Born and raised in New York City, Sophie received her BFA in Sculp­ture from SUNY Purchase College, and her MFA in Furni­ture Design and Wood­work­ing from San Diego State Univer­sity. She currently lives in Reading, PA., and in 2022 she received the John D. Mineck Furniture Fellowship.

Alf and his shop assis­tant spend time in the moun­tains of Guatemala to help build a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This presen­ta­tion was held during the Amer­i­can Craft Coun­cil’s confer­ence in Minneapo­lis, MN, Septem­ber 4 – 6, 2026

Alexan­dra Mavrikis is a multi­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, furni­ture maker, and visual arts educa­tor. She received her MFA in Wood­work­ing and Furni­ture Design at the San Diego State Univer­sity. Her work incor­po­rates mixed media, with a focus on wood and ceramic, and has been exhib­ited nation­ally. She addresses the body, gender, and spatial rela­tions while also ques­tion­ing the neces­sity of func­tion­al­ity for furni­ture objects in the home.

John Spivey is a furni­ture maker and writer in Santa Barbara, CA.

Diana Beltran Mejia is an Indus­trial Design student with a Furni­ture Design concen­tra­tion at Appalachian State Univer­sity. In 2024 she made her first piece of furni­ture,​“Entre­Laza­dos,” a walnut coffee table, which got selected as final­ist for Atlanta’s IWF Design Empha­sis Student Furni­ture Compe­ti­tion. This year, her jewelry cabinet​“Monarca” will also be featured in the 2026 IWF show, as a final­ist for the case goods cate­gory. Her work ranges from wooden furni­ture pieces to concep­tual proto­types and visual art.

Wills is a North Carolina based furni­ture maker. Study­ing furni­ture design has allowed him the oppor­tu­nity to create furni­ture that inves­ti­gates personal rela­tion­ships through mate­r­ial, form and func­tion. Primar­ily working in wood and metal, this summer Wills is a wood and sculp­ture intern at Ander­son Ranch Arts Center.

The Furni­ture Society is excited to share news of our part­ner­ships with the Schooner Foun­da­tion, the Edelman Family Foun­da­tion, Sara Little Turn­bull Foun­da­tion, the Maxwell Hanra­han Foun­da­tion, the Bresler Family Foun­da­tion, the Moeller Family Foun­da­tion, Jenrette Foun­da­tion, the John D. Mineck Foun­da­tion and Rob Ketterson.

The Furni­ture Society is honored to announce its stew­ard­ship of the $25,000 unre­stricted John D. Mineck Fellow­ship support­ing emerg­ing and early-career furniture makers.

Sean Mcken­zie is a wood­worker special­iz­ing in the produc­tion of hand­made luxury custom furni­ture for resi­den­tial and commer­cial use. He lives and works in Society Hill, SC.

Ernie Conover, who describes himself as a cabi­net­maker with a wood­turn­ing problem, is a veteran wood­work­ing author with 11 books, myriad videos, and hundreds of arti­cles to his credit. His most recent book is the 3rd Edition of The Lathe Book, published by Taunton Press in Febru­ary 2020. He served on the found­ing board of The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Wood­turn­ers and holds Member­ship Number 004.