Sustainability + Equity in Lighting

Lya S. Osborn is a multidisciplinary designer, writer, literary translator, and the founder of YO Studio, a collaborative workshop in Seattle, WA. Together with her colleagues Edward Bartholomew and Mark Loeffler, she works to make social advocacy resources and ongoing education accessible to the lighting community and beyond at LightJustice.org. Lya also serves as the North America Regional Director for Unolai Lighting Design and has contributed to a broad range of international projects and award-winning design efforts over the past eight years. Lya received a double MFA in Lighting Design and Interior Design from Parsons The New School for Design, where her thesis work challenged the industry norms and incentives which have traditionally defined a designer's role in society, proposing alternate modes of directing design resources to historically underserved or disadvantaged populations. Lya is a member of the International Association of Lighting Designers, the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the International Dark Sky Association, and is Community Friendly Lighting Certified.

Kerem Asfuroglu is the founder of Dark Source, a London-based lighting design studio driven by social and environmental values. Throughout his career, he has won several design awards including Red Dot, PLDC, LAMP & LIT. In 2017, he was awarded with the title of Dark Sky Defender by the IDA for advocating the importance of darkness through design. Some of his environmental lighting projects include the Plas Y Brenin Outdoor Centre, Presteigne Dark Sky Masterplan, Newport Dark Sky Masterplan, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Clwydian Range & Dee Valley and Dark Sky Planning Guidelines for Cumbria.

Alexandra is an architect and Sustainability Leader at HMFH, where her expertise in topics from embodied carbon to material health and efficient lighting systems keeps the firm at the forefront of sustainable school design.
Alexandra creates healthy learning environments that support student well-being, both through her project work and industry-wide advocacy for material health and transparency. She recently co-authored the Lighting Advocacy Letter, a national initiative to establish sustainable lighting products as the industry standard and has held numerous roles within IES, including as Board member of the Boston Section and Co-Chair of the IES Sustainable Lighting Committee.

AIA, WELL AP, LEED AP BD+C, LFA

Leela Shanker leads the Design Lab with WAP Sustainability. Synthesizing architectural design, sustainability analytical frameworks and speculative material investigations, the Lab implements strategies that progress decarbonization, circularity and material health in the built environment. Based in New York, with collaborators globally, Shanker and WAP’s team develop pilot initiatives between leading stakeholders from design, manufacturing and real estate. Through the GreenLight Alliance – an international network of lighting professionals progressing industry-led standards, research and advocacy – she founded the Lighting Industry Life Cycle Assessment Incubator while practicing as a lighting designer with consulting engineering firm BR+A. She holds a M.Arch (Hons) and MFA – Lighting Design from Parsons School of Design and Bachelors of Law and Commerce from Sydney University. Shanker continues to advise the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy) as technical expert to their Life Cycle Assessment and light research team and is a Steering Committee member of the American Institute of Architects’ Decarbonization Subcommittee and Carbon Leadership Forum NY chapters. As Founder of non-profit, Flint Collective NYC Inc, her work has been awarded by the IES with a Special Citation for Lighting as a Tool for Social Impact. She is a current member of the Social Architecture track of the New Museum’s NEW INC incubator.