More about us:
Braden Crooks - Co-Founder, Partner
Braden Crooks is a founding partner at Designing the We, a social impact design studio operating in community-driven social and economic development. The dtW team designs programs, policies and enterprises that grow local communities and global networks dealing with deep crises, from the history of Redlining to the future of work.
He is on the board of The New York State Sustainable Business Council, and has served as the president of the board of Sure We Can: a non-profit collective for canners, who are those who make their living by redeeming cans and bottles for five cents. Braden graduated from the innovative program MS Design and Urban Ecologies at Parsons the New School for Design in May 2014 with honors, taught ecological thinking in urban issues at Parsons and produced a live audience webseires about New York. He is an RSA Fellow.
He received his undergraduate education at The Pennsylvania State University for Landscape Architecture. In Pennsylvania, he founded Groundswell PA-- A Community and Environmental Rights Initiative, which campaigned for and passed a “Community Environmental Bill of Rights” in the borough of State College, PA, by a popular vote in November of 2011. This was the first instance "rights of nature" were passed in the United States by using a popular vote. Groundswell helped pass a second initiative in Ferguson Township, PA, in November of 2012.
Braden lives and gardens in Brooklyn, NY.
April De Simone - Co-Founder, Partner
April De Simone has over 15 years of experience in strategically designing, developing and launching for-profit, non-profit and government projects. Continuing to advocate for social innovation, Ms. De Simone is co-creator of various for-purpose ventures and initiatives that promote market based solutions to address complex social challenges. A Dean Merit Scholar, she recently completed her Master of Science in Design and Urban Ecologies from Parsons the New School for Design. Ms. De Simone continues to be recognized for her leadership and dedication in supporting frameworks that promote a just and equitable society. In 2010, Ms. De Simone was nominated as a candidate for New York State’s Economic Council Initiative and remains actively involved in various other boards and activities that employ innovative capacities that scale social impact.
Gregory Jost - Partner, Undesign the Redline
Gregory Jost is an author and speaker with over 15 years of experience in bringing together the worlds of community development, organizing, data, and advocacy. At University Neighborhood Housing Program, Gregory created the Building Indicator Project to evaluate levels of physical and financial distress in 62,000 New York City apartment buildings and transform the ways banks, their regulators and City agencies interact with properties and their owners. The successes of the project lay in the process of harnessing the data and creating metrics collaboratively with shared ownership and evaluation techniques, resulting in a dramatic decline in distressed buildings across every neighborhood of the City. Gregory holds both a Bachelors and Masters of Arts from Fordham University, completed two years in the Team, Management and Leadership Program at Landmark Worldwide, co-founded a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative in his neighborhood over a decade ago, was a founding board member of the school where his two children now attend, and is a long time board member of New Economy Project. He is currently writing a book on race, real estate and redlining through a Bronx lens.