Our speakers are a mix of design practitioners, educators, experts, and community organizers.
Nu Goteh
Nu is a Liberian-born refugee, designer, strategist, creative director, and social practitioner now residing in Los Angeles. His singular and multifaceted resume combines 12+ years of brand experience across industries with a Masters Degree in strategic design and management focused on solving human-centered problems.
A lifelong dedication to building platforms that enable communities to engage in shared experiences has always guided his approach to work and creativity.
Nu is currently co-founder & creative director of the strategy and design studio Room for Magic, and its partner publication Deem.
Lou Whiting
Lou Whiting is a designer, facilitator, writer and maker. At Agncy, her work ranges from creating workshops to help school districts construct their strategic plans to illustrating storyboards that capture the healthcare experience of patients of color, with all of her work wrapped up in the ways that systems might better understand and serve their most marginalized users. Lou believes that the design process is at its best when it is deeply human-centered, highly collaborative, and intentionally joyful. Originally from the Chicagoland area, Lou has a BFA in Industrial Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
At the Intersections
“In September 2019, a group of dope-ass women came together at a planning conference to discuss the connections between intersectionality, equity, and transportation planning. This experience led to an unimaginable bond and sparked a strong desire to re-center conversations that are too often relegated to the sidelines.” Their article here is a much better bio than we could ever summarize on this page!
Miya Osaki
Miya brings her skills in interaction design, human-centered research, storytelling, and behavior design to create experiences that improve outcomes and empower patients. Prior to founding Diagram, Miya served as Director of Experience Design at Johnson & Johnson’s Global Strategic Design Office where she created innovative solutions for patients managing chronic conditions. She has received patients and awards for device designs and interfaces for people living with diabetes. She is the pioneer recipient of a Design Matters Fellowship with the UNICEF Innovation team. Miya was recently appointed as Chair to MFA Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts.
Miya earned an MFA from Art Center College of Design, Media Design Program and a BA in Printmaking and Art History, UC Santa Cruz. She has received 2 patents and awards for her blood glucose meter UI designs.
Tina Park
Tina has had significant experience in leading innovative research within healthcare organizations. At Johnson & Johnson’s Global Strategic Design Office she pioneered a design research team implementing innovative research methods that uncover the voice of the patient. She has also held research posts at Stanford University Hospital working on Project HealthDesign – a grant funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation on Diabetes management. She is one of the founding instructors in The School of Visual Arts’ master’s program, Design for Social Innovation.
Tina holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from Art Center College of Design. Her work has been published in several textbooks and international journals.
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel
As the Associate Director for Design Thinking for Social Impact and Professor of Practice at the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University, Lesley Ann Noel builds Taylor’s capacity for design thinking education through facilitation, consultations, and training. Before joining the Taylor Center, she was part of the 2018-2019 Ocean Design Teaching Fellowship at Stanford University, a former Fullbright Scholar, and a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago.
Her research practice is guided by an emancipatory philosophy. She focuses on developing design curriculum for non-traditional audiences and promoting the work of designers outside of Europe and North America.
Noel completed her Ph.D. in Design at North Carolina State University in 2018. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of the West Indies and a bacharelado (equivalent to bachelor’s degree) in industrial design from Universidade Federal do Paraná.
Aditi Jha
Aditi is a Design Fellow at the Siebel Center for Design right here on campus. She graduated from the College of ACES with a degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences with interests in environmental justice, food systems, and wetlands. She is working towards understanding the implications of social justice/social impact in design and has a special interest that falls at the intersect of Healthcare and Environmental Racism. She enjoys a good cup of coffee.
Social Hack 