Board & Staff

Michela is the Founder of MOCA+, offering an innovative approach to design thinking and leadership for companies making good design the foundation of their business strategy. Michela is the former CEO of Dwell Media, building it from its start-up phase to an internationally recognized media brand. Prior to Dwell she led companies from startup to exit and turnaround to high growth, at companies like IDG, Softbank, McGrawHill, Ziff Davis, and Future Media. She serves on the board of Arcbazar and is an advisor to Turkel Design, Nebia, Aplat Inc., NextPlay, and NewStory. She is a sought-after speaker on leadership, design, and media and is always game to share her passion for good design and business innovation.

Michael J. Hirschhorn is founder & CEO of mebl | Transforming Furniture. By expanding the market for beautiful new furniture reimagined from old wood, metal and plastic, mebl seeks to help accelerate the transition to an environmentally sustainable and circular economy. Previously, from 2008 - 14, Michael served as Executive Director of the International Human Rights Funders Group, a global network of donors and grantmakers committed to advancing human rights. From 2003-08, Michael was Executive Director of the Coro New York Leadership Center in New York City; from 1995-2001, he served as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center, also in NYC; and, prior, he was as an Assistant to the Chancellor of the NYC Public Schools and a Visiting Non-Profit Executive at the Yale School of Management. Michael plays leadership roles on the boards of a number of non-profit education, arts/design and human rights organizations and grantmaking institutions. He received his BA from Yale University and his MBA & MSW from Columbia University. Michael lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Jimena Martinez and their feisty young-adult twins.

Co-founder and creative director of Design Works International, Nancy works alongside Neil Breslau, her business partner, husband and co-founder of Design Works International. She is recognized for her natural ability to connect her passion for color and design with a keen understanding of the changes and developments in lifestyle trends, helping brands to adapt and capitalize on an ever-changing market. Coupled with almost three decades of industry expertise, Nancy looks for inspiration everywhere which affords her a unique perspective and talent for marrying design with commerce. Nancy is the talent behind various retail brands and product development programs, specializing in trend research and development, print and color direction, and keynote speaking for industry events.

Jason is internationally renowned in the furniture industry for his fresh contemporary designs. His work has been published in dozens of design and lifestyle magazines as well as hundreds of blogs. Notably, he was honored at the 21st Annual ARTS Awards as Product Designer of the Year, the youngest ever recipient of this prestigious award. In late 2009, he won VERANDA magazine’s inaugural ‘The Art of Design’ Award for his body of work in the ‘Trade Secrets’ category. Jason is VP/Creative Director for The Phillips Collection, an SFC Founding Member, in High Point, North Carolina. In 2007, he founded Jason Phillips Designs, a brand that serves as a conduit for his out-of-the-box design concepts and freelance work.

Jonsara Ruth is Design Director at Parsons The New School Healthy Materials Lab, Founding Director of the MFA Interior Design Program, and Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design. Here she led AFTERTASTE, a symposium that brings new definition to the field of interiors. Central to her work is listening to and learning from diverse perspectives, and studying human experience, behavior, and health as principal motivations for design. Material curiosities drive her research.

Angie Kenny is serving as SFC's Program Director. She has a degree in interior design and has worked in the field in NYC and in Greensboro, NC, where she was part of the design team building Proximity Hotel as the first LEED Platinum hotel in the U.S.