Jacine Arias [Co-Chair]
Graduate Student, Artist & Creative Director at M-D Building Products

Jacine is currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design from the Art Institute- Miami International University of Art & Design Online. RETHINK :: RECYCLE :: REDESIGN was born out of her thesis project which is an exploration of social responsibility in graphic design. "The visual art project for my thesis is a visually appealing posters series, each one with a “green tip” to living a greener life." By producing the posters on handmade paper from shredded credit card offers and other junk mail, the posters become a testament of how graphic design can be sustainable while at the same time, be an effective vehicle of visual communication.

RETHINK :: RECYCLE :: REDESIGN fundraiser and exhibition is the culmination of three years of graduate study. "I wanted my project to have more meaning beyond my thesis paper and an artistic study. One way to do this was create a fundraising event that would raise awareness and promote green design and sustainability through art as well as raise money for two worthy organizations."

In addition to being a fulltime graduate student, Jacine is also Creative Director at M-D Building Products in Oklahoma City.

Vicki VanStavern [Co-Chair]
VanStavern Design Group, Inc.

When Vicki founded VanStavern Design Group, Inc. in 1984 she envisioned an organization that was singularly dedicated to excellence in commercial interior design.  As specifier of a substantial amount of building products, Vicki soon recognized her role as a steward of the environment.  The mission of VanStavern Design Group, Inc. is to design interior spaces considering the most current materials and methods for global sustainability, energy conservation, and healthy buildings.  The firm is a member of the US Green Building Council and designs LEED certified interiors.  Vicki was a charter member of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network and sits on the Board of Sustainable Oklahoma City.  She is also on the international board of directors for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

MJ Alexander
Community Volunteer

 

 

Jennifer L. Alig
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)

Jennifer is a lifelong Oklahoman who grew up on a small farm near Okarche. Her interests in sustainability have roots in growing up and playing on that farm, enjoying the land and the flora and fauna of the area. She believes that only through good stewardship and use of our natural resources can we conserve our natural heritage. Jennifer now lives in Oklahoma City and is an Environmental Specialist with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). She is the chair of DEQ’s Green Team which promotes a more sustainable DEQ by working to alter the materials and supplies used in the building and processes such as waste management, information flow and energy use. Jennifer currently is an active member of the Boards of Sustainable OKC and the Oklahoma Sustainability Network. In her spare time, Jennifer is an enthusiastic soccer player with two co-ed teams and a women’s team. 
 

Shelley Branum
Arts Council of Oklahoma City

After spending years working in the for-profit, commercial property management industry, Shelley has found her home in the non-profit world.  She is the Finance and Development Assistant for the Arts Council of Oklahoma City, whose mission is to bring the arts and the community together.  Her position at the Arts Council allows her to reconcile her dichotomous nature and intertwine her love of numbers and spreadsheets with her passion for fundraising and event planning.

Shelley has an extensive background in performing arts as well as a deep appreciation for art of all forms.  Of late, she has spent much of her time learning about ways to build central Oklahoma as a center for sustainability and environmental responsibility.  Shelley will embark on a Bachelors degree in Public Administration in the Summer of 2009 and plans to complete her degree at the University of Oklahoma.

Melissa Scott Brown
Center for Spatial Analysis

Melissa Scott Brown is Administrative Coordinator at the Center for Spatial Analysis, a multidisciplinary research center specializing in the study and application of geographic information science at the University of Oklahoma. Her professional activities include developing educational outreach programs that introduce GIScience and technology to youth groups such as 4H and Girl Scouts. She is also part of an initiative to develop a new GIS degree program with strong emphases on sustainability sciences, service learning and community engagement. Melissa is pursuing a Master’s degree in geography. Her research interests include integrating qualitative, non-spatial data in geographic information systems and bridging the socio-cultural and spatial subfields within the discipline of geography.

Matthew Collier
Center for Spatial Analysis

Matthew grew up in Payne County, Oklahoma in the 1970’s where the “family farm” was 160 acres of leased school land. Previous tenants had overgrazed and abused the farm leaving many gullies and invasive weeds where there should have been tallgrass prairie.  As a youth, his favorite activity was following his father around on this farm helping to heal the land. Over the years, ponds were built and barren soil was reseeded to stop the erosion and restore the land to a more native state. These activities, along with gardening and fishing, helped to set Matthew’s roots deeply into the ideas of sustainability. Today, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma with an overarching career goal of understanding and promoting sustainability through the land-society tradition in Geographical studies. His current research is into how drought manifests itself in geographical space.

Adam Lanman
Elliott + Associates Architects

Adam Lanman is an architect with Elliott + Associates Architects.  Adam has a strong artistic and architectural interest in material development and exploration, sustainable design, and socially based design and research projects.  His research areas include among others: material development and production, waste reuse and building recycling methods and applications, situationist theory and readymade applications, and game and interactive design applications in architectural applications.

Prior to joining E+A Adam taught design studios, modern architectural history, and material courses at the University of Oklahoma, College of Architecture.  While teaching at the University of Oklahoma, Adam directed the college design/build program and completed three public projects in three years with a range of first year student to fourth year student assistants.  Each project emphasized a different aspect of interests from building materials like paper waste products to scrap wood structures to re-purposing materials to
architectural applications. 

Trent Lawson
Artist

Trent Lawson is an artist and volunteer living and working in Oklahoma City.  He is currently serving on the Board of Directors at Individual Artists of Oklahoma, is Events Production Coordinator for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, and enjoys being an active part in the arts community by also volunteering for other non-profits such as City Arts Center and Untitled [Artspace].  In 2006 Trent graduated Leadership OKC’s first LOYAL class and his claim to fame is having done a painting of Chuck Norris, which Chuck Norris now owns.
Trent’s artwork explores the idea of Pareidolia, where one sees a vague or random stimulus and perceives it as something recognizable.  He randomly creates lines on the paintings surface which become the basis for his imagery.  Texture and organic forms with strong color are hallmarks of his style.

Mondy Pahika
Community Volunteer

Mondy is passionately dedicated to reusing, recreating, recycling, restoring and revisioning things, as well as ideas.  She is an avid environmentalist, organic gardener and amateur entomologist.  Her intentions are to share her creative spirit along with appreciation for natural and organic living, leaving as small a footprint as possible.  She is an artist who works primarily with textiles and fibers.

Mondy’s professional experience includes brand development for growing businesses.  In addition to achieving record setting sales for a daily business newspaper, a 33 percent increase in sales for a women’s apparel store, and coordinating product development and market expansion for a national figurine manufacturing company, Mondy enjoys national recognition as a freelance soft goods designer. Several original quilt designs were featured in Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens magazines and craft catalogs. She is currently an account representative for KOMA 92.5 radio.

Larry Pickering
Community Volunteer

 

 

James Pickle
Smith & Pickle Construction

 

 

Susie Shields
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)

Formerly an elementary teacher, Susie Shields is currently employed as an educator in the sustainability section of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.  She started the DEQ’s Use Less Stuff Campaign in 1999, edited, distributed and wrote articles for the EnvironMentor, a statewide teacher newsletter, for ten years. Her current efforts include working with the Oklahoma Chapter of the Green Building Council and other partners to plan a new Green & Healthy Schools Program.  Susie is also the Earth Day and America Recycles Day coordinator for the DEQ and co-coordinates the DEQ’s EE license tag grant program.

Through her DEQ position, she has been heavily involved with several organizations, serving as president of three: Oklahoma Association for Environmental Education (OKAEE), Keep Oklahoma Beautiful (KOB), and the Oklahoma Recycling Association (OKRA).  As a founding member of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network (OSN) Susie served as an OSN board member from 2002-2005; conference chair or co-chair 2002-2005 and on the conference committee 2006-08. She also assists Sustainable OKC and other local chapters with educational projects and materials and has been an active volunteer for the Oklahoma Sierra Club for seventeen years, serving as state chair in 1995-97.

Bill Struby
Graphic Designer

 

 

Shauna Struby
Writing | Editing | Web Communications

Shauna Lawyer Struby is a writer, but has worked in public relations, as an improvisational comedienne, potato scrubber, marketing manager, actor, dishwasher, contributing writer, music festival director, print shop assistant, film series director, cafeteria worker, editor, child abuse and neglect investigator, legal assistant, radio ad sales rep, development director, staff writer, director of education & youth at a church, and project manager.

Shauna’s current writerly gigs include a variety of Web site content and publication projects for the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation, Sonic America’s Drive-in, Miles Media, and the Dustbowl Conspiracy, a group of architects and designers. She is the president of Sustainable OKC and writes for Fresh Greens, freshgreens.typepad.com, a collaborative blog project of SOKC. Her blog ThinkLady, thinklady.typepad.com, is a compendium devoted to thinking, living and loving life out loud in Red Dirt City, and she’s working on a book about a remarkable woman named Jessie. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Oklahoma Today magazine and the Oklahoma Gazette. Shauna lives in Oklahoma City’s Midtown, with her husband, son, daughter and two exceptionally good-natured cats.

She is less interested in the status quo, more and more interested in imagining a new way of being in the world.