Jury Alumni

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  Aric Cheston

  Assistant Vice President of Design, AT&T

  2020 Interaction Jury Member

  Aric Cheston is a product and service designer living and working in Austin Texas. He is currently the Assistant Vice President of Design at AT&T where he leads a multidisciplinary team focused on large scale transformational projects encompassing all aspects of the business. Previous to AT&T, Aric co-founded the experience design firm, Big Tomorrow, served as Executive Creative Director of Frog Design, and was a partner in the storied brand advertising and marketing firm Kirshenbaum Bond Partners. He has worked with clients across industries, most notably, BMW, HP, Disney, Comcast, and The University of Texas.
  
  Aric holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design.

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  Sara Gooch

  UX Design & Research Leadership Consultant, Measured Studios

  2020 Interaction Jury Member

  A design leader focused on health care, food, conservation, social impact and education, Sara believes design can help us shift our behaviors for good. She leads design challenges with empathy and a systems-based approach.
  
  Sara has spent over two decades designing for clients such as Kaiser Permanente, National Head Start Association, Ford Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund and Disney. In her early career, she led the design of a content management system for nonprofits and foundations. She's been part of leadership teams at Big Tomorrow, frog and most recently OpenTable, overseeing a team of 30+ researchers, writers, product and brand designers.

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  Hamish Thain

  VP Packaging, Ammunition

  2020 Packaging Jury Captain

  Founding member of the packaging design practice at Ammunition, based in Brooklyn NY.
  
  Hamish trained as an industrial designer, approaching packaging design from that perspective. Designing functional and delightful packaging experiences for consumer products.

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  Amelia Black

  Director of Packaging, Blue Apron

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Amelia Black is a designer based in New York. She favors a human-centered approach that she applies to both physical products and digital experiences, bringing user insights into the design process as another material she can use to make ideas tangible.
  
  Amelia is currently the Director of Packaging at Blue Apron, where she leads new product innovation and design development for the brand. She is a passionate advocate for sustainable packaging and leads efforts to reduce waste and improve the company’s overall environmental impact. Prior to joining Blue Apron, she worked as a designer, researcher, and strategist at IDEO.org, Machine, and Arup.
  
  She is the co-founder of Studio Ana, a community-based ceramics studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she still gets her hands dirty while also providing emerging potters with access to resources and equipment to build their own practices.

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  Bliss Buter-Thompson

  Sr. Structural Packaging Design Manager, Logitech

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  As Senior Structural Packaging Design Manager at Logitech, Bliss balances consumer, business, and sustainable packaging needs across their 7 brands.
  
  Bliss earned a Bachelor's in Illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a Master's in Product Design and Development Management from Northwestern University. Her 15 combined years of agency, in-house, and supplier-side packaging experience have contributed to Bliss’s unique design perspective and a keen eye for function, form, and feasibility.

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  Heather Bybee

  Packaging Design Consultant

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Heather has been working in packaging design since the beginning of her industrial design career. Her packaging experience has spanned from helping startup brands launch their first consumer product to advising corporations on how smart packaging design can solve business and consumer challenges. She has worked for in-house teams and design agencies. Some brands Heather has worked for or with include OtterBox, Beats by Dre, Square, Lyft, Polaroid, and Microsoft. She holds a Master’s in Design Strategy and Innovation from Brunel University in London, England and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Design from Auburn University. Currently Heather works as a packaging design consultant.

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  Michael Place

  Founder, Studio.Build

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  A professional designer for almost 30 years, Michael co-founded Studio.Build in 2001. Beginning his career in 1990, he gained experience at various influential design studios in London, before joining the maverick graphics studio The Designers Republic in Sheffield, producing many works that have since earned a place in cultural history. Michael founded Studio.Build on one simple idea to do great work with great people- and that is at the core of the studios philosophy today. With a lifelong interest in typographic design, Michael is fascinated by the powerful part it can play at the heart of graphic communication, which is evident in the work of the studio. Michael has been on the judging panel of design awards worldwide, and has given talks and offered opinion on design at conferences across the globe. The studio has won several awards including from the prestigious D&AD global design awards.

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  Zack Simons

  Senior Design Manager, Invision

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Zack is a professional athlete turned designer based in Park City, Utah. He leads by example with a rigorous, hands-on approach to brand, product, and UX design.
  
  Zack is currently leading a team of UX and product designers as a Sr. Design Manager at InVision. In years past, he worked alongside some of the best in the business at WeWork, Logitech and Ammunition.

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  Francois Nguyen

  Creative Director, frog

  2020 Personal Accessory Jury Captain

  François is a Creative Director at frog’s New York studio. His career began over a decade ago at Pentagram where he worked with clients such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Dell. He then joined ammunition where he was the lead designer for the original “Beats Studio ” headphones for Dr. Dre. Currently as one of frog’s creative leads, François is responsible for overseeing the vision of projects and managing the team. His work continually strives to be emotionally and intellectually engaging through balancing the use of materials, form, finish, poetry and metaphor.

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  Brooke Ellis

  Design Director, Airbnb

  2020 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  Brooke is a Design leader with nearly 20 years of experience across product/UX, brand and experience. She currently leads Design for Airbnb’s Lux division as well as spearheading key strategic projects across the organization. Prior to Airbnb she was the Head of Design at Condé Nast across the portfolio of brands, and was a Creative Director at frog design working with clients such as Disney, Google, GE, Chase, and Westfield.

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  Phu Hoang

  Founding Director, MODU

  2020 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  Founding Director and studio alchemist, Phu Hoang and has led MODU since its founding in 2012. Along with Rachely Rotem, he was awarded the 2017 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture, since 1897 an annual prize to those ”who represent the highest standards of excellence in the arts and humanities.” Phu has led the design of many projects in MODU, including the Exhale art park and the Promenade retail and office center. They have also been awarded the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York (2019) and the US-Japan Creative Artists fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018).

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  Haley Nahman

  Freelance Writer

  2020 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  Haley Nahman is a culture writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She was most recently the Features Director at Man Repeller, a cult women's media site covering style, culture, and advice. Today she's a freelance writer interested in exploring why humans respond to the trappings of modern life the way they do. She writes a weekly newsletter called Maybe Baby.

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  Natasha Margot Blum

  Principal Director, Blumline

  2020 Service Design Jury Captain

  Natasha specializes in human-centered design research and strategy. She is passionate about creating services, experiences, environments, and products that help people live better, healthier, and more fulfilled lives in a rapidly changing world.
  
  In 2017, Natasha founded the design and innovation strategy consultancy Blumline, where she and her teams blend creative and scientific research methodologies to catalyze radical and compassionate innovation. Blumline's goal is to shift perspectives and behaviors around ambiguous landscapes like the future of health and wellness, the age of autonomy, and mindfulness in the digital age.
  
  Natasha's service design experience rests at the intersection of mobility, wellness, health, hospitality, and retail for clients including Postmates, Volkswagen, Livongo, Singapore Airlines, Lincoln, and emerging brands in the boutique hotel industry.

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  Tracy DeLuca

  Founder / Design Strategist, How Might We Design

  2020 Service Design Jury Member

  Tracy DeLuca is the Founder of How Might We Design, a mental health-focused creative consultancy. Recently, as the Principal Design Lead for Sutter Health, Tracy helped launch a series of successful innovation initiatives across the system, including a new virtual-first primary care model that integrates behavior change into everyday care, supported by a more accessible value-based insurance experience. Additionally, she was Design Lead for Sutter’s Mental Health Reimagined initiative, where her work focused on a human-centered deep dive into the Acute Care experience, and strategic development of an engagement platform to support youth transitioning out of formal care back into their everyday lives. Prior to her healthcare industry experience, Tracy spent 7 years at global design firm IDEO, as a Communications Design & Project Lead, and 10 years in advertising.

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  Markos Grohmann

  Principal Director, frog

  2020 Service Design Jury Member

  As Principal Director, Markos leads the Design Research Practice at frog San Francisco. His expertise lies in understanding people – their behaviors, needs, aspirations and interactions – and translating insights into a foundation to build strategy, products and services experiences for global markets.
  
  Markos has over 15 years of experience in running design programs across a range of sectors, for clients such as Audi, BMW, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola and LEGO and launching new offerings. He has a strong focus on the mobility sector, having helped clients create new car platforms and build sustainable mobility services in China. Prior to frog, he worked at Designit, where he held the role of Global Research Lead and ran the Service Design practice.
  
  Markos has a background in Social Sciences and Business and hold Masters degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds as well as Bachelor’s degree from the University of Aberdeen in the UK.
  

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  Sunita Ram

  Design Lead, Idean

  2020 Service Design Jury Member

  As a Design Lead at Idean (part of Capgemini Invent), Sunita has led hybrid design teams on projects across industries including healthcare, e-commerce, education, transportation, and technology. She thrives in bringing clarity to ambiguous problems. She has created and led initiatives like Design Thinking Academies for Executives and Kids, Design Jams for designers, and Culture Workshops for her organization.
  
  Sunita holds a Bachelors degree in Architecture and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from ITP, NYU.
  
  For the last decade, Sunita has also served as a design coach for Stanford d.school’s Extreme course. Here, she mentors graduate students who design low-cost, sustainable products and services for developing countries in partnership with non-profit organizations.