Our Team

Grace Farms is the platform for the Foundation and its interdisciplinary humanitarian mission to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom, a global new movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. 

The open, porous architecture of the River building at Grace Farms is embedded into 80 acres of natural biodiverse landscapes. The building, designed to break down barriers between people and sectors, invites all to pause and reflect, while also encouraging engagement with Grace Farms’ work, including advancing gender and racial equity, all of which leads to creating new outcomes.

Since opening, Grace Farms has garnered numerous prestigious awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the AIA National 2017 Architecture Honor Award and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.

Grace Farms is pioneering a new form of philanthropic capitalism with a non-profit owned certified B Corp. Prince is the Co-Founder of Grace Farms Tea & Coffee, which offers coffees and teas that demonstrate what the Foundation advocates for: ethical and sustainable supply chains. Through our robust corporate-sponsorship program we’ve expanded the reach into global corporations including JPMorganChase, UBS, Sciame Construction, and Bloomberg. In addition, Grace Farms Tea & Coffee has also introduced its Wellness Teas into 26 Whole Foods Markets in 2024 alone, initializing public demand for ethical sourcing.

100% of the profits from Grace Farms Foods supports the Design for Freedom movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain.

After recognizing a void in addressing exploitation in the building materials supply chain in late 2017, Prince launched Design for Freedom in 2020 with a first-of-its-kind publication, a nearly 100-page Report that provides analysis and data on how forced labor is embedded into the very foundations of our buildings. At the inaugural Design for Freedom Summit in 2022, Grace Farms also released the Design for Freedom Toolkit, a practical resource professionals use to implement ethical sourcing strategies into their practices. Prince also initiated the next iteration of the Design for Freedom Toolkit to further advance the international expansion of Design for Freedom. The Design for Freedom International Guidance & Toolkit, which includes contributions from more than a dozen leading international experts across the ecosystem of the built environment.

In addition, Prince has also expanded Design for Freedom internationally through accelerators in the UK, India, and Vietnam equipping public and private sector partners with the tools to address forced and child labor.

She has guest lectured about Design for Freedom and Grace Farms to universities and industry associations around the world. In recognition of this impactful work, Fast Company named her to its list of the Most Creative People in Business 2022: For Cleaning up Construction and the AIA NY and Center for Architecture recognized her with the NYC Visionary Award.

At the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, when countries around the world shut down, Prince converted Grace Farms into a humanitarian hub to address two emerging crises: the lack of PPE for frontline health care workers and soaring food insecurity. Under her leadership, Grace Farms became the largest supplier of PPE in the state, securing, donating, and delivering more than 2 million pieces of PPE within weeks to close the acute state-wide PPE gap. She also initiated a critical food emergency program that provided more than 150,000 wholesome meals to neighbors in need. For this humanitarian work, Prince received the CEO Forum’s Transformative CEO Award | Leading through Crisis.

Nora serves as Ethical Material Advisor on Design for Freedom Pilot Projects and led the development of the Design for Freedom Toolkit. Design for Freedom Pilot Projects include Black Chapel by Theaster Gates (21^st Serpentine Pavilion, London, UK), Shadow of a Face by Nina Cooke John (Harriet Tubman Monument, Newark, NJ) and the New Canaan Library (New Canaan, CT).

For more than 15 years, Nora has dedicated herself to creating change in the built environment through her sustainability, resiliency, and social equity work. Before joining Grace Farms, Nora spent over a decade as Director of Sustainability for Fusco Corporation in New Haven, CT.

Nora currently serves on the Board of Directors for mindful MATERIALS and the CT Green Building Council and was invited to serve on the Governor’s Council for Climate Change (GC3) Infrastructure and Land Use Adaptation Working Group.

As one of the first Ambassadors in the world to be accredited by the International Living Future Institute, she founded the CT Living Future Collaborative. Nora also co-chairs the bi-annual Northeast Summit for a Sustainable Built Environment (NESSBE) Conference. This multi-day convening of industry experts has focused on themes including Health of Place, Equity of Place, and Power of Place.

Before joining Grace Farms, Brigid was the Director of Research at Pickard Chilton, a global design architect in New Haven, Connecticut. Brigid fostered a community of learning in the studio through research, education, and thought leadership. Prior to Pickard Chilton, Brigid worked in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Division of the New York Public Library and in interior design for Eve Robinson Associates in Manhattan. She is a licensed architect in the state of New York and certified as a LEED Green Associate, WELL Accredited Professional and Fitwel Ambassador.

Brigid is a graduate of Barnard College with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Master of Library and Information Science from Rutgers University. She serves as the Communications Chair for the Board of Directors of NOMA Connecticut.

Elaine is also instrumental in the rigorous application of Design for Freedom Principles to Design for Freedom Pilot Projects in India.

Prior to this role, Elaine was the ESG & Human Rights Director at Marshalls plc, the UK’s leading hard landscaping, building and roofing products supplier.

Elaine is at the forefront of the human rights movement in the United Kingdom and currently serve as Co-Chair of the ILO Child Labour Platform India Working Group.  Additionally, she has been actively engaged with the UN Global Compact UK Network since 2009, sits on the advisory and various working groups.  She has most recently worked as a senior advisor to UN Global Compact UK Network on a range of human rights projects including the role of technology in the elimination of forced and child labour, and the development of a guidance framework which aims to enable institutional investors to exert appropriate pressure on companies to end child labour in supply chains.

To this unique role, Elaine brings more than 20 years of sustainability, ESG and human rights experience, working across multiple global sectors including construction, extractives, automotive, and solar. Elaine also has expertise in materials that comprise the built environment, notably natural stone. She is deft at aligning ESG actions, ensuring appropriate data and metrics, and working across organizations to deliver actionable and tangible impacts, applying aspects of non-financial reporting, including environmental, nature, biodiversity, and governance. Elaine has expert knowledge of global supply chain due diligence, social value, procurement and environmental legislation, and numerous reporting standards and frameworks, including the UN Global Compact (UNGC) Communication on Progress.

Elaine is highly adept in hands-on engagement in high-risk geographies, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in relation to conflict minerals. Her expansive training in working in hostile environments, as well as her extensive global travels, uniquely position her to address complex and opaque supply chains of all kinds and advance the Design for Freedom movement.

Emma plays a pivotal role in collecting, researching, synthesizing and analyzing information and outcomes to assess programming opportunities, strategic direction, and mission-aligned projects and advancements.  In addition, Emma also ensures the timely and effective completion of all projects originating from the CEO and Founder. Emma also acts as a central contact point for key internal and external stakeholder meetings and communications.

Emma began her career as a corporate lawyer before transitioning to banking, where she led a Business Banking team specializing in international trade services, commercial lending, and strategic business advisory. After leaving banking in pursuit of more social entrepreneurial opportunities, Emma created a pioneering wellness business in South Africa to empower previously disadvantaged women through employment opportunities, which was later acquired by one of the country’s leading department stores.

Emma is also a wellness expert, certified Master Pilates instructor and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. This cross-section of experiences in corporate banking, and in the entrepreneurial and wellness industry, uniquely positions Emma to champion workplace wellbeing alongside operational excellence. Her global perspective, shaped by living in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, has instilled and informed her innovative approach and entrepreneurial mindset toward leadership, team development, and organizational strategic decision-making.

Emma obtained her law degree from the University of Cape Town.

Elizabeth has made editing contributions to three of the Foundation’s most impactful publications, the Design for Freedom International Guidance & Toolkit, the Design for Freedom Report and the Design for Freedom Toolkit. She is also a co-author of Grace Farms’ annual report and is a member of the Design for Freedom Working Group. Prior to advancing to the Foundation’s Chief Communications Officer, Elizabeth was Grace Farms Foundation’s Director of Communications.

To her work at Grace Farms, Elizabeth brings nearly two decades of experience in communications and marketing for not-for-profit and educational institutions. Elizabeth was Assistant Dean for External Relations at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where she oversaw all communications and development efforts, including a major rebranding of the school after receiving a milestone gift. Her passion for unique public spaces began on Governors Island, where she served as Chief of Staff and Director of Marketing and Communications for eight years. Elizabeth began her career as a communications manager and speechwriter at the Fund for Public Schools, the not-for-profit organization that raises private funds to support New York City’s public school students.

Elizabeth holds a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and an MPA from Columbia University.