Deborah Alden is the Managing Director of Pratt Institute's Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BF+DA), where she leads the mentorship program, guiding resident entrepreneurs towards responsible growth, and oversees operations. With more than 15 years of experience as a designer, strategist, educator and intrapreneur, her work has ranged from innovation and brand consulting for Fortune 100 companies to launching new models and initiatives around design and entrepreneurship. She is a frequent media advisor for the Sundance Institute and Skoll Foundation’s Stories of Change initiative and has taught human-centered design and research at IIT’s Institute of Design, CEDIM in México, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where she was the Inaugural Chair for the BFA in Visual Communication.

Meg is currently Executive Director of Open Arms, a private label manufacturer in that also provides job training for refugees. Meg has devoted her career to helping to solve complex environmental and social issues in collaborative and innovative ways. With a background in conservation biology and community development, she has worked as the Texas State Bat Biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, contributed to nonprofit community development boards, taught ESL to refugees and co-founded Multicultural Refugee Coalition. Meg has led MRC in its formation and all stages of development through our merger with Open Arms and is thrilled to be leading the organization in it's newest growth phase.