Ashley Lukasik
Ashley Lukasik is a strategist, filmmaker, and experience designer exploring how storytelling can shape more thoughtful futures. As Founder and CEO of Murmur Ring, she creates immersive experiences and documentary films that help leaders and organizations navigate complex social, cultural, and technological change.
With a background in anthropology and human-centered design, her work bridges design, systems thinking, and civic life—spanning topics from AI and democracy to housing, education, and climate.
Ashley co-produced the acclaimed documentary The New Bauhaus and is the executive producer of What Are People For?, a film exploring the enduring legacy of design pioneer Patrick Whitney and the role of design in helping people and societies flourish.
Magnus Resch
Magnus Resch is an art-market economist, bestselling author, and entrepreneur whose work brings transparency and data-driven insight to the contemporary art world.
A professor at Yale University, he studies the economics of art, galleries, collecting, and cultural institutions, helping artists and collectors better understand how the industry operates. Through his writing, teaching, and ventures, Resch bridges the worlds of art, business, and technology.
Rick Valicenti
Rick Valicenti is an influential Chicago graphic designer, educator, and mentor, and founder of Thirst, a design practice known for pushing the boundaries between art, design, and communication. A recipient of the AIGA Medal and Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, his work has shaped design discourse for more than four decades.
Lisa Kay Solomon
Lisa Kay Solomon is a futurist, educator, and bestselling author helping leaders, organizations, and communities build the capacity to imagine and create better futures. As a Designer in Residence at Stanford's d.school, she teaches pioneering courses on strategic foresight, innovation, and civic imagination, challenging students to see uncertainty not as a constraint, but as an opportunity for design. Through her writing, teaching, and public work, Solomon equips people to move beyond reacting to change and become active architects of what comes next.
Sarah Beattie
Sarah Beattie is the co-founder and builder of The 611, a referral-only local community app for women, reimagining how social platforms can more effectively create real-life connections.
She spent five years at Meta building systems to detect the worst of what humanity could put online before she left to build The 611. She has over a decade of experience in the tech industry, from start-ups to enterprise, before becoming an entrepreneur in 2025. Sarah has lived in Aspen since 2023 with her dog, Bennett.
Lucy McRae
Lucy McRae is an artist and strategic thought partner leading Future Sensitive: a multi-disciplinary, art-research incubator. Shaped by two decades of Lucy's global art practice, the studio explores technology and science's impacts on the planet and the natural world. Through sculpture, performance, installation, and film, Lucy and Future Sensitive create hopeful, research-led futures that address humanity's pressing challenges.
In parallel to a gallery and museum-focused art practice, Lucy consults for a wide range of clients, including brands [Chanel, Adobe, MIT], private institutes, and Hollywood Writer’s rooms [TV mini-series Blade Runner 2099], working directly with leadership teams to catalyze futures through project sprints and narrative prototyping.
Boldly staring down the status quo, Lucy pioneers a new story for how future technologies will fundamentally alter intimacy, reproduction, biology and health— shining light on the ethical implications of genetic engineering. By designing hypothetical worlds that use speculation as a tool, Lucy's work provokes an exploration of who we are, and where we are headed.
Bobby Cabbagestalk
Bobby Cabbagestalk is a Los Angeles-based designer and amateur astronomer. His self-titled clothing label has become a tangible expression of his many interests, including science fiction, underground dance music, and astronomy, which has inspired him to serve as a liaison between the observable night sky and the everyday person via Star Party Silverlake.
Bobby believes that within everyone lies a connection to the stars above us, and with the right experience, that light can be ignited and carried for the rest of our lives. That light also makes us question our place in the cosmos, and what peer-to-peer creative solutions can be expressed to begin to answer those questions through design.
Maty Sall
roosterlion.com/
@rooster_lion
Maty Sall is a curator and founder of Rooster/Lion, a platform dedicated to building meaningful dialogue across the global art ecosystem.
After years working with leading designers and artists in New York City, she expanded her practice to curate exhibitions, conversations, and collaborations that bridge contemporary art, design, and culture. Drawing on a perspective shaped by New York, Paris, Dakar, and beyond, Maty champions ideas that expand how culture is created, shared, and understood.
Greg Gonzalez
Greg Gonzalez is the songwriter, producer, and founder of the dream pop band Cigarettes After Sex, whose cinematic sound has become a global cultural phenomenon. Known for crafting immersive sonic worlds that blur the boundaries between music, memory, and emotion, Gonzalez creates work that explores intimacy, atmosphere, and the power of restraint. His distinctive approach to songwriting and production has earned billions of streams and a devoted international following, demonstrating how thoughtful creative vision can transcend trends and connect across cultures.
Marisa Hallsted
Marisa Hallsted works at the intersection of healthcare, leadership, and human development. Through immersive workshops, coaching, and experiential learning, she helps individuals and teams cultivate greater presence, resilience, and self-awareness, exploring how personal transformation can become a catalyst for healthier organizations and more connected communities.
Drawing from yoga, meditation, somatic practice, and contemplative traditions, she creates experiences that reconnect people with themselves, one another, and the natural world. Her work invites us to slow down, cultivate presence, and lead with greater intention.
Dina Nur Satti
Dina Nur Satti is a ceramic artist whose sculptural practice explores memory, ritual, and the enduring relationship between people and the earth. Drawing on Sudanese and Somali heritage alongside African art histories and spiritual traditions, she creates contemplative vessels that bridge ancestral knowledge with contemporary form. Through clay, Satti investigates how material can carry history, identity, and transformation across generations. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Lindsay Branham
Dr. Lindsay Branham is an environmental psychologist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and author whose work explores the intersection of ecology, embodiment, and human connection. Drawing on research, storytelling, and contemplative practice, she investigates how relationships with the natural world can transform individual and collective well-being. Her debut book, Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees, invites readers into a deeper relationship with forests, belonging, and the living world.
Jeff Kite
Jeff Kite is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans experimental rock, dream pop, film, and contemporary composition.
A longtime member of The Voidz, alongside Julian Casablancas, and a collaborator with Cigarettes After Sex, Kite creates immersive sonic landscapes that blur the boundaries between music, atmosphere, and storytelling. His collaborations include artists such as Daft Punk, Mac DeMarco, members of The Killers and Muse, while his film scores have brought emotional depth to award-winning documentaries and independent cinema. Whether composing for the screen or the stage, Jeff explores how sound can shape memory, mood, and the way we experience the world.
Ben Varadi
Ben Varadi is a designer, entrepreneur, and Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Spin Master, the global entertainment company behind beloved brands including PAW Patrol, Hatchimals, Bakugan, Air Hogs, and Kinetic Sand. For more than three decades, he has led the creation of toys, games, and entertainment experiences that spark imagination, creativity, and play for children around the world. Guided by the belief that great ideas begin with curiosity, Varadi has helped transform Spin Master from a startup into one of the world's leading children's entertainment companies, redefining how play can inspire learning, storytelling, and innovation.
Josh Crumb
abaxx.tech
Josh Crumb is an entrepreneur, engineer, and systems thinker whose work sits at the intersection of technology, markets, and the energy transition. As the founder and CEO of Abaxx Technologies and Abaxx Exchange, he is redesigning the infrastructure behind global commodity markets—reimagining how information, trust, and value move through the world's economy. From pioneering new approaches to financial technology to co-founding Menē, a company that redefined precious metals as both jewelry and enduring stores of value, Josh's career explores how better-designed systems can shape a more resilient future.
Previously a Senior Metals Strategist at Goldman Sachs and a leader within the Lundin Group, he brings a rare perspective on the relationship between economics, engineering, and innovation.
Michelle Dennedy
Michelle Dennedy is a privacy engineer, technology executive, and author whose work has helped shape the global conversation around data ethics, digital trust, and responsible innovation. A former Chief Privacy Officer at Cisco and author of The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto, she brings together law, engineering, and business strategy to help organizations build technology that is both innovative and human-centered. Today, Dennedy continues to advance new approaches to data governance, privacy, and systems thinking at the intersection of technology and society.
Erik Evens
Erik Evens is a lifelong resident of California, born and raised in Los Angeles, and educated at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he earned his degree in architecture. His profound appreciation of traditional architecture was nurtured during extensive travels throughout the United States and Europe. In the early years of his career, he worked for several design firms with varying specialties, but it was his tenure in the Los Angeles office of Marc Appleton that sealed his passion for historical styles attuned to the classical principles of harmony, proportion, order, and, above all, beauty.
Evens joined KAA Design in 1998 and became a partner in the firm in 2005, overseeing a broad range of custom residential, commercial and institutional projects. In 2013, he established Evens Architects, an independent design studio operating under the aegis of KAA and focused exclusively on traditional residential design. His work has been published in a wide array of publications, including Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and Western Interiors. Erik is releasing his first book, Shaping the World as a Home: The Houses and Gardens of Erik Evens (Rizzoli) in September 2024.
A teacher and mentor, Evens lectures widely on a variety of design-related topics. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), and sits on its national curriculum committee. He is a founding member and former president of the Southern California Chapter of the ICAA. He is also an avid sailor, drawing inspiration from the lines, craftsmanship and romantic allure of classic sailboats.
Lauren Shapiro
Lauren Shapiro explores material traditions and environmental research, spanning from intimate vessels and reliefs to large-scale public installations. Her practice maintains a long, deep relationship with ceramics and glass, finding in these ancient elements the capacity to hold the weight of the contemporary world. Drawing from original fieldwork and site-specific studies, and collaborating with scientists alongside digital mapping and traditional mold-making, Shapiro hand-presses, casts, and assembles raw clay into intricate forms replicating the complex textures of corals, crystals, and plant life. Finished with a kaleidoscope of glazes, the work looks past simple beauty to examine the deeper realities of climate, migration, and the fragility of human systems.
Skyler Lomahaftewa
Skyler Lomahaftewa is a Northern Ute cultural educator, storyteller, and Bear Dance Chief dedicated to preserving and sharing the history, traditions, and living culture of the Ute people. Through partnerships with museums, schools, and cultural institutions, he creates immersive educational experiences that deepen public understanding of Indigenous history while reconnecting communities to the ancestral homelands of the Uncompahgre Ute. His work bridges tradition and contemporary life, fostering dialogue, stewardship, and cultural understanding across generations.
Maura Trumble
Maura Trumble, AIA, is a Partner at CCY Architects, a Colorado-based design firm whose work is shaped by place, landscape, and material craft. Her practice spans residential, mixed-use, hospitality, civic, and community- focused projects throughout mountain environments. Maura brings a collaborative and deeply considered approach to design, with an interest in how buildings support daily life, strengthen connection, and respond to the natural world. Her perspective is grounded in stewardship - of land, community, resources, and the long life of the built environment - and in the belief that architecture is most resonant when it feels connected to both its setting and the people who experience it.
David Levine
David Levine is an explorer, a creative, and a dreamer. His walkabouts lead him to remote mountain landscapes, unknown waters, and the darkest night skies he can find. Drop me him a new city or a forest, and he’ll find a way to get lost - not directionally, but through curiosity. Wonder is where it all begins for him: a pull to explore, observe, and discover the beauty that surrounds us. It fuels a lifelong practice of experimentation, creation, and finding new ways to see the world.
As a Creative Director and Artist, he brings together art, design, technology, and storytelling to transform complex ideas into meaningful experiences. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he collaborates with scientists and engineers to translate the story of space exploration into visual narratives that inspire curiosity and connection. Through his creative studio, he partners with global brands and cultural institutions to create immersive experiences and campaigns that invite people to participate, reflect, and imagine.
Eddie Burns & Corduroy
Eddie Burns & Corduroy are an LA-based producer duo by way of Chicago. As multi-instrumentalists and multi-hyphenates, Eddie and Corduroy have developed modern jazz/soul artist Sparklmami, executive producing her critically acclaimed debut album via Verve, In This Body.
Eddie and Corduroy’s characteristically warm production sound is defined by their uniquely analogue process of recording straight to tape to capture that classic, nostalgic tone.
Joseph Santiago-Dieppa
Joseph Santiago-Dieppa is an LA-based interdisciplinary artist, designer, and co-founder of AUTOBODY autobody, an artist-run exhibition space in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union in 2017. Working primarily in steel, wood, leather, and cast materials, Santiago-Dieppa creates sculptural objects and spatial interventions that explore the relationship between utility, landscape, and the built environment.
His practice investigates weight, tension, and containment, often pushing rigid industrial materials into forms that suggest geological processes, bodily presence, and architectural fragments. Bridging art, design, and fabrication, his work reflects a deep engagement with making while questioning the boundaries between functional object and sculpture.
Karen Stonely
Karen Marie Stonely, AIA, LEED AP, is a founder and principal of
SPAN Architecture, an internationally recognized practice advancing biophilic design as a comprehensive architectural framework. Her work explores how architecture can strengthen humanity’s relationship with the living world, demonstrating that stewardship begins with connection. Through award-winning projects, professional leadership, and public engagement, she has advanced design approaches that integrate health, ecology, sensory experience, and place.
Her work has been featured in leading international design publications and she regularly speaks at conferences on architecture’s role in cultivating environments that enrich human life while inspiring deeper care for the natural systems upon which we all depend.
Jeremy Fisher
Jeremy Fisher is an entrepreneur, coach, and teacher interested in what lies beneath the stories we tell about who we are: intuition, identity, and the deeper nature they can obscure.
He spent fifteen years founding and building venture-backed technology companies, including pioneering the 24-hour, forward-chronological content format later popularized as Stories. That work explored new ways of expressing and performing the stories of our lives; his work today looks beneath them.
He brings together Western psychology, contemplative practice, somatic inquiry, and years of study and apprenticeship within Indigenous Amazonian traditions to investigate what shapes those stories and what remains when we loosen their hold.
Sam Harvey
Sam Harvey is an Aspen-based ceramic artist, curator, and educator whose practice and career have helped shape the Roaring Fork Valley’s creative community. He first came to Anderson Ranch as a young artist in the 1980s and has since served as artist-in-residence, studio manager, faculty member, curator, volunteer, donor, and board member. He earned his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and received a 2019 USA Fellowship.
Sam co-founded Harvey/Meadows Gallery with fellow artist Alleghany Meadows, now Harvey Preston Gallery, where he brings an artist’s perspective to work that pushes the boundaries of material, process, craft, and design. Beyond his studio practice, Sam is a longtime advocate for artists and arts education, serving on the boards of Anderson Ranch and the Carbondale Clay Center and teaching and lecturing nationally and internationally.
Sarah Roy
Sarah Roy is the Executive Director of the Red Brick Center for the Arts, Aspen’s longtime creative community hub, where she works to make art a catalyst for connection, dialogue, and civic life.
Since joining the Red Brick nearly a decade ago, Sarah has championed its role as a home for artists, cultural nonprofits, exhibitions, education, and public art, while continuing to evolve the center in response to the needs of the community. She sees arts engagement as essential to a thriving town and uses exhibitions and programming to open conversations around issues that matter—from community and place to identity and belonging. Sarah has also helped advance Aspen’s first formal Public Art Plan, advocating for public art as a tool for placemaking, cultural expression, and community connection.
Chad Oppenheim
Chad Oppenheim is an architect and the founder of Oppenheim Architecture, a practice rooted in sensory, site-specific design. His work explores how architecture can connect us more deeply to the places we inhabit—using landscape, natural materials, light, climate, and the rhythms of nature to shape not just buildings, but how we feel within them.
A longtime Aspen resident, Oppenheim brings this philosophy into an intimate relationship with the mountain landscape. His Aspen home, La Muna, uses reclaimed timber, local stone, carefully framed views, and indoor-outdoor spaces to create a sense of immersion in its surroundings. For Oppenheim, biophilic design is less about bringing nature into a building than designing in harmony with what is already there.
Jamie Kripke
Jamie Kripke is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and second-generation clockmaker. Spanning three decades, his work interweaves photography, creative direction, video, printmaking, and product design. His practice is rooted in observations from the edges of the human environment—from high alpine zones and coastal areas to dense urban spaces—and explores our innate resonance with color, form, and composition. He lives and works between Boulder, Colorado and Tokyo, Japan.
Andy Millner
Andy Millner has been drawing to understand the world since childhood. His work creates a kind of parallel landscape, bringing together drawn, natural, handmade, and machine-made elements in flattened compositions that seem to exist somewhere between memory, observation, and invention. Without a single viewpoint or traditional sense of light and shadow, his landscapes ask us to look closely—and to wonder whether what we are seeing is old or new, handmade or digital, real or imagined.
Born in St. Louis in 1967, Millner studied drawing, painting, and sculpture at the University of Michigan before beginning a career as a union scenic artist in theater, television, and film. The imaginative problem-solving of creating alternative worlds continues to inform his practice today. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as numerous private and corporate collections.
Penelope Thornton
Penelope Thornton is a naturalist, herbalist, and musician based in the Roaring Fork Valley. Her work explores the relationships between people and plants with a focus on the local edible and medicinal plants of Central Colorado. She graduated from Colorado College, where she created a guidebook titled the Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants of Central Colorado. She has worked as a naturalist with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) and later partnered with ACES to support the completion of the guidebook. Through teaching field botany and herbal practice, Penelope invites people to pay attention to the ground and learn to move through landscapes in a more intentional way.
The Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants of Central Colorado is a field guide to the plants that shape Colorado’s central mountains. Written and illustrated by Penelope Thornton, it explores local edible and medicinal species through identification, ecology, traditional uses, and responsible harvesting practices. The guide is meant to make plant knowledge feel approachable and visually engaging while encouraging readers to look more closely at the plants all around them and build a deeper relationship with the landscape.
Sparklmami
Sparklmami is a Texas-born, Chicago-based musician and visual artist. Her songwriting draws from her confessional subconscious, exploring themes of perception and identity over her band’s improvisational mix of experimental soul, Mexican bolero, and jazz funk. Her much anticipated debut record, In This Body–– featuring the acclaimed singles “Fajas” and “Running”–– invites listeners into a lush world of reverie, nostalgia, and possibility. It’s a sound that pulls from a myriad of places: the glimmering, verdant jazz made in 1970s Brazil, the open-hearted Mexican boleros she grew up listening to at home, the whimsy of Indian singer Runa Laila, and of course, the improvisation and ideas of her bandmates.
André Nogueira
André Nogueira Ph.D., holds the first-of-its-kind position as an Assistant Professor of Design Knowledge at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, where he founded and directs the Design Nucleus. He is also a Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships Junior Faculty and holds faculty affiliations at the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
His work intersects design with other disciplines to promote the well-being of people and the planet through systems-level transformations. André has helped institutions in the U.S., Brazil, and India build design laboratories that bridge theory and practice through cross-sector partnerships that influence strategic investment, governance models, and public policy change, including the Design Laboratory at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Action Labs at IIT Institute of Design. His contributions have earned him the 40 Under 40 Public Health Catalyst Award.