Saturday Morning Speakers
The Main Event, January 24 (morning speaker audio/slides available with a virtual ticket)
The main event on Saturday, January 24th, kicks off with a wide array of speakers who all play a part in a regional soil-to-soil textile system! Learn from community leaders in the fields of fiber farming, mill innovation, material innovation, community collaboration, creative reuse, and more.
We listened to feedback, and so our speaker sessions are tapas-style speaking! We opted to invite all of the following speakers to share their experience, passions, and dreams with you in these shorter time blocks again this year! It will be a little like going out to dinner and ordering all small plates or appetizers instead of one huge entree— and we’re so excited and honored to have such wonderful engagement from our talented and passionate speakers.
Morning speaker series will be followed by a One Year One Outfit Fashion Show, a Clothing Swap, Learning Demos, and Vendor Marketplace!
For full weekend agenda and details, please see the main symposium page.
C Stonebraker-Martinez /
IRTF Cleveland / Youngstown & Cleveland, OH
C will open our morning speaker sessions with a grounding ritual to connect us with the land, peoples and waterways we’re existing in, around, through and with.
About C: C is a movement chaplain and the co-director of @IRTFCleveland, a grassroots human rights collective that uses popular education, mutual aid and direct action to transform consumer behaviors, corporate and government policies for our collective liberation. Founded after US trained and funded military forces killed two Clevelanders working in solidarity with refugees in El Salvador in 1980, they are proud to center those impacted by state violence from Colombia to Canada in our shared work, especially Afro-indigenous communities, workers, queer and disabled folk.
They’ve co-founded the Cleveland Pandemic Response, the Ohio Fair Trade Network, the Immigration Working Group of Cleveland, the North East Ohio Worker Center and the North East Ohio Medic Collective (among other projects).
C’s maternal family is indigenous to Colombia and their paternal family has spent many generations in Appalachia. They grew up in Youngstown, spent 6 years in rural Ohio and have made Cleveland their adult home for many years. C is a first generation grad of Hiram College and Kent State University.
Website: irtfcleveland.org
Bethany Cantrell/ Aurora Blue Farm/
Oxfor, OH
This talk explores how sustainable agriculture, soil health, and animal well-being are inseparable from the textiles we create, blending traditional shepherding practices with modern stewardship. Bethany shows how fiber becomes a tangible expression of care for ecosystems, for craft, and for the future we are tending together.
About Bethany: Bethany Cantwell is a shepherdess in southwest Ohio, raising a mixed flock of Icelandic and Jacob sheep for both fiber and meat. She teaches natural methods of sheepskin tanning and creates felted fleeces, yarn and other products from her flock’s wool.
Website: www.aurorabluefarm.net
Instagram: @aurorabluefarmohio
Melinda / Oxbow Orchard /
Cleveland, OH
Beth will be sharing alongside Kelly Powers how fiber animals can be used to improve soil quality— a vital part of an enlivened planet.
About Beth: Beth Lomske began farming in Northeast Ohio nearly 15 years ago, working with organic farms, markets, and farm education non-profits. Since 2016, she and partner Kyla Werlin created and operate Oxbow Orchard on the north end of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They raise sheep and poultry on pasture, grow produce and flowers, curate a local foods shop, and host a wide array of craft workshops and live music events throughout the season.
Instagram: @oxboworchardohio
Website: Oxbow Orchard
Facebook: Oxbow Orchard
Alexis Evans/ PA Gov
/ Pittsburgh, PA
Alexis Evans, PHMC Historic Horticulturalist, research trials using Avian and Linore flax were conducted in 2025 and funded by the Sewickley Civic Garden Council Grant. This trial compared the two varieties of flax while studying the impacts of industrial pollution on our landscapes. Data provided insights surrounding flax's potential to save urban landscapes by successfully reducing heavy metal contaminants and identified specific qualities in fiber flax varieties that may make it the answer to a modern regional problem. She will continue to conduct research in 2026 with a hope to understand how we can all cultivate a greener future ... with flax.
About Alexis: Alexis Evans is on a mission to save living history at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, PA using modern research in soil remediation and it's fueled by flax. She is not a historian, but a scientist who developed a love for the story behind George Rapp's Great Garden and his epic achievements in agriculture. She has combined her education in physics and mathematics with 18 years of professional experience in agricultural & horticultural work to become the driving force behind the successful restoration of one of Pittsburgh's oldest stories and one of the Ohio River's hidden gems. From organic farming to cannabis cultivation, research and genetic tracking, to self-reliance, she now pursues efforts in soil remediation studies, aka "crop mopping," and it's all powered by a peculiar love of plants.
Website: oldeconomyvillage.org
Heidi Barr/ Co-Founder & CEO of PA Flax Project
/ Philadelphia, PA
Heidi Barr shares the story of launching the PA Flax Project and the work of rebuilding a long-lost regional textile industry from the ground up. Her talk traces what it takes to bring flax from field to fiber at scale—centering cooperative ownership, farmer viability, and the infrastructure required to support a domestic linen economy. As the project moves toward becoming the first regional-scale flax mill in North America, Heidi offers a grounded look at what “scale” truly means for land, labor, and community.
About Heidi: Heidi Barr is the co-founder and CEO of the PA Flax Project, a cooperative working to revive flax for linen production in Pennsylvania and rebuild a regional textile industry from field to fiber. For over a decade she operated a lifestyle brand at the intersection of food and fabric, deepening her understanding of the connections between farming, textiles, and design. Her passion for natural fibers and environmental stewardship drives her work to establish new infrastructure and a domestic linen future that benefits farmers and communities alike.
Instagram: @paflaxproject
Website: paflaxproject.com
Jess Pinsky/ Co-Founder of Soil at Rust Belt Riders /
Cleveland, OH
Jess will speak on the Praxis Indigo Co-op, which aims to educate about indigo's harmful past in our country and the detrimental impact of synthetic indigo practices on our environment.
About Jess: Jessica grew up in Akron, Ohio and moved to Cleveland in 2011 after receiving a BFA in Studio Art from New York University in 2006 and an MFA in painting from Boston University in 2009. She began teaching at Cleveland Institute of Art in 2011 and in 2015 founded Praxis Fiber Workshop.
Instagram: @praxisfiberworkshop
Website: praxisfiberworkshop.org
Britta Bielak/ Professor at KSU, co-founder Okom Wrks /
Kent, OH
Britta Bielak explores the creative and regenerative potential of unconventional materials. Drawing from research on transforming so-called “invasive” species like phragmites into usable resources, as well as her work with mycelium-based furniture and interior systems, Britta challenges dominant ideas about waste, value, and permanence in the built environment. Her work invites us to reconsider what materials we build with and how design can actively participate in ecological cooperation rather than extraction.
About Britta: Britta Bielak is a designer, educator, and artist whose work centers on interdisciplinary approaches to today’s environmental and social challenges. She is the co-founder and VP of Design at okom wrks labs, PBC, a regenerative design company developing the first structural mycelium-based composite as a 1:1 replacement for lumber in the built environment. Britta continues to research interior applications of this technology at Kent State University, while teaching and mentoring the next generation of regenerative design practitioners.
Website: www.okomwrks.co
Christopher Mauer/ redhouse studio / Cleveland, OH
Revitalizing Wool: Sustainable Pellets for Horticulture and Economic Growth
Christopher Maurer will be speaking about the use of living material systems as a remediative strategy for addressing post-consumer textile waste. He will share recent collaborative experiments with the Rust Belt Fibershed and Goodwill that investigate how biological processes can break down dyes and fibers in spent clothing and return those materials to productive use. The work points toward locally grounded, circular material pathways that repair environmental harm while extending the life of textile resources.
About Christopher: Christopher Maurer is an architect, inventor, and founder of redhouse studio, a Cleveland-based practice advancing regenerative architecture through fungi-based materials, environmental remediation, and community-centered design. His work spans research, public art, and built prototypes developed in collaboration with universities, NASA, and local partners, with a focus on turning waste streams into carbon-storing building systems. He is motivated by the belief that architecture can be a catalyst for ecological repair, local economies, and new cultural narratives rooted in place.
Instagram/Linkedin: @redhousestudioarchitecture
Lisa Goldsand/ Founder, Circular Thrift/ Columbus, OH
Jordon Masters (WVU) will present recent developments in open-source fiber processing equipment, highlighting two years of research focused on advancing sustainable textile practices. The presentation will explore efforts to create a program that enables farmers and co-ops to access and utilize this equipment, allowing them to process their fiber into yarn for higher returns on investment. Additionally, the project will discuss strategies to help these producers sell their yarn, further increasing their economic opportunities.
About Lisa: Lisa Goldsand brings over 30 years of experience in global fashion production, where witnessing the impacts of the industry’s linear model led her to focus on sustainability, textile waste, and circular systems. She is the founder of Circular Thrift and launched Ohio’s first textile-waste recycling pilot in partnership with the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), helping divert thousands of pounds of textiles from landfills. A frequent speaker for organizations including the Ohio EPA, The Ohio State University, and regional solid waste authorities, Lisa works to make practical, community-scale circular solutions accessible and actionable.
Instagram: @circularthrift
Website: circularthrift.org
Caressa Brown/
De-Fi/ Dayton, OH
I will be sharing about building place-based textile systems that reconnect land, labor, and creativity, with a focus on how collaboration across agriculture, education, and manufacturing can shape more resilient regional economies. Drawing from my work with (DE-FI) Global INC™, I will explore what it means to be a good ancestor in the textile space by investing in responsible systems, community knowledge, and long-term infrastructure rather than extractive or trend-driven models. The talk centers on imagining a textile future rooted in care, stewardship, and collaboration close to home.
About Caressa: Caressa L. Brown is the Owner and Director of (DE-FI) Global INC™, a Midwest-based fashion and textile ecosystem rooted in workforce development, responsible production, and place-based economic systems across Dayton and Cincinnati. Her work connects agriculture, STEM, fiber, design, manufacturing, and education to build sustainable pathways from soil to runway, centering community, stewardship, and long-term impact over trend-driven fashion. Through her leadership, she advances a vision of textiles as both cultural memory and infrastructure, shaping a more connected and future-facing regional textile economy.
Websites: Defiglobalinc.com
Rebekah Joy/ Flux Bene/ Pittsburgh, PA
Rebekah will share how her work with Flux Bene reimagines waste as material for artistic expression and everyday wear, and how creativity becomes a tool for sustainability in textile systems. She’ll share insights into the joys and challenges of minimal-waste design, the power of community participation, and why upcycling is practice that reshapes how we value what we already have.
About Rebekah: Rebekah Joy is a textile artist and pattern maker based in Pittsburgh, PA, and the founder of Flux Bene, a zero-waste clothing and textile recycling project focused on upcycling and thoughtful design. Her work blends artistic craft with sustainability, creating one-of-a-kind garments and patterns that encourage reuse and creative engagement with materials. Through Flux Bene she aims to facilitate the reuse of thousands of garments and inspire a broader community to rethink fashion and waste.
Instagram: @flux.bene
Website: fluxbene.com
Sarah Pottle & Jess Boeke / Co-Founders, Rust Belt Fibershed / Medina & Peninsula, OH
Sarah and Jess will share about how we can see fiber and textiles as holding a thousand entrypoints towards an enlivened place.
About Sarah and Jess:
Cleveland born and raised, doing life together since womb-times, we found ourselves as public school teachers in Baltimore in the mid 2000s, working on organic farms in the summer, and looking for a creative side project. We started Drift Lab Dye Studio, a natural dye project, in 2010. In the process of Drift Lab unfolding, we became familiar with fellow natural dyer and founder of Fibershed, Rebecca Burgess. We remember the first Fibershed video we saw on this-new-platform-called-instagram where the panelists were talking not just about fiber, but about farming and ecology and health and fair trade and art and fashion and climate and economy and education and we instantly thought: THAT’S IT! THAT’S THE THING. So when we moved back home to settle in Cleveland in 2014 (Jess) and 2016 (Sarah), we felt compelled to promote the Fibershed movement in our home bioregion.
In 2018 the Rust Belt Fibershed was born, and in 2022 we finally became a 501(c)3. This project and movement have flourished in the most unpredictable and abundant ways, and we are truly grateful to be a part of it.
As co-founders of the Rust Belt Fibershed, we are truly just looking for ways to facilitate creative connections among people and planet. We have decades of experience in teaching, leading, learning about and through food and textiles, and challenging the existing extractive systems with abundant participation and philosophies of “more life”!
We are still naturally dyeing textiles through our project Drift Lab Earth, where we host workshops educating on place-based systems through local color and are excited about our other joint current art projects, like We Are Verbs and Color Portal.
Websites: rustbeltfibershed.org and Driftlab.earth
For full agenda and details, please see the main symposium page.