August 28, 2025

Ferris State faculty and alumni recognized by Crain’s Grand Rapids for sustainability leadership

Alumni and faculty from Ferris State University are among the West Michigan professionals being recognized by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business as regional leaders in sustainability. 

Gayle DeBruyn, a professor at Ferris State’s Kendall College of Art and Design, and KCAD alumni Matthew VanSweden and Keith Winn were each honored by the publication for their commitment to building a better future for people and the planet. 

Sustainability is a key pillar of Ferris State’s Strategic Plan, along with belonging, innovation, and student excellence. 

DeBruyn chairs both the Collaborative Design and Master of Arts in Design programs at KCAD and serves as the college’s sustainability officer. She also helps lead the college’s planning team for the Wege Prize—an international student design competition focused on collaborative problem-solving through the lens of sustainability—and extends that same framework to regional high schoolers with the Wege Prize High School Collaborative Studio. 

In 2021, DeBruyn helped secure over $2.3 million in grant funding from the Wege Foundation to extend the impact of KCAD's Wege Prize initiatives. To date, the international competition has engaged over 1,700 participants from 68 countries. The high school program has given over 80 West Michigan juniors and seniors the opportunity to build in-demand collaborative skills and gain real-world experience with sustainable development projects. 

As KCAD's sustainability officer, DeBruyn leads the implementation of a campus-wide waste management system that has earned the college repeated accolades in the national Campus Race to Zero Waste competition.

Outside of her work at KCAD, she is a LEED accredited design professional and a member of both the City of Grand Rapids committee for Community Collaboration on Climate Change and the City of Grand Rapids committee for United Nations University Regional Center of Expertise in Sustainable Development. 

She is also a member of the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum Hall of Fame and was awarded the US Green Building Council West Michigan Legacy Award in 2023. 

VanSweden earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Collaborative Design from KCAD in 2017 and currently serves as the sustainability lead for Progressive Companies. In his role, he heads up efforts to embed regenerative strategies and practices throughout the culture of the 350-person architecture, engineering, and design firm. 

By sharpening the firm’s focus on performance-based, equity-centered practices, VanSweden has helped internal teams reimagine their approach to advancing climate justice and repairing broken systems through high-level projects exceeding $100 million annually.

Beyond his work at Progressive Companies, VanSweden has emerged as a strong voice in sustainability conversations on national and international stages. He serves in leadership positions with the American Institute of Architects and the International Living Future Institute and was recently invited to be a featured presenter at both organization’s 2025 national conferences. 

Winn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design from KCAD in 1972 and currently serves as president emeritus of Catalyst Partners, an environmental consulting firm he founded in 2002 to fuel the green building movement with innovation-driven projects and processes. 

Today, Winn leads strategy and operations for the firm’s consortium of 44 sustainability professionals in developing high-performance building solutions and shaping national standards around green building practice. 

Winn has also been a sustainability leader beyond West Michigan. He is a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council and has served on the organization’s board as treasurer. He was an active participant in the development of LEED standards and the evolution of key standards and methodologies used to assess and develop products through the lens of sustainability. 

DeBuryn, VanSweden, and Winn, and were featured alongside the other individuals recognized as Notable Leaders in Sustainability in a special edition of Crain’s Grand Rapids Business published on August 25.