foundation’s Community Initiative Director, leading theFoundation’s focused work fostering inclusive communities with a focus on gender andracial equality and food equity

Nora is Grace Farms Foundation’s first Ethical Materials Director, focusing on the Design for Freedom Movement. Design for Freedom aims to eradicate modern slavery from the built environment by addressing the systemic use of forced labor in the building materials supply chain.

Nora serves as Ethical Material Advisor on Design for Freedom Pilot Projects and led the development of the Design for Freedom Toolkit. Design for Freedom Pilot Projects include Black Chapel by Theaster Gates (21^st Serpentine Pavilion, London, UK), Shadow of a Face by Nina Cooke John (Harriet Tubman Monument, Newark, NJ) and the New Canaan Library (New Canaan, CT).

For more than 15 years, Nora has dedicated herself to creating change in the built environment through her sustainability, resiliency, and social equity work. Before joining Grace Farms, Nora spent over a decade as Director of Sustainability for Fusco Corporation in New Haven, CT.

Nora currently serves on the Board of Directors for mindful MATERIALS and the CT Green Building Council and was invited to serve on the Governor’s Council for Climate Change (GC3) Infrastructure and Land Use Adaptation Working Group.

As one of the first Ambassadors in the world to be accredited by the International Living Future Institute, she founded the CT Living Future Collaborative. Nora also co-chairs the bi-annual Northeast Summit for a Sustainable Built Environment (NESSBE) Conference. This multi-day convening of industry experts has focused on themes including Health of Place, Equity of Place, and Power of Place.

Toshihiro Oki, an architect and active member of the Design for Freedom Working Group, develops and conducts programs and tours that offer unique insights into the architectural choices that informed the River building’s distinct look and award-winning design. As a member of the Working Group, he also provides an informed perspective to not only industry professionals but to the public at large on how buildings, homes, and landscapes can be designed and built with materials less at risk of forced labor.

He established his office in New York after working for several years at the Japanese architectural office of SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa (Pritzker Prize 2010) to build the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City and the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion in Ohio. Since 2009, he has been working on his own independent projects. Oki is licensed to practice architecture in New York and has taught architecture studio at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Princeton University Graduate School of Architecture.