Advisory Board

Advisory Board

Rebecca

Rebecca Burgess

Executive Director of Fibershed I Fibershed

Rebecca Burgess has over two decades of experience working at the intersection of ecology, fiber systems, and regional economic development. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America, and Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy released in 2019. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and California College of the Arts. She serves on the leadership council of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at Chico State University, as Board Secretary for Hukuuiko (a non-profit serving the Coast Miwok Tribal Council), and on the board of the Carbon Cycle Institute.

Susan

Susan Sokoloswksi, Ph.D.

Founding Director and Professor of Sports Product Design, University of Oregon I LinkedIn

Susan Sokolowski brings more than 30 years of experience in performance sporting goods, spanning footwear, apparel, and equipment in both creative and strategic capacities. A 2021 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, she takes a holistic approach to design; considering body form, performance needs, materials, and style to create innovative products that make a real impact. Her work focuses on improving design for underserved users, helping to close long-standing gaps in how performance products are conceived and built. 

Beth

Beth Esponnette

Cofounder of Unspun I Unspun | LinkedIn

Beth Esponnette is a designer & entrepreneur working at the intersection of textile innovation, advanced manufacturing, and sustainability. She is the cofounder, CPO, and Chair of unspun, establishing novel 3D weaving systems for automated, localized, and zero-waste garment production. Esponnette holds an MFA in Design from Stanford University and a BS in Fiber Science & Apparel Design from Cornell University. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Oregon and as a grant proposal reviewer for the National Science Foundation. Her career includes roles in materials research and product development at Mountain Hardwear, Pearl Izumi, and Ralph Lauren. A MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 honoree and a Vogue Business Sustainability Thought Leader, Esponnette draws from biological systems, evolution, and material efficiency to challenge conventional models of globalized mass manufacturing. 

Professional headshot of an older woman with long gray hair, glasses, and a slight smile

Lynda Grose

Professor of Fashion Design and Critical Studies, California College of the Arts | Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

Lynda Grose is a designer, educator, author and Professor of Fashion Design and Critical Studies at California College of the Arts. She sees design as a force that can help give form to a sustainable society and is passionate about the expanding roles for designers working in this context.

In 1990, Grose cofounded ESPRIT’s ecollection, which was the first ecologically responsible clothing line developed by a major corporation and framed the reduced-impacts approach to fashion and sustainability, now prevalent industry-wide. She has since worked across many sectors; from private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governments, to designers, artisans and farmers. Grose now uses this experience to clarify the limits of reduced product impact strategies in business models dependent upon exponential growth.

Grose is a contributing author to Opening Up the Wardrobe (Novus Press), The Routledge Handbook on Sustainable Fashion(Routledge), Sustainable Textiles: Life Cycle and Environmental Impact (Woodhouse Publishing, London), and Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles: Values, Design, Production and Consumption(Greenleaf Publishing). She co-authored Fashion and Sustainability: Design for Change (Lawrence King Publishers), which connects ecological theory and fashion practice and explores the new aesthetic(s) which emerge when sustainability values are embraced as a core design directive.  

Grose's current activities include experimenting with new fibers to test their viability in textiles; designing garments with the potential to satisfy desire in ways other than shopping; and engaging the public on the cultural potency of using labels to identify second hand garment purchases. She is also co-authoring a book on new business models for sustainable fashion.

Grose is a founding advisory board member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion (UCRF), and is a Reviewer for Fulbright Ireland.