MARIE HAVENS:

Marie Havens, a NYC based designer and photojournalist, moved to Manhattan at 17 to study Fashion Design at the world-renowened Parsons New School of Design where she graduated with honors and the distinguished Designer of the Year award. She has worked within the fashion & photography fields for over a decade - traveling all over the world from Europe, Asia, Central America, Mexico, Australia, and Africa. In 2001, she began photographing events world-wide & began working endlessly on what became the most life-changing project of her career: designing and co-curating celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan's top selling photography book and exhibition, "so8os: A Photographic Diary of a Decade."

Although still involved in both the fashion and art worlds, she is now the Design Director of the new brand and handbag line: MEND, a new division of the media based non profit: Invisible Children. Why this project is so revolutionary: each bag is individually created and sewn in Northern Uganda, by women who were saved from the rebel army, were all former sex slaves - abducted and tortured for years. These amazing women are now employed for the first time and thru MEND are finding empowerment thru their craft. MEND is proof that what you wear can - and will - make a difference.

She is currently based in Brooklyn, NY and can be contacted via email at: document76@mac.com

Her photography work can be seen at: http://www.mariehavens.com