I'm a community-centered design strategist with an appetite for systems thinking and communication design. Here's [ some of ] what I believe in:

 

Research to reframe.
Surface-level questions can lead us to shallow answers. When I want to find a root, getting my hands dirty with research helps me map out the landscape of a situation, bring to light new perspectives, and reexamine what it is we're really seeking: "What else is waiting to be uncovered and explored?" 

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Relationship-focused, interdisciplinary collaboration. 
We know that diversity of thought, experience, and expertise benefits problem-solving. This requires supportive means of communication that bridge efforts along the way, so that we can imagine, experiment and take meaningful risks together. My love language is using tools that bring people together and set the stage for community-led inquiry, insight & action, building enduring relationships along the way. 

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Visual thinking and imaginative play. 
Nontraditional tools like sketching & diagramming, system & journey mapping, spatial design & role playing can unclench our thinking and help us communicate more imaginatively and effectively throughout the process—whether that's reframing a problem, aligning our perspectives, testing old assumptions, arriving at new concepts, envisioning a brighter future, prototyping those possibilities, or storytelling in a way that fans the flames of inspired action.

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Acknowledging and using power for the greater good.
Inevitably, designers end up as systems gatekeepers. We must... 1. Assess the rooms we find ourselves in to see who is and isn't there. 2. Reexamine doubts we have regarding our own power, to challenge the status quo around and within us. 3. Make space to listen, even when uncomfortable, inconvenient. 4. However imperfectly, keep ourselves, our work, and other power-holders accountable in contributing to a just and equitable world. Sometimes that means opening doors, sometimes it means knocking down walls, one brick at a time. It continues by turning over our own stones of complacency and complicity, one by one. I am both humbled and encouraged by the need for the collective in this long lineage of work. A perennial truth: it's more important than ever. 

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I strive to follow the principles described by the Design Justice Network. 

 

What I've been up to...

Since 2021, I have been helping launch and scale a 911 first response department made of mental health professionals in Durham, NC. I share more about some of my contributions to that work HERE