This fall, Fleisher is pleased to welcome three new members to its Board of Directors: Lindsay Bedford, Huwayda Fakhry, and Nicole Sansone Ruiz.

Lindsay Bedford is a designer, 2021 Mural Arts Black Artist Fellow, and the Marketing Engagement Manager at Eberlein Design Consultants Ltd. She is passionate about the power of art and design and believes that design impacts lives, but art ignites change. This belief has shaped her creative practice, which is strongly influenced by design principles and an architectural approach to activating space with art and designs that are rich with meaning and tell a story. As a Designer/Artist, she focuses on the creation of temporary installations that activate public space. She creates these projects with the hope that they will serve as bridges within our communities and will aid in bettering our society. In June of 2021, Lindsay graduated from Drexel University Westphal College of Media Arts & Design with a Master of Science in Interior Architecture & Design. Lindsay also serves on multiple art and design-focused boards in the Philadelphia area.

Huwayda Fakhry leads the strategic communications arm of KieranTimberlake, an internationally-recognized architecture firm founded in 1984 and based in Philadelphia. Leveraging her background in marketing, political science, and architecture, she works as a conduit between designers and storytellers to share core ideas and values behind the built environment. She oversees the marketing, business development, and PR of projects (physical and digital tools) as well as research (thought leadership). She guides the firm through strategic positioning, messaging, and project selection. Huwayda grew up in the Philadelphia region and received her Bachelor’s degree from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. She went on to receive a Certificate in Architecture from Columbia University before completing her M.Arch at UCLA AUD (Department of Architecture and Urban Design) in 2014. She recently returned to Philadelphia after living and working in Los Angeles for the last 10 years.

Nicole Sansone Ruiz, Ph.D. is a Provost Post-doctoral fellow at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her masters and doctorate from the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her research areas are aesthetics, media theory, and cultural studies. Nicole has previously taught at Fairfield University; Goldsmiths College, University of London; and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. Before entering academia, Nicole was the Assistant Curator for the corporate art collection at General Electric’s (GE) global headquarters in Fairfield, CT. During graduate school, Nicole worked in London as a freelance curator and public programmer with organizations such as IMT Gallery and sluice. In her most recent role, Nicole served as the Curatorial and Policy Advisor to the newly-founded museum, The Norwalk Art Space, whose mission is to create opportunities for underserved communities through free arts education.