Debera Johnson is the founder and executive director of DnK and is actively involved in design, design education and social entrepreneurship. She served as chair of the department of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute from 1998 to 2005, founded and directs the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, and is currently leading Pratt’s strategic academic vision for sustainability. Deb is committed to bringing designers together to collaborate with people working on world changing projects.

Samantha Razook-Murphy is a design researcher with DnK. In her work, she has enjoyed being involved with socially responsible projects, particularly in the global health sector. Through her experience in both graphic and industrial design, she has become passionate about the roles of ethnographic research and information design in any project. She earned a BA from Yale University and an MID from Pratt Institute.

Clay Burns is a product developer with DnK who also facilitates sustainable design as consultant and lecturer. Having studied engineering, art, and human factors, he seeks to integrate user needs and technology into products that make sense for society. Clay was previously a principal with Smart Design, where he led interdisciplinary design projects, initiated the sustainability team, and started the Smart studio in Barcelona.

Frank Millero received a Bachelors degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley (1991) and a Masters in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute (2003). From 1991-2001 Mr. Millero worked at the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco where he developed numerous exhibits and programs, including a major redesign of the life sciences department. His graduate thesis at Pratt further explored the intersection of biology and design, focusing on the role of designers in connecting people to the natural world.

Mr. Millero joined the staff of Pratt’s Industrial Design department in 2004 where he has taught courses on color and ecological design. His educational approach is based on the experiential, inquiry-based learning methods pioneered at the Exploratorium.

Mr. Millero is a practicing designer focusing on tableware and table linens. From this perspective, he puts ecological design theory to practice through product development and peer education.

Micah Kotch received his BA in Asian Studies-Chinese from Colgate University. He spent a year living and working in mainland China and travelled throughout southeast Asia. After witnessing the explosion of wireless communication devices and rampant urbanization of China's countryside,
He returned to his native land and spent the next several years developing new business for wireless carriers and handset manufacturers. Currently, Micah is working as a strategic consultant for Pratt Institute, as they set out to green their campus and curriculum. Micah is a founding member of the Green Leaders Group, which brings together environmental advocates from different industries and organizations across New York to gain contacts and access to expertise. His interests include green roofs, slow food, urban permaculture, sustainability education and socially conscious design.

Mark VanderKlipp is President of Corbin Design, an Environmental Graphic
Design and Wayfinding company based in Traverse City, MI. We coordinate
verbal and visual communication systems so people can better understand
environments, and thereby design positive experiences for visitors.

People get lost. We fix that.

Raised in Santa Cruz, California, Rustan Melville moved to New York in 2004 to study art & design at Pratt Institute. There he received a nomination for the 2008 Rowena Reed Kostellow and IDSA awards, and was a founding member of Pratt Envirolution, a multidisciplinary organization created to fortify institutional ecology and empower environmentally-conscious students. Since June 2008 Rustan has launched into the field of Industrial Design, developing concepts, research, and strategy for ECCO Design's world-class clients.

Founded in 1989 by Eric Chan, ECCO Design is a product design firm committed to innovation. ECCO Design is a 15-person team of designers, researchers, and strategists, strategically located in New York, who combine our efforts to provide clients with customized concept vision and compelling user experiences. At ECCO, we deliver tangible market solutions by dedicating ourselves to understanding the consumer and creating products that they can connect with. Our work spans the Consumer Electronics, Furniture, Medical Devices, Home Appliances, Consumer Products, and Automotive landscapes.

The creative and exciting work environment at ECCO Design allows for an easy and energetic flow of ideas and diverse perspectives of the ECCO Team. We are a team that encompasses professionals that are Research Scientists, Ergonomics Experts, Cognitive Psychologists, Industrial Designers, User Interface Designers, Design Strategists, and Design Engineers.

ECCO Design has consistently won international design awards such as the IDEA, Annual Design Review, Red Dot Award, Award of Design Excellence, Good Design Award, Design Plus Award, and the Premier Award.

Our work is also included in the permanent design collections of The London Design Museum, Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal, The Israel Museum, The Denver Museum of Art, The MoMA, New York, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and The Smithsonian Institute.

Fred Blumlein’s design career has included work with organizations such as Bell Laboratories and George Nelson Associates. In 1983, he established Blumlein Associates, Inc. (BAI), a design firm that specializes in exhibition, graphic, interior and theatrical projects. BAI has been a major exhibition design consultant for Sony Electronics, Inc. since 1985.

Under Blumlein’s direction, BAI’s work has appeared at MOMA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Center, Indiana University, Disney’s EPCOT Center, Cirque Du Soleil, Universal Studios, and the U.S.S. Nautilus Submarine Museum. Since 1999, BAI has also been privileged to design Pratt Institute’s annual Pratt Show and Fashion Show.

As a faculty member of Pratt’s Industrial Design Department since 1976, he has been a graduate-thesis advisor and has taught exhibition design, design research, and presentation skills. While at Pratt, he wrote and illustrated the handbook, Drawing Design, which was chosen as the best of its kind by the Association of Graphic Arts.

He is a member of the Industrial Designer’s Society of America, vice-president of the Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society, former chair Port Washington Public Library Art Advisory Council, and, as an U.S. Army officer, he commanded a photo team in Vietnam.

A visually exciting reportage artist and digital photographer, Eddie Pena’s advertising, editorial and institutional painting and illustration come across with the same strong design and positive energy as his location drawings.

An early lover of comic books, he takes sequential storytelling and storyboarding to sophisticated levels with his knowledge of schools, culture and the great masters of drawing. “Comics like the Hulk were my favorite, and instilled a love of art in me as a young man. But I now find myself looking more to artists like Durer and Brangwyn for inspiration when I go on location to draw and create storyboards for film, television and animation.” Eddie’s clients include 3M, Coors, JibJab Media and Scholastic. He is fluent in Spanish, Dreamweaver and Flash and has exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Gallery 1482 and the Aronson Gallery, NYC.

From New York to San Francisco, Jeannie Choe has not yet settled on doing just one thing. Design, writing, cooking, and photography are regulars on her priority list with something else sure to pop up soon. She has worked with a colorful mix of companies and clients including Method, MIT, and Core77.

Thomas Fondano is a web developer. He holds a BFA in Film, Photography & Visual Arts from Ithaca College and an MFA in Computer Graphics & Interactive Media from Pratt Institute. His clients are primarily non-profit and/or eco-friendly concerns, including the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, Greenmatter, LLC., One Earth Networks, Inc., The Foundation for Open Creation, and this site.