The Crew.
Leadership
Dario .
FOUNDER + CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Dario Calmese is an artist, design theorist, and creative director whose practice interrogates how identity and history are constructed through image, environment, and cultural systems. In 2020 he became the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair in its 106-year history. A 2023 Harvard Loeb Fellow and professor at Parsons School of Design, he is the founder of the Institute of Black Imagination; steward of the archives of Geoffrey Holder and André Leon Talley; and the architect of a 50-year project to prototype new operating systems for human life.
Tiffani.
Legal + Operations.
Tiffani Brown Knight, Esq. is a business attorney, nonprofit advisor, and founding member of IBI whose career spans Morgan Stanley, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Manatt Phelps, the Open Society Foundations, and the BeyGOOD Foundation. Through Compani B. Management, her advisory practice specializing in legacy planning, she architects the legal and strategic infrastructure that allows mission-driven institutions to endure. She holds degrees from NYU School of Law, Yale University, and the University of Southern California.
Board of Directors
Bryan.
STRATEGY + INVESTMENT + DESIGN
Bryan Lattimore is a social entrepreneur, investor, and creative director whose work identifies where cultural value is being generated before the market has named it. Trained at Wharton and forged at McKinsey, Emerson Collective, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, he is the founder of Marble and General Partner at Wynne, a private equity firm that resources high-influence creators at institutional scale.
Chrysi.
TECHNOLOGY + CULTURE + IMPACT
Chrysi Philalithes is a brand architect and digital strategist who has spent two decades building at the intersection of technology, culture, and purpose-driven commerce. As Chief Digital Officer at (RED), she engineered the infrastructure behind over $600 million raised to combat AIDS in Africa. She is the founder of NYLON LAB and a Guardian "50 Women to Watch."
Mehret.
MEDICINE + NARRATIVE + FILM
Dr. Mehret Mandefro is a physician, anthropologist, and Emmy-nominated filmmaker who treats narrative as a public health instrument. Trained at Harvard and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, she served as a White House Fellow and co-founded the Realness Institute to build the film and television ecosystem across Africa. Her films have premiered at Sundance, Berlinale, and TIFF.
Zina.
DEVELOPMENT + CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Zina Reed is a development strategist whose career has been built at the intersection of contemporary art and the infrastructure that gives cultural institutions sovereignty over their own direction. She has held senior development roles at MoMA, Creative Time, the Brooklyn Museum, and SculptureCenter, and is currently founding a new nonprofit organization in West Africa.
Advisory Board
Rachel.
Retail Advisor
Rachel Shechtman is a fourth-generation retailer and entrepreneur who founded Story, a retail concept conceived as a space that takes the point of view of a magazine, changes like a gallery, and sells things like a store. Acquired by Macy's in 2018, Story made her the retailer's first Brand Experience Officer. Named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Rob.
Retail Advisor
"Most people know me as the founder of Design Within Reach (1999) and PUBLIC Bikes (2009). I feel so lucky to have founded two companies that are still alive and well today. These ventures succeed largely because of the people who supported me: friends, designers, mentors, sidekicks, and staff.”
Tracey.
CULTURE + STRATEGIC Advisor
Tracey Ryans is a cultural entrepreneur, integrated marketing strategist, and co-founder of NeueHouse whose career moves fluently between civic life, hospitality, and the architecture of cool. He co-owns La Esquina, Miss Lilly's, and Metrograph Theater; has advised Frieze Art Fair, the New Museum, and Performa; and leads Tracey Ryans Agency, a consultancy he describes as facilitating alchemy at the intersections of integrated marketing and strategic partnerships.
contributors
Adam.
SOUND + BROADCAST ENGINEERING
Adam Radice is a broadcast engineer who specializes in designing and operating large-scale IP-based communications systems for live production environments. At ABC News, he played a key role in deploying the largest SMPTE 2110 communications network in the Northern Hemisphere. At IBI, he brings that same precision to the sonic architecture of the podcast — ensuring the institution sounds as serious as it thinks.
Chanel.
Space 001 Project Manager
Christine.
Space resident + FASHION PRODUCTION
Christine Laurin Miller is a New York-based watercolor painter and mixed media artist whose practice sits at the intersection of product development, material culture, and the politics of the Black image in American commerce. Trained at Hunter College and the Fashion Institute of Technology, she has exhibited at the Portland Art Museum and been reviewed in BOMB Magazine. Her work recontextualizes the objects American consumer culture built on anti-Blackness; she treats the archive as evidence.
Chrystal.
Events Production
Chrystal Genesis is a London-based journalist, producer, and audio curator whose career spans the BBC, where she produced for Woman's Hour, the Today Programme, Radio 4, 6 Music, and BBC World, to founding Stance, her independent arts and culture podcast. She has curated performance programs at the Southbank Centre and built editorial ecosystems across radio, podcast, and digital platforms.
Justin.
STRATEGY + DESIGN
Justin McElderry is an architect, strategist, creative director, and artist whose work examines how systems (spatial, economic, cultural, and technological) are designed, governed, and transformed over time. Justin rained in Architecture at Harvard University and Economics at Morehouse College.
K.T.
Podcast Producer
KT Thompson is a strategic operations leader with over two decades of experience in executive administration, project management, and organizational systems. At IBI, she supports the founder with high-level coordination, podcast production, and the day-to-day architecture that keeps a living institution moving. She is also the founder of Virtual KT, a consultancy serving entrepreneurs and nonprofits ready to grow without burning out.
Mariela.
Space 001 Store Operations
Most recently Global Project Manager at Peloton, Mariela Peguero is a seasoned organizational architect who balances rigorous strategy with imaginative flair. Whether she is overseeing million-dollar portfolios or producing immersive global retreats, she ensures every detail is structurally sound yet emotionally resonant.
Tresell.
Space 001 strategist
Tresell is a seasoned business strategist and creative consultant with a distinguished record of crafting and executing strategic initiatives for a diverse array of clients, including retail brands, artist studios, private collections, art fairs, galleries, and cultural institutions.