The Design Futures Council has recognized six professionals whose work touches on sustainable design, technological innovation and other aspects of the future of design.
The six were named to the council's list of 2009 Emerging Leaders, all of whom received registration scholarships to the 8th Annual Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design, which runs Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Chicago this year.
This is the third year the Design Future Council has recognized Emerging Leaders, and the purpose of the program is to identify those who have, and will continue to have, a profound impact on design practices, design professions and the community, with a focus on those whose work represents the future of design practice in terms of sustainable design, design's broadening scope, service to society, and technological innovation.
This year's Emerging Leaders are:
Dan Hatch, national vice president and the Chicago president of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility. He recently co-founded the firm Grounded Design Studio in Chicago, which provides design services with a sustainable focus. His background includes human rights work, community organizing, and grassroots activism.
Cari Varner has been with the Carl Small Town Center since January 2007, where she works with municipalities to assess, understand and improve the impact of the built environment on quality of life. Varner's current research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, includes an investigation into contemporary suburban development and the single-family home as well as its growing impact on the rural Mississippi landscape.
Story Bellows, director of the American Architectural Foundation's Mayors' Institute on City Design, which is dedicated to improving the design and livability of American cities through the efforts of their mayors. She was previously the director of research at OWP/P Architecture in Chicago, where she led an effort to develop both high-tech and low-tech tools to address social, economic and environmental concerns through integrated design process and solutions.
Matt Ostanik launched, after five years of traditional architectural practice, Submittal Exchange, an online system for the electronic exchange, review and archiving of construction correspondence. He is also an advocate of 1% For the Planet, a global movement to support environmental causes worldwide.
Casius Pealer, manager of the Affordable Housing Initiative at the U.S. Green Building Council, where he is responsible for structuring and negotiating mixed-finance transactions to create affordable mixed-income housing.
Katie Swenson, director of Enterprise's Rose Architectural Fellowship, which was designed to nurture a new generation of community architects. Swenson founded the Charlottesville Community Design Center and led them to establish, with Habitat for Humanity, an influential international design competition.
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