Sharon Prince is the Chair and President of Grace Farms Foundation, a private operating foundation established in 2009 to enhance lives through engagement with nature, arts, justice, community, and faith.
Ms. Prince spearheaded the vision for Grace Farms, a new kind of public space shared by individuals and not-for-profit organizations, and she commissioned the Pritzker Prize-winning firm SANAA to design its accompanying River building. Since opening in October 2015, Grace Farms has emerged as a place of grace and peace for all. It has garnered numerous awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the AIA National 2017 Architecture Honor Award, Fast Company’s 2016 Innovation by Design Award for Social Good and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she participated in the symposium Reimagining the Metropolis. Ms. Prince was appointed to the 2018 AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture Jury.
Through her work with the Foundation, Ms. Prince has fought to end child exploitation, human trafficking, and violence against women on a local, national and international scale. In 2016, she co-hosted a convening with the United Nations University entitled Fighting Human Trafficking in Conflict, which resulted in a published report to the United Nations Security Council and the UN Resolution 2331 in December. Grace Farms Foundation is developing and initializing a global media campaign Unchain: Freedom Needs Fighters to end modern day slavery with agencies Geometry Global, J. Walter Thompson, and Shazam.
Ms. Prince also serves on the Board of Next Generation Nepal, a charity dedicated to reuniting victims of child exploitation with their families. In 2017, she received NOMI Network’s Abolitionist Award and Auburn Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award. Prior to developing Grace Farms, Ms. Prince was the President of 66North, an Icelandic technical outerwear brand that she developed and distributed in 100 stores in North America. She holds a BS/BA and MBA from the University of Tulsa.
