Lebanese-Canadian Celine Semaan-Vernon is a designer, writer, and public speaker advocating for climate justice and human rights.
She is also the co-founder of Slow Factory Foundation, a public service organization working on championing human rights and environmental justice since 2013.
Co-founding the foundation, the Lebanese-Canadian activist promotes access to information and sustainability through infographics.
Her resume is wide, as she produces and hosts a climate conference series, named Study Hall; the first science-driven incubator in fashion: One X One; she is on the Council of Progressive International.
Semaan also became a Director’s Fellow of MIT Media Lab in 2016 and served on the Board of Directors of AIGA NY.
As an MIT Director’s Fellow, her research focuses on design and communication, to render complex concepts into simpler approaches to influence a wider audience.
Her organization, Slow Factory, is also opening an alternative school in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to promote educational programming on climate justice and solutions, work training, and develop facilities for regenerative plant-based leather.
Her writing was featured in leading magazines, including The Cut, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, Coveteur, Interview Magazine, Elle, the MIT Media Lab, and Teen Vogue.
Celine Semaan’s activism started in the 1980s when she had to leave Lebanon for Canada. As per an interview with W Magazine, she returned to Lebanon after 10 years, only to witness the severe cost of the civil war from a humanitarian and environmental approach.
Since then, she has been voicing out her fight against injustice and oppression, all while expressing the need for the preservation of the environment and cultural heritage.
Currently, Celine is writing her first book “A WOMAN IS A SCHOOL”, a combination of memoirs arguing the need to decolonize education and empower young people to initiate their paths to success.
