Royce Epstein and Ramie Vagal offer their insights into the role that carpet and flooring can play in protecting the health of people and the planet in the COVID era, as well as the inspiration behind their new collections. Listen Now.
About Our Guests:
Royce Epstein, LEED AP, Industry IIDA, Industry Partner ASID, A&D Design Director, Mohawk Group
As the face to the architecture and interior design community, Royce Epstein shares her passion and vision for design, cultural trends, and the meaning of materials in a broad context. Her role is to evolve and share Mohawk Group’s Design Vision within the industry, and to leverage product design with what A&D desires in the field.
Constantly on the watch for new trends in all aspects of design and culture, Royce feeds this insight to all our industry’s touch points. A veteran materials and product specialist, Royce spent two decades working in architecture and design firms before working for Mohawk. She was named the 2015 Designer of the Year by i+s magazine, and received a HiP award for Rising Star from Interior Design magazine at NeoCon 2016. Royce lives in Philadelphia where she is active in the design, art and music scenes. She is a board member of Collab at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Ramie Vagal is a multi-disciplinary professional with a strong background in sustainability and architecture. At Mohawk, Ramie leads strategic sustainability initiatives that create positive impacts on a social, cultural, economic and environmental level. She has the ability to take complex, technical concepts and translate them into actionable items to meet the company's sustainability vision and strategy.
Ramie’s background allows her to act as a catalyst within the company to engage in customer-facing platforms while also deep diving into strategic planning and implementation work. Through this, she leads a wide array of projects such as corporate sustainability strategy planning and implementation, CSR reporting (GRI), green building certifications, Living Product Challenge certification, product transparency initiatives, social impact projects, and health and wellness initiatives. Ramie believes in taking a systems-wide approach while collaborating with all functional disciplines, marketing and strategic communications. She has a deep understanding of the associated challenges and risks while implementing projects.
Ramie holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Sir JJ College of Architecture (Mumbai), and a master’s degree in architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago). Through her professional experience in India and the U.S., Ramie brings with her in-depth knowledge of architecture, engineering systems and sustainability, along with her diverse cultural background. She is a LEED and a WELL AP and is an ambassador for the Living Building Challenge. She currently serves as a member on the LEED Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group.
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