Braden Crooks is a founding partner at Designing the We, a social impact design studio operating in community-driven social and economic development. The dtW team designs programs, policies and enterprises that grow local communities and global networks dealing with deep crises, from the history of Redlining to the future of work.

He is on the board of The New York State Sustainable Business Council, and has served as the president of the board of Sure We Can: a non-profit collective for canners, who are those who make their living by redeeming cans and bottles for five cents. Braden graduated from the innovative program MS Design and Urban Ecologies at Parsons the New School for Design in May 2014 with honors, taught ecological thinking in urban issues at Parsons and produced a live audience webseires about New York. He is an RSA Fellow.

He received his undergraduate education at The Pennsylvania State University for Landscape Architecture. In Pennsylvania, he founded Groundswell PA-- A Community and Environmental Rights Initiative, which campaigned for and passed a “Community Environmental Bill of Rights” in the borough of State College, PA, by a popular vote in November of 2011. This was the first instance "rights of nature" were passed in the United States by using a popular vote. Groundswell helped pass a second initiative in Ferguson Township, PA, in November of 2012.

Braden lives and gardens in Brooklyn, NY.