slowLab's Board of Directors

Carolyn F. Strauss > Carolyn Strauss is founder and executive director of slowLab. After completing a degree in architecture, she began her professional career exploring the intersection of design, technology and cultural research. In 2001, Strauss turned her attention to the growing sustainability debate in the design field. Her research and project work further developed as she embraced the concept of ‘slow design’ as a fertile, holistic framework through which to understand and expand the sustainable design debate. In 2003, she founded slowLab, and began to connect an international network of designers, design thinkers and exemplary projects to bring the slow design movement to life.

Garrick Jones > Garrick Jones is an academic, businessman and musician based in London. He crosses over a number of domains – he is Senior Research Fellow (Institute of Social Psychology) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a Senior Lecturer of Industrial Design & Engineering (IDE) at the Royal College of Art & Design (RCA) and a partner of the Ludic Group, a Strategic Business Design group. He is actively involved in negotiating the social spaces between the commercial and academic worlds. His career has included Director of the Innovation Lab, Innovate:UK and he was Director of Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASEs) for Ernst & Young. His clients include many of the world’s top organizations and governments. Garrick is particularly experienced in developing innovation strategies using collaborative learning and design methods. He has worked with teams to launch collaborative environments in Europe, Africa, Australia, the United States and Asia.

Elena M. Paul > Elena M. Paul is the Executive Director of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA), the leading provider of pro bono legal services, mediation services, educational programs and publications, and advocacy to the arts community. In addition to overseeing all of VLA’s programs and services, Ms. Paul counsels and represents artists and arts organizations,
specializing in corporate and contractual matters. She also serves as development consultant for various cultural and arts projects in addition to television, film and theatrical productions.

Alberta Chu > Alberta Chu is a documentary filmmaker specializing in science, art, and culture. In her work, Chu has investigated topics ranging from robotics to phobias and computing culture for clients including Lucasfilm, National Geographic, and the Discovery Networks.  Her award-winning independent documentary projects, “Electrum” (1999) and “Seeing the Landscape: Richard Serra’s Tuhirangi Contour” (2003) explore the intersection of science and art.  Chu is a member of slowLab’s Board of Director.

Judith van den Boom is slowLab's newest Board director (elected in July 2009). Boom has been very active in slowLab projects since 2008. She was a guest teacher in the Oberlin College 'Slow Campus' workshop in January 2009, and a featured participant in the first Slow Loket in Amsterdam, which she wrote about here > She brings her strong experience as a creative thinker, product designer and community activist to bear on slowLab's directionality and programming. Boom works together with Gunter Wehmeyer in studio BoomWehmeyer on projects illustrating their wide concern for design development, social communities and innovation. boomwehmeyer.com >

Prior Board members

Alastair Fuad-Luke > Alastair Fuad-Luke is a sustainable design consultant, facilitator, educator, & writer. He is a contributor to the international debate about Design for Sustainability, and author of The Eco-Design Handbook (2002, 2004, June 2009), The Eco-Travel Handbook (Oct 2008), and Design Activism (March 2009). He has taught and led design programmes at a number of UK universities and has lectured elsewhere in the European Union, and in the USA, New Zealand and Australia.  In 2002 Fuad-Luke referenced the term 'slow design' at an international design conference in Bangalore and since 2005 has been an active member of slowLab’s Board of Directors.  He is an advocate of co-design, designing together, as a means towards sustainability transition. fuad-luke.com >

Christopher Dierks > Chris Dierks has served as a non-profit design education and development consultant for Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment and The Canary Project. Currently, he is Archive Manager at the Van Alen Institute, an independent, nonprofit architectural organization whose mission is to promote inquiry into the processes that shape the design of the public realm. Chris received a B.A. in architecture from Princeton University. 

meet some of our network >