Jury Alumni

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  Lalita Abhyankar

  Family Physician and Clinical Consultant

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Lalita Abhyankar is a family medicine physician based in Brooklyn, New York and provides full spectrum patient-centered primary care for all ages. She currently consults for a federally qualified health center improving care of older adults through collaborative research and design methods, targeting electronic health record chart review and interdisciplinary workflows for end of life conversations. She also serves as the Chair of Advocacy for the New York State Academy of Family Physicians and is a regular contributing author to the American Academy of Family Physicians Fresh Perspectives blog.

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  Sarah Fathallah

  Social Designer and Researcher

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Sarah Fathallah is an independent designer, researcher, and educator, who specializes in applying participatory research and design to the social sector, with impact-driven clients like the International Domestic Workers Federation, the International Rescue Committee, and Open Society Foundations, to name a few. Sarah co-founded Design Gigs for Good, a free community-driven resource to help more people use the tools of design to create positive social change. Sarah is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, where she studied International Business and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs. She also studied design innovation at the Paris Est d.school, User Experience design at General Assembly, and participatory design at MIT.

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  Julius Tapper

  Human-Centered Design and Innovation Consultant

  2021 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Julius Tapper is an innovation strategist working to redesign systems to value equity, inclusion, culture and prosperity. Julius has over a decade of professional experience spanning product and experience innovation, customer strategy, and social impact. Julius has led project teams across strategy and creative, for organizations including the UN, American Express, and UBS.
  
  Julius leads equity-centered design initiatives at Doblin, Deloitte’s human-centered design and innovation consulting practice. Prior to consulting, Julius worked at TD Bank, founding their impact investing and social finance program and issuing TD’s first Green Bond. Julius earned an MBA from MIT, an MPA from Harvard, and a BCom from the University of Toronto.

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  Ashley Anson

  Senior Design Director of Advanced Concepts Apparel, Adidas

  2021 Sports & Recreation Jury Member

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  Hector Silva

  Executive Director, Advanced Design

  2021 Design Education Initiative Jury Captain

  Hector Silva brings over 7 years of teaching experience at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, the Academy of Art University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rochester Institute of Technology at their nationally-acclaimed industrial design programs. Recognized for his contributions in academia, Hector was awarded the Young Educator of the Year by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). An active professional in the field, Hector works as an industrial design contractor through his own studio, H Design, partnering with Crate & Barrel, DesignLab, Nickelodeon, LeapFrog, Foster Grant, Insight Product Development, Lund & Company Invention, as well as various entrepreneurs. Hector is also the founder of the design nonprofit, Advanced Design (AD), an organization awarded the Special Achievement Award by the IDSA for making design education more accessible and through disrupting the mediums through which design education has been traditionally offered. AD continues to grow today, connecting students and working professionals to foster a community of design excellence. Most recently, Hector founded Offsite, a 12 week pilot program catered towards furthering design education outside of traditional academia space. This program was developed to translate the needs of the industry into course content taught by design industry leaders. The goal is to help students develop the right skill set and mentorship to thrive on the job and support them along the way.

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  Stacey Panousopoulos

  Executive Director, AIGA NY

  2021 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Stacey Panousopoulos has extensive management and customer service experience in the creative sector. Stacey earned a BA in creative writing and classical studies at Hunter College in NYC. At AIGA NY, she builds relationships with the existing 3,000 members, the board of directors, sponsoring corporations and a range of external partners.

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  Alda Ly

  Principal, Alda Ly Architecture PLLC

  2021 Built Environment Jury Captain

  Alda Ly is founder and principal of Alda Ly Architecture (ALA), a New York-based architecture and interior design firm that specializes in using biophilic principles to transform how healthcare, commercial, and cultural spaces work, look and, more importantly, feel. ALA was founded in 2017 when groundbreaking co-working platform The Wing tapped Alda to design its East Coast and California locations. ALA now works with a growing number of entrepreneurs, startups, and established organizations looking to overhaul traditional work, care, and retail models. Clients have ranged from Bloomberg and functional medicine provider Parsley Health to women’s loungewear company ThirdLove and social-action technology firm Blue State.
  
  Alda was born in New Zealand and raised in a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, where she watched her cabinetmaker father draw kitchen elevations and accompanied him to open houses to see how people shaped their spaces. From the moment she studied freehand drawing as a UC Berkeley undergrad, Alda knew she wanted to become an architect, and went on to earn a master’s in the field from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Before opening ALA, Alda worked at Rafael Viñoly Architects, 212box, HWKN, and Leong Leong. Alda is a Registered Architect in New York.

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  Emily Privot McNamara

  Senior Researcher, Industrial Design, Amazon

  2021 Strategy & Research Jury Captain

  Emily Privot McNamara is a Senior Researcher on the hardware (ID) research team at Amazon, where she works on evaluating existing products and framing challenges around people’s behaviors and interests to identify new opportunities. Prior to Amazon, Emily's career began as an architectural designer working on projects ranging from high-end retail environments to local non-profit urban streetscape improvements. From there she pivoted into design strategy to create things on a faster timeline, and focus on work that applied user needs with business goals and the application of thoughtful design. She began her strategy career as an intern at fuseproject and graduated to hold the position of design strategist at Native Design and VBP Orange.
  
  Recently, Emily has been learning a lot about anthropometry and is applying her passion and specific interests in health/wellness and the older adult population to her work at Amazon.

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  Daniel Dickson

  Creative Lead, Apple

  2021 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Daniel Dickson is an Emmy award winning design-driven creative director. Specializing in brand development, art direction and design for consumer-centered brands. Drawing from a deep well of art, music, cinema, photography and technology references. Creating meaningful work that helps brands connect with their audiences.
  
  He currently is the design director for Google Cloud. Where he leads a motley crew of designers, writers and thinkers. In his down time he likes to practice photography and drawing. Daniel is based in Atwater Village in Los Angeles where he lives with partner Natalie and their 3 month old boy, Maxwell and 7yr old Mathis.

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  Katie Becker

  VP Creative, Arc'teryx

  2021 Sports & Recreation Jury Captain

  Katie Becker is the VP Creative at Arc’teryx, a global design company specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment. With over 25 years of design experience in the athletic and outdoor apparel industry, Katie is responsible for advanced apparel innovation and leads the global design team at Arc’teryx focused on pushing product into new territories. Prior to joining Arc’teryx, Katie served as Senior Design Director for adidas, where she helped build and grow the brand’s global design strategy. Katie has a strong background creating progressive and technical designs, having contributed to award-winning concepts for brands such as Merrell and Helly Hansen. Outside of the design center, Katie can be found skiing, hiking, exploring backroads with her family, paddle boarding, traveling, toting kids to sporting events and trying to train a puppy.

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  Laura Silva

  Vice President, Accessibility Technology UX Design Lead, Bank of America

  2021 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Laura Silva is Bank of America’s Vice President, Accessibility Technology UX Design Lead. Previously, she worked at Amazon in the Global Search team as Accessibility and D&I designer. She’s originally from Bogota, Colombia but calls the U.S. her home. In her work, she focuses on inclusion, diversity and equity for her customers and coworkers.
  Her experiences being “the first and the only one” as a Afro-Latina in tech inspire her to advocate for the business and cultural benefits of highlighting the intersectionality of their customers.

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  Kat Reiser

  Senior Design Strategist, Booz Allen Hamilton

  2021 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Kat Reiser is a strategic thinker, driving innovation by understanding what to make and why it matters. In her time as a designer, Kat has consulted and participated in in-house design teams. She has had the opportunity to work with companies focused on housewares and packaged goods including Pampered Chef, PepsiCo, Chevron, P&G, AB InBev, and Oculus.
  
  Kat is also an instructor at Offsite, where she helps designers build the tools they need to seek employment while guiding the students through understanding and reflecting upon who they are and how they present themselves as designers.

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  Josh Morenstein

  Co-founder, Branch Creative

  2021 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Josh Morenstein is a co-founder, partner, and creative director at Branch, an industrial design and branding agency in San Francisco.
  
  Founded in 2013, Branch has been recognized for excellence and authority in a variety of projects in industrial design and brand consulting services to clients from Fortune 500s to start-ups. Branch’s work has been featured in publications including Fast Company, Vogue, Wired, Metropolis, Dezeen, and Wallpaper magazine. Fast Company Magazine has recognized Branch as one of the "30 Most Important Design Companies of the Year"
  
  With over 20 years of design experience, Josh has led award-winning design teams on some of the most diverse and innovative projects ranging from furniture to electronics, consumer goods to packaging. Prior to founding Branch, Josh was creative director and partner at fuseproject as well as the Design Director at NewDealDesign.
  
  Josh’s work for clients such as General Electric, Coca Cola, Johnson and Johnson, Prada, Issey Miyake, Swarovski, Samsung, Target, Puma,and L'Oréal established him at the forefront of marrying form with function, and of brand with product. Josh’s work has been exhibited in museums and competitions including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial, MOMA, and Chicago Art Institute, and has been recognized with over 50 international design awards from organizations such as IDSA, ID Magazine, iF, Fast Company, and Red Dot.

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  Ara Acle

  Senior Industrial Designer, Casper

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Ara Acle is a Bay Area native currently based in Oakland, CA. After graduating from San Jose State University, Ara spent time at many of the top San Francisco design consultancies. For 4 years he was an Industrial Designer at Frog where he led projects for clients in sectors ranging from consumer electronics, AR experiences, medical products, and environmental installations. Ara is currently a Senior Industrial Designer at Casper where he is helping the brand build sleep products that bring a sense of joy and comfort to consumers.

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  Monish Sabnani

  Co-founder, Courant

  2021 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  Monish Sabnani is the Co-Founder of Courant, a design-driven electronics brand focused on wireless charging for the home. Courant products are widely distributed online and in-store at retailers including West Elm, Nordstrom, CB2, and Bloomingdales, and have been recipients of recognition including several Red Dot Product Design Awards and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies. Monish graduated with a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Georgetown University, and was selected as part of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2021.

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  Ti Chang

  Co-founder & VP of Design, Crave

  2021 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Ti Chang is a design activist-entrepreneur and activist bridging modern design and activism. She is co-founder and VP of Design of CRAVE, a San Francisco-based company specializing in aesthetic pleasure products. Ti leads the design vision for the company’s full line of products which has won international design awards and has led CRAVE to mainstream partnerships with the likes of Nordstrom, MoMA Design Store, Goop, and Saint Laurent. 
  
  Ti is best known for her design of the Vesper vibrator necklace in 2014, an iconic necklace that symbolizes female empowerment and creating conversations to normalize pleasure. 
  
  Ti holds an M.A. in Design Products from the Royal College of Art in London and a B.S. in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2021, Ti co-founded Design Allyship (designallyship.com) to provide anyone with actionable resources to improve the condition of historically marginalized designers in the industrial & product design industry.