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Innovator: Jonsara Ruth

As co-founders of the Healthy Materials Lab (HML) at Parsons School of Design, Jonsara Ruth and Alison Mears are creating resources, educational programming, and innovative housing prototypes for a post-petroleum world. Mears, who previously worked at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and is an associate professor of architecture at Parsons, also leads the Healthy Affordable Materials Project (within HML), a long-term coalition of four organizations who are working to remove harmful chemicals from the built environment. Ruth is the founding director of the Interior Design MFA at Parson's, where she is an associate professor, and runs the collaborative design studio Salty Labs, which seeks to improve human and environmental health by designing non-toxic and sustainable interiors, furniture, and objects.