Patti Carpenter
Patti Carpenter is Principal of carpenter + company and an award- winning Designer in globally sourced home décor, accessories, fragrance and gifts, with experience in product design and development, merchandising and color + trend forecasting. As a Micro-Enterprise specialist with U.S. presidential recognition for domestic and international expertise in artisan development, small producer and entrepreneurial training and economic development she has designed and sourced Private Label collections for Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, The Phillips Collection, ABC Carpet and Home, Donna Karan Urban Zen and Ralph Lauren. She has worked in 57 countries. Patti is an expert in Color + Trend research and forecasting and consults with Pantone. She is the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison & Objet, Paris. She is an active board member of SERRV International-one of the founding organizations of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), BADG (Black Artists and Designer Guild), The High School of Fashion Industries and The Bienenstock Furniture Library, as well as the co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Project. Patti is also the recipient of the Gift For Life Industry Achievement Award for 2021 and the Withit Industry Leadership Award for 2021 for the Kaleidoscope Project.
Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis, principal of TSL Consulting, has nearly 3 decades of offering her expertise in program design, capacity building and leadership development to nonprofits and schools throughout the country. Concurrently, she is the Co-Founder and Interior Designer of Austin Gray Design Group. Tanya studied at Cornell University to earn her B.S. in Interior Design and Facility Planning; and NYU Wagner for Public Policy in Race, Poverty and Class Issues, where she received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Leadership. She has founded and led several nonprofit boards that address the needs of BPOC communities Tanya is the proud mother of an adult daughter.