Jury Alumni

• 

  Dani Arps

  Interior Designer, Dani Arps LLC / Artisan

  2021 Built Environment Jury Member

  Opening her eponymous firm Dani Arps LLC in 2014; Arps is an interior designer who designs office spaces for top startup companies throughout NYC. She has worked with the Founders and CEO’s from buzzy startups like Daily Harvest, SeatGeek, Codecademy, and General Assembly; to create over 250K sqft of striking and of the moment designs that cater to their unique needs. She will be launching her new business venture, Artisan, which combines design, brokerage, and project management, this year.
  
  Featured in many publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, and Interior Design Magazine; She was named by top design publication, House Beautiful, as 2019’s ‘Next Wave Interior Designer’ and awarded as 2017’s ‘Star on the Rise’ by the renowned Decoration and Design Building.

• 

  Jillian Choi

  Director of Global Exhibitions, Design Miami

  2021 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

• 

  Miya Osaki

  Partner, Diagram

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Captain

  Miya Osaki is a partner at Diagram, a New York based, women- and minority-owned healthcare design studio. Miya brings her passion for design, research, collaboration, and storytelling to improve outcomes and create more caring and equitable experiences for people and our communities. Prior to founding Diagram, Miya served as Director of Experience Design at Johnson & Johnson’s Global Strategic Design Office, where she created innovative services for patients managing chronic conditions. Miya is also the Chair of the graduate Design for Social Innovation (DSI) program at the School of Visual Arts, the first MFA program in social design, and serves on the Board for the Public Policy Lab. She is the co-host for the podcast, Yah, No, focused on the intersection of design, business, and healthcare. A west-coast native, Miya currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

• 

  Wesley Hall

  Senior Designer, Douglas Elliman

  2021 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Wesley Hall, a Senior Designer at Douglas Elliman is a skilled graphic designer, illustrator, and creative consultant with 20 years of experience working with clients to generate design-driven solutions for marketing collateral, instructional design, print, and project management needs. He is the Co-Operator of FLOX Studio.

• 

  Kevin Bethune

  Founder and Chief Creative Officer, dreams • design + life

  2021 Consumer Technology Jury Captain

  Kevin Bethune is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a "think tank" that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach. Kevin's background spans engineering, business and design in equal proportion over his 25+ year career, positioning him to help brands deliver meaningful innovations to enrich people's lives.
  
  His work represents creative problem-solving that brings multidisciplinary teams together to see the future through an open aperture, and a deep industrial design approach to inform and influence desirable, feasible and business-viable design outcomes.
  
  Kevin began his career as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry. This chapter gave him deep product experience working with high performing teams across 14 nuclear reactor upgrade campaigns. After his MBA, Kevin joined Nike, Inc. in a business capacity, but quickly navigated to the Global Footwear product engine to drive advanced digital product creation capabilities, discovering the world of design in the process. After solidifying his creative foundation through further studies at ArtCenter College of Design, Kevin co-founded distinct design & innovation capabilities at two Tier 1 management consulting firms in Booz & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As Vice President of Strategic Design at BCG Digital Ventures, he led a large cohort of designers that would influence and shape every corporate venture spun out from the incubator. Kevin left BCG Digital Ventures to carve his own path under the banner of dreams • design + life, focusing on unlocking human potential through strategic design, industrial design and the building of new ecologies.
  
  Kevin also serves as a Board Trustee for ArtCenter College of Design and a Board Director for the Design Management Institute (DMI).

• 

  Stephanie Szarwark

  Senior Visual Designer, Enlisted Design

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Stephanie is a Senior Visual Designer at Enlisted Design, a visual and industrial design agency based in Oakland, CA where she brings brands to life through tangible visual design. Previously, she was a freelance brand designer, working with small Bay Area startups and large companies such as: Clif Bar, Nestlé, Ancestry, and Waymo (Alphabet). These projects ranged from packaging design to digital product illustrations to copywriting and art direction. Her diverse experience led her to specialize in helping clients hone their brand stories to better resonate with customers. Stephanie is particularly passionate about bridging the gaps between design and business strategy, and helping more people engage their own creative thinking.

• 

  Lyanne Dubon

  Creative Director, Etsy

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Lyanne Dubon-Aguilar is a designer and creative director specializing in brand identity at Etsy in Brooklyn, NY. At Etsy, she leads a team of designers in creating brand experiences that foster creativity, community, and Etsy's mission to Keep Commerce Human.
  
  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Lyanne has worked across a range of disciplines for The Museum of Modern Art, Pentagram, and Local Projects. Lyanne holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from The School of Visual Arts where she taught as an adjunct faculty member from 2014-2020.

• 

  Alejandra Castelao

  Industrial Design Lead, Fjord

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Alejandra is an Industrial Design Lead based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, currently working at Fjord - part of Accenture Interactive. Born and raised in Mexico City, she holds a BA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Design. Alejandra has over 10 years experience working with multiple Fortune 500 companies, as well as early stage startups, helping them transform ideas into reality. She specializes in designing solutions that take place at the intersection of digital and physical. Over the years she's worked on a variety of projects that range from design research, usability testing and alignment workshop facilitation all the way to end-to-end design and shipping of full-fledged, consumer-facing experiences and products.
  
  Prior to joining Fjord she worked for other design consultancies such as frog design. Most recently, she had the opportunity to lead the physical experience design, interior architecture and custom tech solutions of concierge-style medical facilities for Forward, an innovative Healthcare startup named one of Time Magazine's best 25 inventions.

• 

  Nina Etnier

  Co-founder, Float Studio

  2021 Built Environment Jury Member

  Nina Etnier is the co-founder of Float Studio, a design firm focusing on workplaces since 2013. She studied graphic design, marketing, and psychology at American University, then moved to London and shifted her focus towards interiors, completing her graduate degree in Interior Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009. Along with her business partner, she was named Contract Magazine’s 2019 Designer of the Year, and her history managing large scale projects and developing specific architectural details and custom furniture allows her to create spaces that are faithful extensions of brands.

• 

  Sloan Leo

  Founder/CEO, Flox Studio

  2021 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  Sloan Leo (they/them) is an artist and the Founder/CEO of FLOX Studio Inc. FLOX Studio is a community design and strategy studio that works with curious optimists who are committed to getting things done. FLOX is on a mission to increase the community design capacity of mission-driven enterprises so that the entire ecosystem is more brave, creative and resilient. Prior to founding FLOX Studio, Sloan Leo spent 15 years leading non-profit staff and volunteer teams at the Environmental Defense Fund, The Trust for Public Land, and other organizations at the intersection of community, justice, and design.

• 

  Matheus Demetrescu

  Design Strategy Director, D-Ford São Paolo, Ford Motor Company

  2021 Transportation Jury Member

  Matheus Demetrescu is graduated in Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering, post graduated in Vehicles and Its Subsystems, with two MBAs, in Business Management and in UX Design Strategy Management. Career initiated on window-shops creation (Sylvia Demetresco) and since 2007 working at Ford representing the voice of the customer inside Product Development, ensuring company strategy and customer satisfaction balance. In 2014 created the User Experience area in South America to have the user-centered focus on the development. Has lived in US, France and Germany as part of professional and academical life, and has worked in large corporations such as Pilkington, Volkswagen and Unilever.

• 

  Bernice Dapaah

  Founder & CEO, Ghana Bamboo Bikes

  2021 Transportation Jury Member

  Bernice Dapaah is a serial award-winning entrepreneur and a passionate advocate of smart mobility systems. Recognized internationally as a climate trailblazer, she has spent several years in Ghana and across the globe advocating for a regional shift toward eco-mobility and integrated transport in keeping with the ethos of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  
  Her early interest in bamboo led to rigorous experimentation and innovation of a green, functionally robust alternative to conventional bicycles. For her contribution to bamboo industrialization, she was appointed as Bamboo Ambassador by the World Bamboo Organization in 2015 and has since been an active advocate for regional integration of bamboo. She has recently been crowned as one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) and is now an alumnus Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
  
  Bernice is also a Fellow of the Harvard University’s Executive Education and Oxford Transformative Leadership Program. She has been honored with the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur for the World Award” for her impact on society and the capacity to change the world. She currently holds a Master’s Degree in Development Management and a BA in Business Administration (Marketing) from the Kwame Nkrumah and Christian Service Universities respectively.

• 

  Christina White

  Head of UX, Google Sheets, Google

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Christina is currently at Google, leading the UX design team for Sheets and Apps Script. Prior to Google, she built the UX team for brand and digital agency Gin Lane, where she launched digital-first startups like sweetgreen and Harry’s. She’s also led creative departments at digital agencies SapientNitro and Huge, specializing in retail, health & beauty, & consumer products. Christina holds a BS of Industrial Design from Georgia Institute of Technology, where she first established her belief in ergonomics in that delightful design is achieved when the product naturally fits into the environment, not the other way around. She lives in NYC with her husband and kids Geneveive, William, and Henry.

• 

  Sahar Ghaheri

  Designer, Grey Area Collective

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Member

• 

  Ian Montgomery

  Creative Director, Guacamole Airplane

  2021 Packaging Jury Captain

  Before starting Guacamole Airplane, Ian worked as an in-house designer for Chubbies, Areaware and Mollusk Surf Shop. He did his undergraduate coursework in Environmental Science at Stanford and masters work in Packaging Design at Pratt, where he received funding from the National Science Foundation to build a series of experimental recycling machines, and created The Packaging Cookbook.

• 

  Marisa Sanchez-Dunning

  Strategic Planner, Guacamole Airplane

  2021 Packaging Jury Captain

  After working with Thompson Brand Partners in the United Kingdom, Marisa Sanchez-Dunning joined Guacamole Airplane to focus on business development and design direction. Combined with her 3 years of agency experience, she also brings 3 years of client side experience from her time working with craft breweries in the United Kingdom and the Bay Area.