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Design Thinking Roundtable
ERA Chair in Social Innovation @ Nova SBE
55 episodes
1 week ago
The Design Thinking Roundtable is a collaboration between the DESIS Lab and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NOVA SBE with the Design Lab @ NYU MakerSpace. Originally conceived by Harshita Nedunuri and Anne-Laure Fayard, then co-created with Priyanka Vora. Since Fall 20219, it is conceived and produced by AL Fayard. Audio production and sound design (in various episodes): Guilhem Tamisier; Blake Rook; John Klima; Claudio Silva. Covert Art: Guilhem Tamisier
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All content for Design Thinking Roundtable is the property of ERA Chair in Social Innovation @ Nova SBE and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
The Design Thinking Roundtable is a collaboration between the DESIS Lab and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NOVA SBE with the Design Lab @ NYU MakerSpace. Originally conceived by Harshita Nedunuri and Anne-Laure Fayard, then co-created with Priyanka Vora. Since Fall 20219, it is conceived and produced by AL Fayard. Audio production and sound design (in various episodes): Guilhem Tamisier; Blake Rook; John Klima; Claudio Silva. Covert Art: Guilhem Tamisier
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Design
Arts
Episodes (20/55)
Design Thinking Roundtable
An Invitation to Citizen

Jon Alexander, a Storyteller, Strategist, and Visiting Fellow atHarvard University. Jon started out in advertising and co-founded in 2014 with Irenie Ekkeshis a consultancy, the NewCitizen Project which works with organisations across sectors to explore what it would mean to treat people as citizens, not just consumers. In 2022, he published a book, Citizens, which won numerous book of the year awards, was reviewed by the Financial Times as an “underground hit”, selected by the World Economic Forum for its CEO Book Club.

Jon wears a few other hats: as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Manchester, a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a founding member of the OECD's Innovative Citizen Participation Network, and a member of the Advisory Councils of DemocracyNext, the Apolitical Foundation, and the Democracy and Culture Foundation. Jon holds three Masters degrees spanning humanities and business.

In this episode, Jon reflects on his journey from advertising to starting a consultancy The New Citizen Project to writing a book and become an author, public speaker and actionist. He reflects on human history as a journey from subject to consumer to citizen. He proposes a definition of citizen as a practice rather than status and as verb as a noun. He explores how storytelling is not only a way to inspire and agitate, but also a form of action. He shares many inspiring stories that can help imagine a citizen future. Jon highlights the value of collaborations especially at the intersections, and invites us to embrace a citizen-centered design approach.


To learn more about Jon's work, follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-alexander-11b66345/

and check his website:

⁠https://jonalexander.net/⁠


Two references he shared with us in the podcast:

Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to ScaleMargaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze

Navigating Societal Change through Design

by Sara Gry Striegler and Julie Hjort.


Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier



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1 week ago
31 minutes 7 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Social Innovator in Residence: Pushpa Joshi

Pushpa Joshi is a young activist from Nepal with over a decade of experience advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), adolescent sexuality, and gender equality at national and international levels. She co-founded YoSHAN(Youth-led SRHR Advocacy Nepal), where she leads youth-centered, feminist initiatives.

An experienced educator, Pushpa has trained healthcare providers on rights-based SRHR services, supported teachers in delivering human rights-based sexuality education, and empowered thousands of young people in advocacy and movement building. Her work emphasizes structural reform, intersectionality, and creating inclusive spaces, especially for marginalized communities. Beyond her activism, Pushpa also uses photography and filmmaking to amplify gender justice and lived experiences. Pushpa was the Fall 2025 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.

Follow Pushpa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pushpa-joshi-31b881a4/

Credits:

Host: Anne-Laure Fayard

Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

Recorded at the Fidelidade Creative Studio, Nova SBE

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2 weeks ago
31 minutes 36 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Design for human-wildlife coexistence

Francesco Cara, a designer, educator and curator. Francesco explores what it means to design in the current epoch, the Anthropocene, marked by climate disruption, unstoppable biodiversity loss and growing social inequality, with a focus on two domains: digital sustainability and human-wildlife coexistence. Francesco is an activist for AlGore's Climate Reality Project and for the Right to Repair. He taught ecodesign at Politecnico di Milano and IED Milano. He had various leadership roles in design at Nokia, Sapient,IconMedialab in Finland, France and the UK, and co-founded one of the earliest User-Centered Design studios in Europe, CB&J in Paris He curated Climate Space festival with Ludovico Einaudi and Ponderosa Music & Art.  Francesco has a MSc and a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh.

In this episode, Francesco reflects on his journey and how he went from cognitive science "in vitro" to cognition "in the wild", and design; and within design: from Human-centered design to ecodesign and human-wildlife coexistence. Francesco argues that design has a fundamental role to play in finding solutions and a new balance. He highlights the limits of ecodesign, noting that reducing social and environmental impact is not enough. He proposes a fundamental worldview shift, from considering human beings as apart from and in a position of superiority to placing human beings back within the web of life. Through several inspiring stories, he illustrates how we can create the conditions for positive relationships between people and the living world to occur. Last, he discusses his work as an activist and engaged researcher, which aims to provide more positive narratives of a future where humans live in harmony among themselves and with the living world.

To learn more about Francesco's work, follow him on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/francescocara

and check his website: medium.com/@frakara 

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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1 month ago
34 minutes 19 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Design Beyond Things: From Experience to Policy Making

Dima Boulad, a designer and problem solver moved by positive impact with more than 14 years of experience. Dima is currently the Head of Design Research for the Dubai Design Lab, which is part of Dubai Future Foundation. Prior to that role she led the Design Research Team also at the Dubai Design Lab. She also worked as Innovation Design Manager for EY and has worked on multiple projects as an independent design consultant. The projects she worked on includes design research for the International Refugee Committee on Information Flow, working with Doctors without Borders in Beirut and being an OpenIDEO community Fellow. She has a Masters in Multimedia and Project Management from IESA in Paris and a Bachelor in Graphic Design from the American University in Beirut.


In this episode, Dima reflects on her journey and how her deep interest in design research led her to explore human-centered and participatory design. She emphasizes the importance of truly catering to people's needs and creating meaningful and impactful experiences.She discusses her current work at the Dubai Design Lab, their approach and how their work informs governance and policy making. Last, she talks to the changing role of the designer and what it means for design education.


To learn more about Dima's work, follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimaboulad/?originalSubdomain=ae

and check her website:  https://www.dimaboulad.com/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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4 months ago
30 minutes 49 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Social Innovator in Residence: Meena Kadri

Meena is a social innovation consultant and design strategist tackling complex social challenges through human-centered design and community engagement dedicated to tackling complex social challenges through human-centered design and community engagement.

With a background in social anthropology and design, she has worked across diverse settings, from urban slums to corporate boardrooms. Previously, Meena spent eight years at IDEO, where she led community engagement for OpenIDEO and advised IDEO U’s initiatives. Her expertise lies in fostering collaboration, equity, and innovation to drive meaningful change. Born in Aotearoa New Zealand with Indian ancestry, she brings a global perspective to her work in social impact.

Meena was the Spring Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.
Follow Meena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meanestindian/?originalSubdomain=nz

and on Subtack: https://randomspecific.substack.com/


Credits:

Host: Anne-Laure Fayard

Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

Recorded at the Fidelidade Creative Studio, Nova SBE

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6 months ago
37 minutes 49 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Entering and Breaking Design

Adriana Valdez Young is a design researcher with more than 15 years of leading design research that focuses on centering the experiences of historically excluded and underrepresented people for startups, government, non-profits, and corporate clients. . She advises inclusive research at SOUR, a global design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems, servers as associate chair of the MFA of Interaction design at the School of Visual Arts, and writes about inclusive design for UX Magazine. Prior to that she led research and strategy at Stae, a platform for cities to manage civic data and new mobilities. She was the head of consumer research at littleBits, a STEAM platform for kids and educators to invent their own technology. And most recently, shecrafted community experiences at 3X3 and shaped communications, business development, and the urban design practice at Openbox. Adriana holds a BA in History from Brown University and an MSc in City Design and Social Science fromthe London School of Economics.

In this episode, Adriana reflects on her journey as "an accidental designer" - breaking and entering design. She talks about how her early passion for understanding context, her curiosity and her un-satisfaction with the status quo led her to design for social change. She reflects on co-creation and inclusive design, reminding us that all design should be inclusive.

To learn more about Adriana's work, follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valdezyoung/

and check her website:  https://www.welikeresearch.com/

You can also read her reflections on Medium: https://adrianavyoung.medium.com/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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8 months ago
30 minutes 21 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Tales of the Field: Vila Feliz Cidade by Carlos Mendes Gonçalves

Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people’s lives.

In this episode, we talked with Carlos Mendes Gonçalves, the founder and CEO of Case Mendes Gonçalves, a family business in Portugal. Casa Mendes Gonçalves’ commitment to sustainability inspires the company’s effort to transform the food system and create a model for a new way to work and live together within our communities and nature. Carlos tells us about Vila Feliz Cidade, a regenerative agriculture project that aims to integrate the economic dimension with social and environmental responsibility. 


To read more about sustainability at Casa MG and about Vila Feliz Cidade: https://www.casamg.pt/en/sustainability/

Co-conception and Voice: Melchior Tamisier-Fayard

Co-conception: Anne-Laure Fayard

Interview in Portuguese by Rita Nascimento

Quotes in English read by Claudio Silva

Sound design, Music and Post-production: Guilhem Tamisier

Artwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard


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10 months ago
9 minutes 40 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Human-centered design and systems thinking for social impact and community engagement.

Robert Fabricant is Co-Founder of Dalberg Design, where he brings human-centered design and systems thinking to clients looking for creative approaches to breakthrough innovation and expanded collaborations in social impact and community engagement. He leads an extremely diverse team with studios in Dakar, Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi and New York, leveraging Dalberg’s global footprint and capabilities. Much of his portfolio is focused on public health, serving as the lead design partner to USAID’s Global Health Bureau. A born and raised New Yorker, Robert began his career at a local criminal justice non-profit focused on New York State court reform where he worked at both a grassroots and policy level to drive positive change in the lives of New Yorkers.


In this episode, Robert reflects on his journey from his work in criminal justice advocacy to becoming a systems designer  with a focus on public health systems and social innovation. He talks about the importance of collaboration and taking a long-term horizon to make positive social change. As he critically reflects on his practice, he stresses the importance of thinking about power dynamics when doing design work with under-resourced communities in the USA and in the Global South.


To learn more about Robert's work, follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertfabricant/

and check his website:  https://www.fabricant.design/

To learn more about Dalberg Design: https://www.dalbergdesign.com/


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11 months ago
37 minutes 20 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Social Innovator in Residence: Engin Ayaz

Engin Ayaz, a transdisciplinary designer and strategist with a background in architecture, systems thinking, and interaction design. He is the co-founder of ATÖLYE, a design and innovation consultancy, which amplifies the impact of purpose-driven leaders by transforming people, places and experiences through the power of communities.

Engin received a dual degree in Architectural Design and Engineering from Stanford University, and a master's degree in Interactive Design and Media Arts from Tisch School of Arts, ITP of New York University.

His work has been exhibited worldwide and received awards from Core77, Architizer, Arkitera, World Architecture Community, and Good Magazine, among others.

Engin was the Fall 2024 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.

Follow Engin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enginayaz/

Learn more about Atölye: https://atolye.io/

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11 months ago
33 minutes 15 seconds

Design Thinking Roundtable
Radical participatory design

Victor Udoewa is Service Design Lead  for the CDC (centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Prior to this role, Victor was Chief Technology Officer, Chief experience Officer and Service Design Lead at NASA. Prior to NASA, Victor served as the Director of Strategy at 18F, a civic consultancy for the federal government inside the federal government. Previously, as a Global Education Instructional Designer and Training Development Specialist at Google, he designed learning experiences and learning software for people in low-to-middle-income countries around the world.

In this episode, Victor shared with us his "non-linear" journey to being a service designer: from being a teacher to working with USAID and then Google and NASA while being a health crisis and trauma counsellor. He shares the different definitions of service design and contrasts them with his perspective and practice in the public sector. He then explains why he talks about radical participatory design (rather than participatory design) and introduces us to relational design and pluriversal design.


To learn more about Victor's work, follow him on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/udoewa/


You can also read some of his academic papers:

  • Introduction to Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes
  •  Radical Participatory Design: The Awareness of Participation

  • Relational Design 
  • Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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    1 year ago
    34 minutes 34 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Social Workers Who Design: trauma-responsive design and design of care

    Rachael Dietkus is a social worker-designer. Her practice, research, and writing at the intersections of social work values, trauma-responsive principles, and care-focused design research methods. Rachael is the founder of Social Workers Who Design and an active member of the Design Justice Network and the Social Work Futures Lab. Since September 2022, she has served as a Digital Services Expert in Design and Social Work and a Trauma-Informed Practice Subject Matter Expert with the United States Digital Service, a design and tech unit under the White House. 

    In this episode, Rachael reflects on the different civic and public interest roles she has had over the last twenty years to explore how social work and design are intrinsically connected in her practice. She explains how she encountered trauma-informed design and more recently trauma-responsive design. She stresses the importance of language, of care, of intentionality and relationality.

    To learn more about Rachael's work, follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachaeldietkuslcsw/

    and check the Social Workers Who Design website: ⁠https://www.socialworkerswho.design⁠


    To learn more about the topics we discussed:

    'Trauma-Informed Care: A Sociocultural Perspective' / ⁠⁠https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207195/⁠⁠

    Social Work Futures Lab / ⁠⁠https://www.socialworkfutureslab.org⁠⁠

    Racism Untaught / ⁠https://racismuntaught.com⁠


    Some of the references Rachael's made in the podcast:

    • Desmond Patton's / 'Applying Reflexivity to Artificial Intelligence for Researching Marginalized Communities and Real-World Problems' / ⁠https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/7607e8e6-db3b-45c6-87c5-516e8e67ba08/full⁠
    • Resmaa Menakem / ⁠https://resmaa.com⁠ + ⁠https://onbeing.org/programs/resmaa-menakem-notice-the-rage-notice-the-silence⁠
    • Karen Treisman's 'Trauma River' / ⁠https://media.churchillfellowship.org/documents/Treisman_K_Report_2018_Final.pdf⁠
    • AJ Singh's 'Justice Sensitivity is the Cure, Not the Sickness' / ⁠https://ajs4dlg.substack.com/p/justice-sensitivity-is-the-cure-not⁠


    Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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    1 year ago
    32 minutes 54 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Social Innovator in Residence: João Brites

    João Brites is an entrepreneur, breakdancer, and agroforester who has lived in Portugal, Mexico, United States, Brazil and Spain (his current home). Currently, João is Director of Growth & Innovation at HowGood, a SaaS platform that helps companies measure, improve, and communicate their social and environmental impact. Prior to HowGood, João worked as Global Director of Sustainable Development at AB InBev and co-founded initiatives like Movimento Transformers, the Amazon Summer School, and Carbono Biodiverso. João is the recipient of Nova’s Impactful Alumni Award, the Do Something Ambassador Award, and was at age 19 one of the world’s youngest participants at the WEF in Davos through the Global Changemakers Program. João holds a M.S. in Economics and a CEMS Masters in International Management from Nova SBE

    João was the Spring 2024 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.

    Follow João on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbrites/


    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music: Guilhem Tamisier

    Art work: Guilhem Tamisier

    The Podcast was recorded and produced in the Fidelidade Creative Studio @ Nova SBE


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    1 year ago
    28 minutes 36 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Tales of the Field: Amplio Talking Books in Ghana

    Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people’s lives.

    In this episode, we talked with Gilbert Nkpeniyeng, who after working as a program officer with Amplio Network, is currently doing his MPhil in Development Studies at Cambridge University (UK). Gilbert passionately believes that access to knowledge can change people's lives. He shares his personal experience with the Amplio Talking Book, an audio device designed for users with low literacy, he encountered while in primary school. He also tells about a project he implemented with women producing shea butter in Northern Ghana highlighting how all community members were involved.


    To read more about Amplio Network: https://www.amplio.org/

    Follow Gilbert Nkpeniyeng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilbert-nkpeniyeng-1648a017a/

    Co-conception and Voice: Melchior Tamisier-Fayard

    Co-conception: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design, Music and Post-production: Guilhem Tamisier

    Artwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard

    Recording done at Fidelidade Creative Studio at Nova SBE

    Thanks to Amplio Network Ghana team for sharing some of the audio sources used for the sound design of this episode.


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    1 year ago
    18 minutes 17 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Tales of the Field: Street Lab, reinventing the street through pop-ups

    Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people’s lives.


    In this episode, we talked with Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive director of Street Lab, a nonprofit that creates and shares programs for public space across New York City, and with Hannah Berkin-Harper, Street Lab's design lead. We talked about the pop-ups they create to improve the urban environment, connect New Yorkers and create communities. They highlighted the value of developing quick and nimble ways to provide resources to residents and develop a street-level environment that can evolve while also testing ideas for longer term changes.

    To read more about Street Lab: https://www.streetlab.org/


    Co-conception and Voice: Melchior Tamisier-Fayard

    Co-conception: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design, Music and Post-production: Guilhem Tamisier

    Artwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard


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    1 year ago
    17 minutes 5 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Co-design for social impact

    Tanya Bhandari is a communication designer from India who has been working in the social impact space for over a decade. Currently she is the Design Director at ⁠YLabs⁠ in Kigali, Rwanda. She was previously Design Lead at ⁠UNICEF’s Office of Innovation⁠ (New York), Design Fellow at ⁠Center for Urban Pedagogy⁠ (New York), and Designer at ⁠Teach for India⁠ (Mumbai.)

    In this episode, reflecting on the projects she has been involved, Tanya stressed the power of co-design, where young people lead the process and participate from beginning to end. Tanya talked about prototyping as a form of research and how to prototype in resource-constrained environments. As we discussed how her work involved complex collaborations, she stressed the importance of always having part of the team embedded in the local context. Last, Tanya suggested that design for social impact required designers to step back from a position of expertise, to become sense makers and facilitators.

    To learn more about Tanya's work, check her website: https://tanyabhandari.in/about

    Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyabhndri/

    Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier


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    1 year ago
    31 minutes 42 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Social Innovator in Residence: Liz Gerber

    Liz Gerber is a professor at Northwestern University, co-director of Northwestern’s Center for Human Computer Interaction + Design, and faculty founder of Design for America, a national award-winning network of interdisciplinary students who work together to solve problems they care about in their community. Liz works at the works at the intersection of design, social computing, and organizational behavior to understand the future of collaboration and in particular. for social impact. Gerber co-directs the Delta Lab whose mission is to create technology-based systems to enhance learning, collaboration, and performance. Gerber has received awards for her research and teaching from the National Science Foundation, MacArthur, Mozilla Foundations, Microsoft and Smithsonian.


    Liz was the Fall 2023 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.


    Follow Liz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizgerber/ and Twitter: elizgerber

    To learn more about Liz's work: lizgerber.com 

    To learn more about Design for America: designforamerica.com 


    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music: Guilhem Tamisier

    Art work: Guilhem Tamisier


    The Podcast was recorded and produced in the Fidelidade Creative Studio @ Nova SBE


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    2 years ago
    27 minutes 27 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Design for government, climate and science

    Sara Camnasio is a multi-disciplinary designer and researcher focused on government (public services), science, and climate projects. Her work spans from integrating design mindsets into environmental and conservation projects, creating educational curricula to engage students on STEAM topics, to helping improve public and private services and products.  After spending 5 years conducting Astrophysics research at the American Museum of Natural History and at telescopes around the world for 5 years, Sara decided to dive into design to apply design thinking methods to science and conservation projects. She’s been a National Geographic Explorer since 2015, and through this community, she has led and co-led several international projects focused on conservation and environmental education. Currently, she is helping grow Human-centered design and co-design practices at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in the US Federal Government. She also runs the Sonoma County Feminist Bird Club – a growing community of friendly bird nerds who care about the outdoors and social justice.

    In this episode, Sara explains how she combines in her work service design with participatory approaches to help people engage more deeply and more consciously with the world around them. She stresses how design shapes all our interactions – with objects, technology, humans, and nature, and therefore has a role to play in addressing issues we are facing like climate change. We discussed how design can help translate complexity and identify and frame what problem to solve, and the role of the designer as a facilitator and storyteller. Sara emphasizes the need for designers to think of unintended consequences and be reflexive about their practice; design being in the end a deeply political practice.


    To learn more about Sara's work, check her website: https://www.saracamnasio.com/

    Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saracamnasio/


    Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

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    2 years ago
    26 minutes 28 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Social Innovator in Residence: Isaac Jumba

    Isaac is the founder of Mideva Labs - a research, design and innovation consultancy studio based in Nairobi Kenya, and a co-founder of Idea Studio Africa - a community-powered learning, skills development and apprenticeship studio helping young professionals build meaningful career pathways in innovation and entrepreneurship. Isaac previously co-founded the Africa YES Program - a 6-month leadership and entrepreneurship accelerator program for young social entrepreneurs in Kenya, which has supported over 80 entrepreneurs to launch social ventures since 2019.

    Isaac has over 8 years of experience working in the design, social innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem across Africa and supporting initiatives around the world, including working for openIDEO - IDEO’s open innovation platform that supported innovators across the globe to solve some of the biggest world’s challenges.

    Isaac has a passion for designing with and working with communities and young people to achieve impact and is interested in exploring ways to rethink learning and in investment in young people and their ideas for a better future.


    Isaac was the Spring 2023 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.


    Follow Isaac on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacjumba/

    Twitter: @Isaacjumba


     Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music: Guilhem Tamisier

    Art work: Guilhem Tamisier

    The Podcast was recorded and produced in the Fidelidade Creative Studio @ Nova SBE

     


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    2 years ago
    34 minutes 20 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Community, Co-design and Intentional relationships

    Harmonie Coleman is a Senior Community Engagement Manager at IDEO.org. In this role, she collaborates closely with design teams, partners, and local community members to advance equitable practices in design research and community co-design methods across the organization. She specializes in designing transformative experiences, healing-centered facilitation, participatory design methods, and recruiting community members with lived experience. Her past experiences as a teacher and community organizer both deepen her expertise and ground her current work and interests. Harmonie has a Master of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor in Psychology and Race and Difference Studies from Emory University.

    In this episode, Harmonie shared her views on community and intentional relationship building, and stressed the need to move from transactive interactions to intentional relationship. She illustrated the value of intentional relationship building by sharing two projects she worked on with families and youth who have been impacted by the child welfare system. She discussed how the distinctions between participatory design, community design and co-design were not necessarily generative. Instead, she invites us to focus on the "how" and practice, rather than the labels. Last, we discussed adrienne maree brown's work and how the notion of emergent strategy informs Harmonie's work.

    I asked Harmonie to share some recommended readings:

    Thick, Tressie McMillan Cottom
    The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker
    Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown
    How We Show Up, Mia Birdsong
    Holding Change, adrienne maree brown
    Abolishing the Cop in Your [Designer's] Head, Sarah Fathallah and A.D. Sean Lewis https://designmuseumfoundation.org/abolish-the-cop-inside-your-designers-head/

    Read Harmonie's essay "On Community": https://www.ideo.org/perspective/on-community-harmonie-coleman

    Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harmonie-coleman-a42b25155/


    Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

    Show more...
    2 years ago
    30 minutes 11 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    Designing for care and liveable proximity

    Ezio Manzini  is one of the world's leading and provocative thinkers in design for sustainability and social innovation — considered a major driver of sustainable changes. These two joint interests led him to start DESIS: an international network of schools of design specifically active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability. Currently, Ezio is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide such as Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), and Parsons - The new School for Design (NYC). Ezio has written many books and papers on service design and social innovation. His most recent books are: 'Design, When Everybody Designs', 'Politics of the Everyday’ and lately 'Livable Proximity’.

    In this episode, Ezio invites us to reimagine the role of design in building a sustainable and resilient world. In particular, he talks about how our contemporary society has become a “careless society” and how design can help create conditions that afford care and nurture relations. He highlights the complex relation between care and proximity and based on his most recent book, discusses the notion of livable proximity and how a city that cares look like. Finally, he discusses the notion of social innovation, and stresses that if there is value in emergent, bottom-up social innovation, we need to nurture them and that this requires a new type of social infrastructure.

    To learn more about DESIS: https://www.desisnetwork.org/

    Credits:

    Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

    Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

    Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

    Show more...
    2 years ago
    35 minutes 49 seconds

    Design Thinking Roundtable
    The Design Thinking Roundtable is a collaboration between the DESIS Lab and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NOVA SBE with the Design Lab @ NYU MakerSpace. Originally conceived by Harshita Nedunuri and Anne-Laure Fayard, then co-created with Priyanka Vora. Since Fall 20219, it is conceived and produced by AL Fayard. Audio production and sound design (in various episodes): Guilhem Tamisier; Blake Rook; John Klima; Claudio Silva. Covert Art: Guilhem Tamisier