Teju is a Jamaican-American multihyphenate from Oakland. She is currently exploring how our identity and values can be the catalyst to design spaces (and products) that are beautiful, functional and environmentally intentional. A nomad at heart— her work unearths the environmental, cultural, economic, and urban connections that shape our material realities.
Teju is founder and ecosystems director of the global collective: Black Fiber & Textile Network. She is the creator / host of the Black Material Geographies podcast, and is a 2025 Center for Craft Archive Fellow. Teju has worked with an array of institutions, including as a member of the United Nations Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network, and as a cultural ambassador to the United States Embassy of Botswana. She has spoken at Smithsonian’s Design Museum Cooper Hewitt—and at several academic institutions including Princeton University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Iceland, Reykjavik.
Teju’s focus includes regenerative fiber and fashion systems, climate justice and adaptation, mapping Black relationships to our environment, supporting farmers of the global majority, and culturally responsive economic alternatives. She supports people who are mapping / making alternative futures
She likes water, music & dancing, soccer and reading books. Teju is based between Mvskoke (Atlanta, Georgia) and Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, New York)—and goes wherever else she is called.