Recognized for her equitable, sustainable design and advocacy for underserved communities, Darby Curtis founded Curtis + Ginsberg Architects in 1990. She has led award-winning projects for over 50 nonprofits, including The Fortune Society, Osborne Association, HELP USA, and Women’s Prison Association providing services to those impacted by the criminal justice system, along with institutions and 30 public agencies.  

Driven by a belief that architecture can be a catalyst for positive change, Ms. Curtis transformed a shuttered prison into the Fulton Community Re-entry Center, opening its doors in 2024 as a home for older returning citizens and space for Bronx nonprofits. This pioneering project of New York State’s initiative turning former correctional facilities into community hubs sets a new standard in integrated supportive housing. She has received the City & State’s 50 Over 50 Award celebrating age disruptors, as one of New York’s most accomplished leaders; and the Sarah Powell Huntington Leadership Award from the Women’s Prison Association for her professional work and volunteer service. Through her initiative, resourcefulness and ingenious planning, Darby Curtis demonstrates a commitment to public welfare and social justice by creating innovative and effective spaces that reflect dignity and respect. 

Elizabeth Gaynes stepped down as CEO and President of the Osborne Association in 2022, after a 38-year career at the helm of the 90-year old New York nonprofit organization committed to transforming prisons for the people who live in them, visit them, and work in them. During her tenure, Osborne grew from three people to more than 350, establishing educational, treatment, workforce, and family services in New York City, Newburgh, Buffalo, and in more than 25 prisons and jails. Under her leadership, Osborne acquired the former Fulton Correctional Facility to redevelop as a community reentry center for older adults leaving state prison. Ms. Gaynes has visited dozens of jails and prisons in six countries, as well as state and federal prisons in the US -- as an attorney, a service provider, and a family member. She served on the NY Governor’s Prison Redevelopment Commission, studying the potential for re-use for the state’s closed prisons. She began her career as a criminal defense attorney in Buffalo, NY, following the Attica uprising, and served as a staff attorney for Prisoners Legal Services of New York in Albany, NY. After leaving Osborne, she became a Senior Fellow at the New York Women’s Foundation, and in May 2024 was appointed as a Commissioner at the New York State Commission of Correction, an oversight agency charged with ensuring a safe, stable and humane correctional system.

Along with her daughter, Ms. Gaynes was the first person from the global North nominated for the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child for their work on behalf of children affected by parental incarceration, and was named a Champion of Change for Children of Incarcerated Parents by the Obama White House. 

Elizabeth Gaynes holds a B.A. from Syracuse University, and a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law.

Marayca is a subject matter expert of distinguished ability and accomplishment in the field of criminal justice. Her extensive education and background uniquely combine the fields of penology, criminology, and justice architecture. 

Her body of work is international in scope. She has participated in a wide array of criminal justice reform projects and prison studies, both domestically in the USA and abroad (e.g., Australia, Canada, Europe, Central and South America), resulting in worldwide expertise and a deep understanding of correctional best practices, prison operations, and innovative models for offender management and intervention. 

In her current capacity as Lead Justice Planner with DLR Group, Marayca helps plan and program treatment-oriented correctional facilities that are holistic in their approach, preserve human rights, promote rehabilitation and healing, are safe and humane, and focused on innovative operational and programmatic models for positive change and successful re-entry.   

Marayca is a frequent speaker in a variety of academic, professional, and international forums and is actively involved with different international organizations that share the common goal of advancing the field of corrections and improving conditions of confinement for individuals in custody. She is a Member of the International Corrections and Prison Association (ICPA) Board of Directors, Co-chair of the ICPA’s Planning and Design Committee and a Member of the Academy of Architecture for Justice’s Leadership Group. 

Deanna Van Buren is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. An architecture and real estate nonprofit working to end mass incarceration through place-based solutions, DJDS builds infrastructure that address its root causes: poverty, racism, unequal access to resources, and the criminal justice system itself. Van Buren has been profiled by The New York Times  and has written op-eds on the intersection of design and mass incarceration in outlets such as Politico, Architectural Record, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her TEDWomen talk on what a world without prisons could look like has been viewed more than one million times. She is the only architect to have been awarded the Rauschenberg Artist as Activist fellowship, and she is also the recipient of UC Berkeley’s Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Prize and Professorship. Van Buren received her BS in architecture from the University of Virginia and her MArch from Columbia University, and she is an alumna of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.