THE DWELLSTEAD TEAM
Elizabeth Vega-Lebron, principal and CEO has over 25 years marketing experience in the field of Health Care. She was a senior member of three successful health insurance start-ups, helping to spearhead free and low-cost health insurance for low-income families. She brings strong experience in sales, operations, customer service, and financial management. She holds an MBA from Pace University.
Liz has a passion for preservation and renovation of old homes and understands the role that affordable and healthy housing has on our health and well-being. With her husband, she fell in love with restoring old homes and has joined him in this full time venture.
Liz's knowledge of working under-served communities will contribute greatly to dwellstead's goal to provide training and job opportunities in green construction in Newburgh.
Michael Lebron, principal and CCO was a fine arts major at The Cooper Union, majoring in painting and drawing. Michael worked as a creative director and graphic designer in healthcare advertising for Ogilvy, Bates, Grey and others, and has completed several public art installations, one of which led to an important U.S. Supreme Court decision on state action.
A veteran of urban homesteading in the 70s and 80s, Michael converted a dozen commercial factory spaces into artists work/live lofts – including his own. In 2000 he and his wife restored an 1875 farmhouse to its former glory. NYSERDA adopted their approach to the historic preservation of the building’s windows as a code compliant energy saving measure.
He played a role in keeping fracking out of New York State, arguing that it was a health issue and that the gas industry should be held to the regulatory standards that the FDA holds big pharma to, and that the NY countryside should not be used as an uncontrolled scientific study. His 30 second PSA was run by Artists Against Fracking in NYC and Albany.
Michael views dwellstead as a next step in this career history, a culmination of his thinking about how artistic, cultural, economic, social, health, political and ecological systems intersect and interact in our built environment.
To relax, Michael is an avid road bicyclist. He shares his passion for music and audio by hosting "The Audio Attic Vinyl Sundays".
Curtis B Wayne, AIA, Dwellstead’s architect and partner is a NY State registered architect with extensive experience in advanced building technology and a strong interest in bringing high-energy efficient enclosures to historic buildings. He has extensive experience managing large construction projects ensuring that they meet budget and deadlines. Curtis holds a bachelor’s in Architecture from Cooper Union and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard.
Curtis has been deeply involved in the alternative energy movement since the 1970s. He has written extensively on the opportunities to make place, space, and comfort in ways that combine utility, function, and convenience, and advocates a turn away from worshipping the surfaces of things. In his 2013 book on emerging trends in architecture “The Shape of Things that Work: The Fourth Architecture” he writes: "When architects create form, do they do so only for form’s sake, or to create form that is both beautiful and solves the challenge posed by its use – more comfort, better economy or operation, or a response to natural forces that requires no artificial or supplementary use of energy? If we talk only about how things look we miss the point of practice – (to) improve the quality of life for those who occupy the buildings we create."
David Kanney has been investing in residential and commercial real estate in the Hudson Valley for 15 years. He secured his NYS realtors license to better advise on real estate investing and to focus on an expanded range of services to his clients. Recently, he began aligning himself with the Society of Exchange Counselors and co-founded Pioneer Realty Advisors to move from transactional services to counseling services. He was previously CEO of the Image Bank. He assists Dwellstead with developing financing prospectus.
We rescued Mitsy from a kill shelter in North Carolina. Like our buildings, she needed some loving rehab and attention too. Now, not only has she overcome the trauma of her previous life, she has become our resident therapist, providing an endless supply of nonjudgmental love and attention. That is, at least until she wants to be fed. She's also become an audio buff as well.
