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Debera Johnson, Director, Pratt Design Incubator
Debera Johnson, B.I.D., Pratt Institute '86, returned to teach in Pratt's Department of Industrial Design in 1988 and has since has made innumerable contributions to the students and faculty of the Institute, including a serving as Chairperson of the Industrial Design department from 1998 through 2005.
She now directs the two-year program, which was created to eliminate some of the barriers to start-up success by providing access to an extensive network of mentors from business and design. In addition, the Incubator program provides equipment and office space among a vibrant community of talented and ambitious designers. Incubator participants give back by offering entrepreneurial tips to current students in informal and panel discussions. As Johnson explains, "We have a very open door policy here in the Incubator. Having our graduates share their experiences with our current students helps them consider that they might be able to do it, too. I call it "starting a business out loud."
Before taking on the role of Chairperson of Pratt's ID program, Johnson started her own businesses-first as a photographer, then as an independent video producer and director. After graduating from Pratt, she became an exhibition design consultant, as well as an event and conference planner. Earlier this year, she was elected chair of the New York City chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the nation's largest and most prestigious association of professional industrial designers. Her latest endeavor is the Brooklyn Design Co-op, a 5,500 square-foot shared workspace for designers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. "It's all about creating communities of talented people with shared values, who want to work together and make things happen." |
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Projects
Pop!Tech >
The Dumpster Project >
Links
Pratt Institute > |
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Teresita Cochran
A long time advocate of planet earth, Teresita joined Greenpeace in middle school, and was a member of the Environmental Action Committee at Phillips Exeter Academy from 1989-1993. In 1994-1995 she spent time in India with her mother's family and understood first-hand what "living close to the earth" means by experiencing the daily lives of local villagers.
After graduating with a BFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999, Teresita worked for several sustainability-driven companies and initiatives before attending the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, a two-year Masters program within the Tisch School of the Arts. Her focus there was on finding ways to use interactive technology to create sustainable alternative energy. Her thesis was a business strategy for growing S.M.I.T. into a three-part company, combining product development, education, and environmental consultation. She completed her degree in the spring of 2005.
In May of 2005, Teresita teamed up with her brother Samuel and the two submitted their application to the Pratt Design Incubator program. GROW is their first project. |
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Projects
SMIT >
Links
SMIT Blog >
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R. David Gibbs
With a background in engineering and fine art, David has designed within a diverse array of industries, including; custom cabinetry, theatrical set carpentry, construction, interior and furniture design. He has designed portable lamps and outdoor lighting for Murray Feiss & Royce, a motorcycle prototype for Machineart, and digital X-ray research and development at CMOS X-ray. One of his current endeavors is New York City Water Tower Furniture (NYCWTF), dedicated to ecologically friendly design and manufacturing. NYCWTF “upcycles” discarded wood from water towers as the raw material for uniquely designed, hand crafted furniture. He is also a member of the design group Collective 4 who recently completed a project for Dwell Magazine’s Green Building in Harlem House. David earned his Bachelors of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Prior to returning to the East Coast, David spent four years in Alaska where he became involved in sustainable energy and remote, off-grid living, while he was the general manager and graphic designer at Susitna Energy Systems in Anchorage. Presently he continues to be involved in Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal system design, installation, and product development with RELAB (Renewable Energy Laboratory), altPOWER, and American Solar Works. These pursuits have led to becoming a contributing member of SMIT (Sustainably Minded Intelligent Technology) and the Pratt Design Incubator.
David embraces adventure and exposure to various cultures which continues to supplement his academic and professional education. He volunteered in Mexico, lived in Paris, and attended college in Switzerland. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Turkey, and the Mediterranean Isles. His most recent excursions include visiting Hong Kong, British Columbia and Quebec. His unorthodox view of life continues to drive a consistently unpredictable design style. |
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Projects
New York City Water
Tower
Furniture >
SMIT >
Links
NYCWTF.net
NYCWTF Blog
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Kevin McElroy
Kevin McElroy is a product designer with George Schmidt Design, and a free-lance industrial/graphics/web designer for private clients in New York and Philadelphia.
A graduate of Pratt Institute's industrial design program and Denmark's International Design School, Kevin focused his scholastic efforts on product, toy and furniture design informed by sustainability and holistic, user-centric design and research. He was a winner of Umbra's Product Design Competition, and interned with Umbra in Toronto, Ontario. He had the opportunity to collaborate on projects with Acorn Toy Shop, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Fisher-Price, General Mills, DKNY, Autoban and De La Espada.
Kevin conceived of and curated the Young Americans Design Show, and has exhibited original art and design work at the Fellissimo Gallery, Open Haus Philadelphia, Brooklyn Designs, and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. He has also written on design for the Incubator, and Core77.com, and has had his work profiled on the web and in print. |
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Projects
Lab On A Chip >
The Dumpster Project >
Pop!Tech >
Links
Kevin McElroy >
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Jude Heslin Di Leo
Born on a warm sunny afternoon in San Francisco, Jude Heslin Di Leo is an industrial designer, whose energy springs from creative expression. Currently living and working from Brooklyn, NY, he studied graphic design at Rhode Island School of Design, and later graduated from Pratt Institute with a B.I.D. in Industrial Design. He has worked in an array of fields including lighting, furniture, and product design. His most notable professional experiences are with Focus Architectural Lighting and designer Jason Miller, where his ideas were first implemented into product. He enjoys exercising his skills in different mediums, and works in all scales ranging from tabletops to interiors. Jude often works three-dimensionally to explore form, and his work is usually the result of hands-on, tried-and-true experimentation. |
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Projects
The Dumpster Project >
Links
Jude Heslin Di Leo >
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Bernardo Guillermo
Bernardo grew up in the Netherlands and moved to New York in 1996 to study liberal arts in New York. A 2005 graduate of the Industrial Design Program at Pratt, his work has been featured in Wallpaper (July 2005) and Art Review (Dec 2005), and he exhibited with Pratt at the 2005 Brooklyn Designs fair. Since graduating he has worked in several freelance positions, including the Dumpster project with the Pratt Design Incubator and devisings an advanced taxi concept for the city of New York with Hybrid Product Design. Currently he is continuing to work freelance and has just opened a furniture studio in Brooklyn. |
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Projects
The Dumpster Project > |
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Valerie Haynal
Valerie's path to ID started with a Bsc in Psychology and International Development, before she realized she didn't have to work for the UN to help people live better lives. She has worked in the design world since her 2001 return from a year of checking out how the other 90% of the world lives. Although a good Canadian girl at heart, Valerie has spent half of her life abroad, most recently in Brooklyn — where she hopes to stay for a while, providing the good people of America don't send her home. She is currently working as an Industrial Designer for 4sight Inc, in New York. |
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Projects
The Dumpster Project > |
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Steven S. Matt
Mr. Matt studied Communication Design at Pratt institute and graduated with honors as the “Presidential Scholar in Graphic Design.” He was inspired to launch One Earth Network after a conversation with Elizabeth Kolbert, an acclaimed writer of environmental issues for the New Yorker. Mrs. Kolbert told Mr. Matt, “not to let the issues get you down.” From that moment on, Mr. Matt has made it his mission to deal with the climate crisis. As a designer, Mr. Matt was motivated to consider Global Warming as a problem of design.
As Chief Executive Officer, President and Founder, Mr. Matt is committed to business objectives and careful not to put his ego in front. Mr. Matt is a leader in developing team solutions and community-based ecological, design, technology, and business problems. As an example, Mr. Matt lead a committee, consisting of a dozen professionals from various backgrounds, to develop a first-of-its-kind Green Map for the neighborhood of Fort Greene (population of 40,000) in Brooklyn, New York. The map was published in the center spread of the first ever “Green Issue” of The Hill, a community-wide journal in its 24th year of publication. Mr. Matt then managed the development of the interactive map with the help of the committee members. DK Holland, a Marketing Director and author whom Mr. Matt worked with while developing the Green Map, says that Mr. Matt is “a proficient practitioner of economic development as it pertains to socially responsible, environmentally aware decision-making.” |
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Projects
One Earth >
Links
one-earth.com > |
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Emmett Pickett
Emmett T. Pickett is a battle-tested innovator whose 20+ year leadership and team building career has converged and added tangible value in strategic branding and marketing, community and environmental investment and empowerment, and finance and real estate. This has been highlighted through his award-winning management, including through the serious impacts and challenges of September 11, 2001, and through 2005, as Empire Zone Coordinator of the North Brooklyn-Brooklyn Navy Yard Zone. Emmett was promoted to Associate Director for Business Incentives and Organizational Investments for what widely became known as "The Zone," locally administered by the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation (EWVIDCO) in close alliance with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC). Emmett generated $5 million in new financing for largely small to medium-sized businesses (and some Fortune-level corporations), as well as improving business cash flow, interest rates, and professional financial education for several new and existing Zone businesses. These diverse industrial, commercial, and retail businesses consequently retained and added thousands of solid jobs, and invested more than $120 million in private capital in a Zone with some of the broadest-based ethnic diversity and empowerment in the United States -- and globally.
The Zone leadership Emmett provided additionally resulted in the pioneering and achievement of foundation-like entity support for a major brownfields study towards potential "green collar" jobs and renewed business location development (after long-term site abandonment and abuse), as well as hopefully, wetlands restoration. His Zone employers are "on the record" about Emmett, stating that " His attitude, approach, and performance over four years were a shining example of...the we, not the I...Environmental brownfields, film production, and homeland security goals were just some examples of this effective advocacy, and not focused exclusively on the Empire Zone Program, or just one part of what truly was our Zone, in terms of a palpable sense of pride of ownership -- yet with a real spirit in service to others." Emmett was honored by the EWVIDCO Board of Directors, and invited to serve on the Pension Investment Committee of a multi-nonprofit alliance.
Today, Emmett's role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of One Earth Network is intentionally blended with a "behind the scenes" role of senior marketing advisor and coach to Steven Matt's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) -- and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) -- leadership. Inspired by "interpreting" the Craig's List (including Craig's List Foundation), Google (and google.org), and Facebook models, Steven has worked closely with Emmett to develop one-earth.com's core financial model (and the company and alliance network overall) as intrinsically linked to intentionally transparent marketing relationships -- so much so that the "One Earth brand experience" shouldn't even feel like traditional notions of being "sold to" for the audience. The audience should feel, truly, tangibly, that it is their One Earth.
Emmett's essential focus is to help One Earth Network CEO Steven Matt develop a powerful, financially sound and enduring presence marketing plan that incorporates targeted advertising and multi-faceted, deeper relationships–derived from the formation of key alliances that add sustainable value to the One Earth Network and one-earth.com brand(s). Emmett is truly co-generating a real world management structure and/or system for Steven's One Earth Network CEO leadership success (strongly supported by Emmett's co-senior executive leader status as CFO) for years to come. |
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Projects
One Earth >
Links
one-earth.com > |
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Thomas Fondano
Mr. Fondano has over ten years of professional experience in developing commercial web sites that have proven to deliver results. He received a Master’s degree in Computer Graphics and Interactive Media from Pratt Institute in 2006, which equips him with the most commercially relevant technical skills in the web development field. Throughout Thomas’s career, he has exhibited solid managerial qualities.
As Technology Leader, Mr. Fondano holds the responsibility of developing the one-earth.com web “look and feel” and straightforward usability. He will be responsible for technology budget management as well as staff hiring, training, and supervision in close coordination with Mr. Matt’s overall leadership and final decision-making. The highly integrated presence marketing strategy initiated by Mr. Matt and Mr. Pickett will require Mr. Fondano to closely coordinate and cooperate with sales, marketing, and content to ensure functional specifications, use cases, and user interface requirements meet market/customer requirements. Mr. Fondano will also manage day-to-day activities of the web site, server and all other programming/web related activities of the company. |
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Projects
One Earth >
Links
one-earth.com > |
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Dan Grossman
Born in New York City to parents who swear they weren’t hippies, rather “artists of the times,” Dan Grossman was raised at protest rallies and museum exhibitions.
After graduating High School, Dan traded in his Metrocard for some sun block and attended the Savannah College of Art and Design. While there, Dan studied Industrial and Interaction Design and Design Research. Graduated in 2006, he has already had exposure to a broad range of projects while working with Husqvarna, PlayPower and NiCE Ltd. Dan has led teams on sustainable design projects, and has participated with the Institute of Paper Science Technology and The Department of Energy. Stricken with a passion for teaching, Dan has taught summer programs on design to high school seniors, and takes any opportunity he can to inform and inspire.
Dan currently resides in Brooklyn, where he works both as a fulltime and freelance Industrial Designer. When he’s not too busy volunteering with the Incubator and IDSA, Dan spends his time traveling the globe. |
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