Nora is Grace Farms Foundation’s first Ethical Materials Director, focusing on the Design for Freedom Movement. Design for Freedom aims to eradicate modern slavery from the built environment by addressing the systemic use of forced labor in the building materials supply chain.
Nora serves as Ethical Material Advisor on Design for Freedom Pilot Projects and led the development of the Design for Freedom Toolkit. Design for Freedom Pilot Projects include Black Chapel by Theaster Gates (21st Serpentine Pavilion, London, UK), Shadow of a Face by Nina Cooke John (Harriet Tubman Monument, Newark, NJ) and the New Canaan Library (New Canaan, CT).
For more than 15 years, Nora has dedicated herself to creating change in the built environment through her sustainability, resiliency, and social equity work. Before joining Grace Farms, Nora spent over a decade as Director of Sustainability for Fusco Corporation in New Haven, CT.
Nora currently serves on the Board of Directors for mindful MATERIALS and the CT Green Building Council and was invited to serve on the Governor’s Council for Climate Change (GC3) Infrastructure and Land Use Adaptation Working Group.
As one of the first Ambassadors in the world to be accredited by the International Living Future Institute, she founded the CT Living Future Collaborative. Nora also co-chairs the bi-annual Northeast Summit for a Sustainable Built Environment (NESSBE) Conference. This multi-day convening of industry experts has focused on themes including Health of Place, Equity of Place, and Power of Place.
