ASID NY Metro Chapter Announces Board of Directors for 2023

Furniture World News Desk on 1/2/2023

Elissa Grayer has been elected President.

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) New York Metro Chapter has announced its board of directors for 2023. Six new members have joined the ranks of the board alongside three members who are returning to fulfill the balance of their two-year term.

Elissa Grayer, owner and principal designer of Rye, NY-based Elissa Grayer Interior Design, has been elected president. A member of ASID for eight years, Grayer previously served as the NY Metro president-elect and Westchester County representative. Maria Lomanto, founding principal of DesignGLXY, LLC has been elected to the post of president-elect.

Brian Gallop, from Simons Hardware & Bath, who was previously the ASID NY Metro professional development director, has moved into the position of membership director, while Phoebe Beachner, interior designer for Hart Howerton New York, has assumed the role of professional development director. In addition, Bianca Buecklers, of Camran Global, has been appointed to the post of finance director. Addison Hansen, who currently works as a design assistant for Jeremiah Brent Design is the newly appointed student representative, whose role is to encourage more students to be involved with ASID.

ASID members fulfilling their second term serving on the board include Melissa Stowell, who has spent her career working with architects and designers and recently joined Avenue Road as its newest sales executive, and Jana Weill, communications director, with 15-years’ experience in the home and interior design industry. As the 2023 emerging professionals committee chair, Isabel Byrnes is the principal designer at Bryrnes Design Studio NY.

“It is truly a privilege to be chosen as president and to support the ASID NY Metro chapter’s mission to engage, inspire and advance the interior design profession,” said Grayer. “The chapter has an exciting future with an active group of trustees made up of business and industry leaders. I look forward to working with them and the entire ASID community to leverage the power of interior design to do good. We have an important agenda planned and I’m excited about what we will accomplish together.”

The ASID NY Metro Chapter has several major initiatives planned for 2023 including organizing the first of its kind Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit (DE&I Summit) across multiple New York City design schools and DE&I organizations to bring people together to discuss solutions to issues of inequity. The group will also work with other design organizations in New York to move the state towards certifying qualified designers to stamp drawings for construction purposes as seen in other states.

In addition, the chapter will establish a student and emerging professionals mentoring program that pairs experienced designers with those just beginning their career. They will also select a charity organization that serves the New York City community that can benefit from the groups’ designers who will donate their time and products to improve the client facing environment.

Earlier this year, in partnership with the ASID NY Metro chapter and aspire design and home magazine, Grayer led a team of interior designers from the Tri-State area to complete a successful renovation project for the Ronald McDonald House of the Greater Hudson Valley (RMHGHV). “Designing Hope: A Project to Create Comfort in a Home-Away-from-Home” included an extensive interior redesign to the facility that provides families of children being treated at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital with a free place to stay while their child is receiving treatment.

About ASID
 With a community of 25,000+, ASID’s mission is to advance the interior design profession and communicate the impact of design on the human experience. Through its Foundation, ASID provides over $100,000 in funding annually to various research and scholarship initiatives to help build the knowledge community for the interior design profession. The organization also works at the state and federal levels to represent its members interests as interior design professionals and business owners and lobbies on issues that affect the business of interior design.

About Elissa Grayer Interior Design
 Founded in 2001 in Rye, New York, Elissa Grayer Interior Design is an award-winning, full service interior design firm creating classic luxury design solutions for modern living. With a professional, creative and highly skilled staff, Elissa and her team oversee projects of varying scale and scope and provide a luxury service-oriented approach that makes the design process effortless, relaxed and enjoyable. The firm has become known for its mastery in the planning, design and project management of homes, apartments, and vacation retreats along the East Coast and throughout the country.