Meet our speakers
Tameka Peoples
Founder & CEO, Seed2Shirt
Tameka Peoples is a lifelong leader in the corporate and community service sector, she started this journey in service to Country a disabled veteran with 10 years of service in the Air Force, a non-profit founder and advocate for her community. A carrier of multiple degrees that grounds her in her pathway in- just systems creation, community, tech and agriculture with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, 2-AA degrees in Social Science – Community Development, and Information Technology an adding to her knowledge base by becoming certified in Textile Systems and Sustainable Agriculture. Her life experience, education and efforts in creation of
Seed2Shirt is an embodiment of what she envisions for a world of Black ownership in equitable just cotton-to-apparel systems. Seed2Shirt is a social enterprise company providing vertically integrated cotton services while uplifting Black farming communities in the US and Africa. As one of the only Black women owned cotton merchant companies on the market, and vertical apparel brand our work, centers the vision we have for this world – from a lens of healing the land, growing healthier cotton and building legacy centered community.
Melissa Conroy
Associate Professor, Cornell University
Melissa Conroy is an Associate Teaching Professor at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology in the Department of Human Centered Design where she has been working to integrate a farm to fashion supply chain into her courses. Melissa’s teaching specialties are textile design and knitwear design. She has also taught fashion drawing, fashion cad, and global textile and apparel sustainability.
Outside of teaching Melissa spends her time drawing, gardening, and exploring knit structure in her home studio. Melissa has two master’s degrees. An MFA in painting from the University of Georgia and an MS in Textile Design from Jefferson University as well as a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Heidi Barr
Founder & CEO, PA Flax Project
For over a decade Heidi owned and operated Kitchen Garden Textiles, a Philadelphia based lifestyle brand working at the intersection of food and fabric. This work led to a deep understanding of the connection between textiles and farming. In 2020, with farmer Emma de Long, Heidi took this understanding to the next level and the PA Flax Project began.
Heidi is a founding board member of the North American Linen Association, a trade organization advancing bast fiber production and processing in North America. Her love for textiles and lifelong attention to environmental issues combine into her passion for bringing linen production back to Pennsylvania.
Lewis Cleale
Owner & Operator, Nobletown Fiber Works
Lewis Cleale is the owner/operator of Nobletown Fiber Works, the Hudson Valley's newest artisan fiber processing mill, which produces a wide variety of yarns and other fiber products for farmers in the Eastern New York/Western Massachusetts/Connecticut region. For 30 years, he has worked as a professional actor and singer on Broadway and off, and in concert and symphony halls around the world.
The mill produces yarns of all gauges from fine, medium and long wools as well as mohair, cashmere, yak, bison and angora rabbit. In addition to yarns for knitting and weaving, the mill regularly produces roving for hand spinners and needle felters, wet-felted sheets and core-spun yarns for rug making. Currently nearing completion is a large Maine timber frame barn with a weaving studio for the production of cloth woven from yarns spun in the mill with wool sourced locally. The first loom to be operational is a rare Hattersley Domestic loom (Mark II) that formally wove Harris Tweed in the Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis and Harris. It is a semi-automated, human-powered loom that can weave up to 10 yards an hour. A retail mill shop will open later this Fall, and finally in Spring 2027, Lewis will get a flock of the tiniest sheep on the planet, called Ouessant, to be happily grazing in the pastures surrounding the mill.
Hear from our Carbon Farm Planner
Ashlyn Kohler
Carbon Farm Planner, New York Fibershed
Ashlyn is an ecological designer and regenerative farmer focused on restoring the relationship between agriculture, ecology, and community. As a Carbon Farm Planner, she works alongside producers to develop conservation plans that improve soil health, increase climate resilience, and strengthen working farms across New York. Before joining NY Fibershed, she studied ecological design, worked on regenerative farms, and spent nearly a decade building programs and partnerships. She is passionate about finding practical ways to support farmers, care for the land, and build resilient regional fiber systems.
With presentations from
Susan Easton
Product & Marketing Director, NYFIC
With a background in design, brand strategy, and sustainable fashion entrepreneurship, Susan sets the strategic direction for NYFIC’s product development, storytelling, and outreach. She connects New York-grown fibers to designers, brands, and the public while building meaningful supply chain relationships.
Susan will provide an overview of the NYSTAR-supported statewide program, including its upcoming round of grant funding, the Northeast Fiber Exchange (NEFX), and the forthcoming New York Supplier Directory.
Clyde Carpenter
Lab Manager, NYFIC
Clyde manages day-to-day operations at the NYFIC Lab, supporting fiber processing and prototyping efforts. He maintains equipment, coordinates lab access, and ensures smooth technical operations across NYFIC’s growing slate of material innovation projects.
Clyde will introduce the soon-to-open lab at RPI in Troy, NY, and its capabilities for natural-fiber analysis, prototyping, and textile testing.
Featured exhibit by
Stephanie Seal Brown
Textile Designer & NYFIC Grant Awardee
Stephanie Seal Brown is a master handweaver and textile designer based in New Yorkʼs Hudson Valley. She designs and produces her textiles on Swedish handlooms in her studio. By not automating the process, she is able to be intimately involved with every step. As each idea evolves, every inch of yarn passes through her hands multiple times as it is prepared and woven, with small changes and continuous iterations. Slowing down the process allows time for every aspect of the textiles—aesthetics, function, longevity, materials—to develop and find voice in the final design.
Stephanie has been researching longwool fibers for the past four years, hand-processing fleeces and handspinning over 10,000 yards to test in woven fabrics. She will be presenting these fabrics at the Carbon Farm Tour. As part of the 2026 NYFIC grant program, she is working with Orchard View Farms and Nobletown Fiber Works to develop millspun weaving yarns to take this research to the next level.
