Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been working on a powerful, collaborative initiative with Parsons Professor Andrea Geyer and Edmund Langdell who is one of my Fashion Systems & Society students and founder of Becoming–a design-led transgender health and wellness community he developed as his final thesis project. We have been designing and manufacturing PPE for the Housing Works/Callen Lorde homeless shelter community medical facility that supports the most marginalized people in the LGBTQ community. Because the vast majority of PPE goes to major hospitals, community-based health organizations like Callen Lorde, which serves incredibly vulnerable populations, are in desperate need of support. Until now, we have been making PPE in small quantities with a team of volunteers; but today, because of new major support from Kay Unger + Fashion for the Frontlines, and Julie Gilhart + Fashion Girls for Humanity and Parsons School of Fashion alum and designer Mi Jong Lee, we were able to hand deliver 300 professionally manufactured medical gowns to Housing Works/Callen Lorde homeless shelter community medical facility! Together we will be creating and delivering 250+ reusable medical gowns for them next week. It is a truly awesome collaboration amongst so many different Parsons students, faculty, alumni and board members. The range of generations of Parsons people represented in our team is astounding! It is truly a Parsons family effort!
- Andrea Geyer, current professor in Fine Arts (who was my professor when I was a grad student!)
- Mi Jong Lee, School of Fashion alumnus
- Kay Unger, School of Fashion alumnus and Chair of the Board of Governors
- Julie Gilhart, Board of Governors member
- Isabelle Webster, MFA Fine Arts alumnus, former student of Andrea Geyer and current faculty member in School of Fashion
- Edmund Langdell, 2020 BFA Fashion Design Systems & Society alumnus (my thesis student)
- Melitta Baumeister, MFA Fashion Design & Society alumnus (former student of mine)
- Michal Plata, current BFA Fashion Design Systems & Society faculty member
- A great group of BFA Fashion Design Systems & Society 2020 alums who pitched in to sew PPE
- Brendan McCarthy, MFA Fine Arts alumnus & current professor in School of Fashion (former student of Andrea Geyer)