About
The Mission
Our mission is to be a trusted source of industry information, creative inspiration, and community for craft professionals. We’re working to help our members:
- Stay current on industry news, trends, and opportunities
- Make connections with other small business owners
- Develop viable business models
- Achieve profitability
- Run their businesses according to their own standard of ethics
Craft Industry Alliance is committed to fostering a community that reflects the rich history and cultures of craft and the diversity of crafters. Our goal is to continuously evolve and to proactively create an organization that seeks to represent and recognize this diversity.
The Founders
Craft Industry Alliance was founded in 2015 by Abby Glassenberg and Kristin Link. They each had over a decades’ worth of experience as craft industry professionals. They’d been designers and producers, makers and retailers, writers and teachers. Their vision was to build a thriving trade organization that meets the specific needs of today’s craft industry professionals and offers an opportunity for makers, suppliers, designers and writers to join together as allies under a united “craft industry” umbrella. In 2019, Kristin moved on from the company, but they remain friends and her vision was an integral part of the organization’s foundation.
We are led in collaboration with a Board of Advisors. Our board works with the co-founder and president to steer the organization, including providing input on internal policies, identifying outreach initiatives, and creating long-term plans.
Trade Show
Craft Industry Alliance is the strategic partner for h+h americas, a new trade show for the crafts industry. This event is a uniting force for crafts, bringing all businesses together in one place. Showcase new goods, discover trends, network, and make crucial connections at this exciting new event.
The Team at Craft Industry Alliance
Abby Glassenberg
President and Co-Founder
(she/her/hers) Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. She’s a sewing pattern designer, teacher, and journalist. She’s dedicated to creating an outstanding trade association for the crafts industry. Abby lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Kate Ankeny
Operations Manager and Outreach Coordinator
(she/her/hers) Kate is our Operations Manager and Outreach Coordinator. She has a background working in the arts non-profit, marketing, and design industries. Kate has coordinated with craft business owners to put on workshops, guest artist residencies, discussions, and large-scale creative events. In her design business, she creates visual branding and promotional pieces for creative entrepreneurs. She lives in Silverthorne, Colorado.
Ashleigh Brookshaw
Community and DEI Strategic Consultant
(she/her/hers) Ashleigh is our online community and DEI strategic consultant. Ashleigh brings over 10 years of experience managing online communities for corporate, non-profit, and membership associations and in change management and culture change through a diversity, equity, and inclusion approach. She has fond memories of watching her grandmother sew and believes crafting can create memories for people that can last a lifetime. She lives in Chicago.
Lisa Calixto
Community Manager
(she/her/hers) Lisa Calixto manages our online community. She has been active in the nonprofit sector for over 15 years in the areas of marketing, social media and community outreach. Lisa enjoys working with small businesses to assist them with website development and design as well as social media consulting in her free time. She is also the Director of Technology and Social Media for a national mental health nonprofit. She currently lives in New Jersey. Lisa enjoys crafting, graphic design, photography, dancing, and spending time with her family and puppy.
Stephanie Alford
Manager of Membership Sales and Engagement
(she/her/hers) Stephanie has been fascinated by fiber ever since she first took spinning lessons at the age of 11. She taught herself to knit at 19, went back to spinning (and actually got the hang of it) ten years later and, along the way, picked up a bit of experience in weaving, a smidge of crochet, and a degree in Textiles and Clothing. But it was when she began dyeing that she felt she’d really found her calling. In 2010, she founded her hand-dyed yarn company, SpaceCadet Inc, and has grown it from a one-woman band in her basement to a dye-house employing a team of five in a dedicated studio. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband and two daughters, and you can find her as @SpaceCadetYarn on Instagram.