Cindy Allen
Lauded as "one of the most influential advocates for the interior design industry," Allen has been Editor in Chief of Interior Design for 15 years. Since her editorship in 2001, Allen has established herself as a force in elevating the publication’s importance and exposure—strengthening its credentials as the main ambassador of design while proving it the vehicle of growth and success for the industry it represents. She has published nine books on design. It doesn’t stop at the printed page; She is an early adopter of media as a communications tool, and has made over 70 short documentaries featuring the giants of design. She also actively participates in a variety of panels, juries, roundtables, speaking engagements, and industry events worldwide.
Recipient of the 2010 Circle of Excellence Award from IFDA and the 2009 Alpha Award by Alpha Workshops, Allen has served as juror for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards and the Gensler Design Excellence Awards, and she is a board member for Design Trust for Public Space and Alpha Workshops. Allen is the 2014 Open House New York Honoree and is chairman of the national board of DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids).
Cindy Allen
Editor In Chief, Interior Design
John Becker
John founded Gensler’s Retail and Branding studios and continues to expand these practice areas into emerging markets in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His thought leadership and focus on the design experience lends an elevated perspective to the firm’s process and creativity as a whole. He was also instrumental in developing the Gensler brand into one of the most recognizable names in the design industry.
He was named one of the Retail Design Luminaries of 2012 by design:retail and has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Financial Times, Interior Design, Cool Hunting, Women’s Wear Daily, Glossy, and The Business of Fashion for his industry-leading perspectives. Among his most celebrated projects are Cadillac House in Shanghai, Adidas New York, and The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. He also led the brand design for Gensler’s renovation of the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice.
John Bricker
Principal and Creative Director, Gensler
Molly Casey
As Co-Founder of NINE dot ARTS, Molly works as Chief Curator, overseeing our NINE dot ARTS curatorial teams and being Chief Vision Officer for all client engagements. Molly loves art for two primary reasons: it makes the world a little more sane and it tells the story of humankind throughout history. She chose art consulting because it feeds her need to work with art and artists and allows her to be an advocate for both.
Molly supports the art community by: providing pro bono artist portfolio tutorials and serving as a guest juror for Open Studios at the University of Colorado at Denver and Boulder, being a Board member for Think 360 Arts for Learning, volunteering as a guest presenter at Boulder Art Association, and being a guest presenter and volunteer annual photo reviewer for Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC).
Molly Casey
Chief Curator + Co-Founder, Nine Dot Arts
Brian Collins
Brian Collins is Chief Creative Officer of COLLINS, an independent design and communications company in New York City and San Francisco. They were named by Forbes as one of the companies reshaping the future of brand building. Over his career, Brian and his team have won every major creative award. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Businessweek, Creativity, Fortune, NBC News, ABC News and Fast Company, which named Brian an American Master of Design. For ten years prior to the founding of COLLINS, Brian was Chief Creative Officer of the innovation division of Ogilvy. COLLINS was added to Working Not Working’s annual list of Companies Creatives Want To Work For. They were also named in Ad Age’s 2019 A-List and awarded the first Design Agency of the Year in 2019.
Brian Collins
Chief Creative Officer, COLLINS
Amy Critchett
Amy works with clients to deploy public art and place making around the world. In leading the development and management of Leo Villareal’s “The Bay Lights”, she assembled a world-class team which engaged donors and community, partnered with the necessary governing agencies, grew international awareness, and produced this complex, renowned, and now permanent iconic work of public art.
Currently Amy is managing the strategic, logistical, conceptual and technical paths necessary to realize Leo Villareal's largest public artwork to date, “Illuminated River”, created in collaboration with the London-based client, design build teams, and Leo Villareal Studio in New York. Illuminated River is a commission granted by the Illuminated River Foundation to light 14 of London's bridges on the river Thames. When completed, it will be the largest public artwork on view in the world.
Amy Critchett
Executive Producer, Leo Villareal
Jackie Hamilton
Jackie Hamilton directed the development and implementation of the UK Arts in HealthCare Program from its inception. The program includes a $10 million permanent collection; 3 rotating galleries in the hospital that feature regional and national artists for six months; a weekly performing arts program; art therapy, music therapy; therapeutic workshops; annual concerts by internationally renowned performers; and integrative medicine modalities. The visual art collection extends to all UK HealthCare locations and clinics and is dedicated to creating a healing environment and fostering patient satisfaction.
Jackie Hamilton
Vice President, National Organization for Arts in Health
Ralph Helmick
Ralph Helmick is an award-winning sculptor and public artist whose work can be seen at over 50 institutions across the United States including courthouses, parks, airports, schools, hospitals, forensics laboratories and museums. Nearly all of his sculptures speak to the intersection of art and science. Distance and perception. Anamorphosis. Pareidolia. Optical consolidation. These and other visual phenomena are employed towards bold esthetic ends.
In 2018 he completed his most ambitious commission to date, The Constellation, a monument to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late founder of the United Arab Emirates. Helmick graduated with a degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan, later studied at the Skowhegan School of Sculpture, and earned his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston.
Ralph Helmick
Helmick Sculpture
Edward A. Hogikyan
Edward Hogikyan, an attorney by training, is an accomplished advertising and marketing professional with extensive experience in building global brands. Edward is former Executive Director of NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s design week, a program that he helped to create. Prior to this, he worked for New York City, most recently as the Chief Marketing Officer at New York City Economic Development Corporation and Senior Vice-President of Marketing at NYC & Company, the City’s official tourism organization, before that.
Prior to NYC & Company, Edward worked at advertising agencies including DDB Worldwide, Margeotes Fertitta Powell, and Lowe Worldwide. He also worked with Harry Connick, Jr. and the start-up Luxury Television Network. Edward is a member of the National Board of Trustees for DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS) and sits on the National Advisory Committee of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Born and raised in Michigan, Edward has been a New York City resident for over 25 years.
Edward A. Hogikyan
Former Executive Director of NYCxDESIGN
Mitchell Joachim
Mitchell Joachim, PhD, is Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor at NYU. Formerly, he was an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, Moshe Safdie, and Martin Society for Sustainability, MIT. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The Smart List” and selected by Rolling Stone for “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”. He's featured as “The NOW 99” in Dwell magazine and “50 Under 50 Innovators of the 21st Century" by Images Publishers. He co-authored four books, "Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities," "XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design," "Super Cells: Building with Biology," and "Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned". His design work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned: PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, MArch Columbia University.
Mitchell Joachim
Associate Professor of Practice, NYU
Co-Founder, Terreform ONE
Lisa Kim
Lisa Kim is director of the Ford Foundation Gallery, a new exhibition space within the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice. Prior to her appointment at the Ford Foundation, she was director of cultural affairs at Two Trees Management Company, where she oversaw the company's arts philanthropy, public art commissions, and produced the annual Dumbo Arts Festival. Lisa served as the director of the New York City Percent for Art Program from 2006 - 2008 and for 12 years, managed exhibitions, collections, and construction for Gagosian Gallery. Lisa holds a BA in Art History with a concentration in Visual Arts from Barnard College and a Master of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute.
Lisa Kim
Gallery Director, Ford Foundation
Audrey Koehn
Audrey Koehn is the Global Interiors Leader for DLR Group, leading a design studio of more than 125 interior design professionals. She is responsible for elevating the firm’s interior design, and collaborates with interiors professionals across the firm’s 29 global locations to establish standards and ensure that interiors are adding value as part of DLR Group integrated design teams. Audrey is a client-oriented interior designer, with a passion for experiential space and responsive solutions. She has extensive knowledge in process management, space planning, concept development, FF&E and finish selection, document production, and construction administration. She is based in the firm’s Denver office.
Audrey Koehn
Principal + Global Interiors Leader, DLR Group
Jennifer Kolstad
Jennifer is the Global Design Director at Ford Motor Company overseeing the design of Ford's physical environments. Her role seeks to unify the values and brand language of Ford in architecture and interior design, elevating impact internal and external to the global Ford ecosystem. Through research driven design, her mission is to ideate future-state readiness for the new world headquarters, workplace, retail space, hotel, factory, or community space of a next-gen mobility company.
Jennifer Kolstad
Chair of the American Society of Interior Designers
Global Design Director, Ford Motor Company
Cindy Allen
Lauded as "one of the most influential advocates for the interior design industry," Allen has been Editor in Chief of Interior Design for 15 years. Since her editorship in 2001, Allen has established herself as a force in elevating the publication’s importance and exposure—strengthening its credentials as the main ambassador of design while proving it the vehicle of growth and success for the industry it represents. She has published nine books on design. It doesn’t stop at the printed page; She is an early adopter of media as a communications tool, and has made over 70 short documentaries featuring the giants of design. She also actively participates in a variety of panels, juries, roundtables, speaking engagements, and industry events worldwide.
Recipient of the 2010 Circle of Excellence Award from IFDA and the 2009 Alpha Award by Alpha Workshops, Allen has served as juror for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards and the Gensler Design Excellence Awards, and she is a board member for Design Trust for Public Space and Alpha Workshops. Allen is the 2014 Open House New York Honoree and is chairman of the national board of DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids).
Carla Rapoport
Founder and Executive Director, Lumen Art Projects Ltd
Debra Simon
Debra most recently served as Director of Times Square Arts where she was responsible for the curation and production of the public art initiative. Among the programs she oversaw was Midnight Moment which is the world’s largest digital art exhibition, synchronized on electron billboards throughout Times Square.
As Vice President and Artistic Director of Arts Brookfield, Debra Simon oversaw public programming at over thirty sites in New York, Houston, Los Angeles and Denver. She is involved in the presentation of more than 500 free cultural events each year with a combined attendance of over 1 million. She also led marketing, social media, public relations and partnership for all programming.
Debra Simon
Arts Consultant
Guela Solow
As managing partner of ARK/PETROFF, Guela Solow directs the strategic development of the practice, provides design leadership and professional guidance. Challenging the boundaries of design, Guela has built on a shared 60-year practice history to integrate private and public portfolios incorporating comprehensive architecture, public art, urban, graphic and interior design services. ARK/PETROFF’s award-winning projects are driven by a collaborative mindset and the creation of a shared vision which marries the complex and often conflicting expectations of design. Her expertise in a wide range of building typologies provides a strong knowledge base in purpose-built residential, healthcare, recreational, education, office and retail sectors.
Guela Solow
Principal, ARK
Rosanne Somerson
A designer, professor and academic leader, President Rosanne Somerson has been advancing art and design since she was a student at RISD. After launching a successful design practice, she returned to the College to teach and founded the Furniture Design Department before serving as Provost and chief academic officer. As RISD’s 17th president she is committed to expanding inclusion, equity, and access in order to enhance a genuinely rich learning environment that consists of diverse experiences, viewpoints, and talents.
President Somerson also maintains a creative practice, designing and creating furniture for exhibitions and commissions. She frequently speaks and writes about the power of critical thinking and making, underscoring the value of art and design to advancing life in the 21st century.
Rosanne Somerson
President, Rhode Island School of Design
Patricia Walsh
Patricia Walsh joined Americans for the Arts in 2014 where she works to empower public art administrators, artists, placemakers, and other professionals in the design, planning, transportation fields to implement public art projects and practices into the built environment by supporting best practices, case studies, resource development, and peer-to-peer networking. As Public Art & Civic Design Senior Program Manager, Patricia oversees the locally focused public art, creative placemaking and cultural district’s work to support artists and arts-based practices to address community needs and goals. She has developed the Public Art & Civic Design Conference, implements field education opportunities to connect experts with those in the field, moderates the 1,000+ membership-based Public Art Network, and travels frequently to communities across the country to engage and learn from her colleagues working locally. She designed the Public Art Resource Center, an online portal to increase access to tools, resources, and opportunities for those making public art happen in their communities. She develops strategies to engage allied fields to cultivate policy and practice that supports public art in the built environment across the country.
Patricia Walsh
Public Art and Civic Design Senior Program Manager
Americans for the Arts
Ilene Shaw
Shaw has devoted her career to the advocacy of good design. A design marketing consultant who conceived of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Shaw worked closely with its show management in its development, and that of Accent on Design. She leads NY NOW’s green initiative, Sustainability: Design for a Better World.
Shaw serves as a founding member of the NYCxDESIGN Steering Committee, New York City’s official design week, during which Shaw produces Design Pavilion, a 9-day cultural public event intended to increase awareness of the power of design, and NYC Design Talks, offering inspired topics by today’s most insightful design thinkers. Shaw serves on the board of trustees for DIFFA: The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS and co-founded Operation Design, creating mentorships and creative programs between architects, designers, artists and NYC public schools.
Ilene Shaw
Founding Producer, Design Pavilion
CEO, Shaw & Co. Productions