Our Mission

Catherine Ingraham, Ph.D., President of the Board of the Wright-Ingraham Institute, is a Full Professor in the Graduate Program of Architecture at Pratt Institute, a program which she chaired from 1999-2005. She also has been a Visiting Faculty member at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, since 2016. Ingraham earned her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University and was an editor, with Michael Hays and Alicia Kennedy, of the critical journal Assemblage. Ingraham has lectured at multiple national and internationals schools of architecture and published widely in journals and book collections. Her books include Architecture, Animal, Human (Routledge Press, London 2006), Architecture and The Burdens of Linearity (Yale University Press, New Haven 1998). She is currently working on two books, Architecture, Property and the Pursuit of Happiness and Worlds Between. Ingraham has won numerous fellowships and awards, including the Canadian Center for Architecture Fellowship, Graham Foundation grants, and MacDowell residencies. Catherine leads the StudyTank program at the WII.

Anna Grady is Vice President for Human Resources at NRG Systems. Anna is an accomplished leader in Human Resources and Administration, specializing in employee relations, organizational strategy and development, change management, strategic workforce planning and recruitment. Anna’s broad experience and pragmatic approach to developing employee engagement techniques, communication strategies and leadership development initiatives helps steer how WII approaches all HR-related matters, in accordance with our values, culture, and operational philosophies. Anna lives and works in Vermont. Anna also leads the WII’s Grants program.

Frederick Marks, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Six Sigma Green Belt, is currently a Visiting Scholar and Research Collaborator at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA. Mr. Marks has been a licensed architect for over thirty years and has a planning & design specialty in healthcare and laboratory science facilities. He holds degrees in architecture and business administration with a major in real estate & urban land economics. Mr. Marks is a founding Board member and Past-President of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) in San Diego, CA. He is a former Assistant Director of the National American Institute of Architects (AIA) Professional Interest Committees, and a former National AIA Board Knowledge Committee member and advisor to the National AIA Research Summits. He is a Past-President of his local AIA chapter and currently serves as its representative to California Committee on the Environment (COTE). Mr. Marks is currently an advisor to the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Delos WELL Living Laboratory, the National ASHRAE Standing Guideline Project Committee, and the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center Mind/Brain Institute. Mr. Marks attended the WII Field Station program in 1975 as a student.

April Martin Yi has two decades of experience as a nonprofit executive, business development strategist, and fundraising and philanthropy expert. She is the principal at MartinYi Consulting and works with numerous nonprofits on leadership development, program management, and fundraising. As a nonprofit executive at regional and national organizations, she has partnered with numerous academic, environmental, and youth-centered organizations on the design and implementation of business strategies and funding models that support sustainability and support healthy growth. Working collaboratively with large and small teams she has developed and led projects from start-up, full implementation, to scale-up. As an enterprise leader April has developed and cultivated staff, created and implemented development strategies, designed and analyzed SWOT research, formulated a competitive market analysis, and evaluated outcomes to determine the next steps. April has a deep passion for work that directly impacts marginalized communities and engages stakeholders in meaningful stewardship that leads to long-term impact and partnership. April is a 1999 graduate of Notre Dame of Maryland University. She earned a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 2002 and is an Environmental Leadership Program alumnus.

Frank Miller is a design-build architect experienced with residential, commercial, manufacturing and educational building types. Frank has expertise in urban/architectural design guidelines, master planning, digital design methods, architectural education, and research in renewable energy. He is interested in the intersection of art and science in the built environment and has a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design and a Master’s of Architecture from MIT, where he has also taught as an assistant professor. Frank lives with his family in the greater Madison, Wisconsin area.

Lea Rekow, Ph.D., is executive director of the Wright-Ingraham Institute. Lea is the co-lead BifrostOnline and is on the steering committee for the Humanities for the Environment Circumpolar Observatory. She formerly taught sustainability through immersion learning at FGCU, and was founding director of Green My Favela in Rio de Janeiro. She has been an advisor to the Integrated Media and Art and Technology programs at Cal Arts, a member of the Institute for Australian Geographers and of New York Women in Film and Television. She has previously held positions as executive director of the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe (NM), executive director of Gigantic ArtSpace (NY), media director at the former Center for Peace and Human Security (NY), adjunct professor of media and communications at Pratt Institute (NY), director of Harmonic Ranch (NY), producer at Simon & Schuster (NY), and cultural advisor for Advance (Australian consulate in NY). She has also been a special envoy for the European-based Open & Agile Smart Cities, an advisor to the European Urban IxD program, a research fellow at the Center for Art and the Environment (NV), and a consultant for the international sustainability network GlobalCAD. Lea has sat on numerous advisory panels including for NYFA, SVA, Parsons, Amnesty International, the MacArthur award, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her research focuses on creative, transdisciplinary sustainability practices that usually involve reclaiming degraded space in areas where people are living under extreme socio-environmental stress.

Dylan Gauthier is Managing Director for the Wright-Ingraham Institute. A researcher, writer, curator, and artist who creates collaborative platforms combining ecology, architecture, landscape, and social practice, Gauthier is a founder of the boat-building and publishing collective Mare Liberum (www.thefreeseas.org) and of the Sunview Luncheonette (www.thesunview.org), a co-op for art, politics, and communalism in New York City. His individual and collective projects have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne (Paris), Parrish Art Museum, CCVA at Harvard University (Cambridge), the 2016 Biennial de Paris (Beirut), (New York:) the Center for Architecture, The International Studio and Curatorial Program, EFA Project Space, and other venues in the US and abroad. His writings about art and public space have been published by Contemporary Art Stavanger, Parrish Art Museum, Urban Omnibus, Art in Odd Places, and Routledge/Public Art Dialogue, among others. In 2015 he was the NEA-supported Ecological Artist-in-Residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP); in 2016 he was a Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellow (NY), and in 2017/18 he was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Brandywine River Conservancy and Museum of Art, where his immersive video and sound installation highwatermarks was on view from October 2017 to January 2018. He co-curated (with Kendra Sullivan) the exhibition Resistance After Nature at Haverford College in spring of 2017. Gauthier received his MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College, CUNY (‘12), and has taught emerging media courses in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College, and systems and environmental design at Parsons/The New School. He was Program Director for EFA Project Space, a non-profit gallery in Midtown Manhattan, NYC from 2018-2022.