Jury Alumni

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  Todd Palmer

  Director, Diversity in Design Collaborative

  2023 Built Environment Jury Captain

  Todd Palmer is a strategist, curator, and cultural leader of purpose-driven platforms at the intersection of design, public learning and spatial equity. As Director of the Diversity in Design Collaborative he steers a start-up driven by over 56 design-focused organizations that are aligned to confront systemic barriers faced by Black talent at critical moments in the design lifecycle.
  
  Palmer orchestrated the second and third editions of the Chicago Architecture Biennial as its’ Executive Director, defining the platform’s identity as a global catalyst connecting design experimentation with civic urgencies. As Curator and Associate Director of Chicago’s National Public Housing Museum (2013-2016), Todd ensured exhibits and programs served grassroots efforts to rehabilitate a community site as a cultural framework for confronting poverty.
  
  Palmer’s transdisciplinary efforts have been profiled in range of media outlets - most recently the DID Collaborative under Palmer’s leadership was recognized by a 2022 Fast Company Innovation By Design Award. As an independent creative Todd co-founded Program Collective, the design team behind immersive exhibitions tackling sustainability at the core of Spain’s World Expo 2008. He has also designed urban justice prototypes for Harlemworld at the Studio Museum (2004) and published critical essays in Columbia University’s The Avery Review (2015) and Illinois Institute of Technology’s 2022 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize catalogue. As an educator, Todd has created high school design curriculum for Miami’s Design and Architecture Senior High School, and taught professional certificate and advanced degree courses in design and curatorial practices at NYU and for RISD’s M.Arch program.

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  Nootan Bharani

  Associate Director, Design & University Partnerships, Arts + Public Life

  2023 Built Environment Jury Member

  Nootan Bharani is a fierce champion of the continuum of communities and a thoughtful leader of processes to shape places where people want to be. An architect with a deep background in environmental sustainability, Nootan has a propensity toward existing buildings and in-between spaces, and has spent most of her career in non-traditional practice, working directly with neighborhood partners on projects at a wide variety of scales. Nootan is currently the Associate Director of Design and University Partnerships at Arts + Public Life, and a lecturer in the Humanities Division, at the University of Chicago. Previously, Nootan was Lead Design Manager for Place Lab at the University of Chicago where she was thought and practice leader for building projects. Prior to coming to the University of Chicago, she was Managing Director for CB&I Sustainable Design Solutions of Illinois. Nootan is also a volunteer in Chicago Public Schools where her children attend, co-leading initiatives for caregivers of students with disabilities.

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  Shawn Rickenbacker

  Assoc. Professor, Architecture, CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture, J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures

  2023 Built Environment Jury Member

  Shawn L. Rickenbacker is a trained architect, urbanist and urban data researcher. He is currently the Director of the J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures where he directs the Center’s sponsored and partnership research and is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture. His research and work at the Bond Center confronts the complex urban intersection of spatial equity and the social and economic impacts of place-based policies, programs and design through the lens of urban data, forensic and design research. He’s served as Senior Research Fellow at the Phyllis M. Taylor Institute for Social Innovation, where he researched ‘Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Social Urbanism’, The Favrot Chair in Architecture at Tulane University, Gensler Distinguished Professor at Cornell University and Director of the Motorola Sponsored Future Interactions Lab at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Design. His work and research have been published in The New York Times, NY Daily News and Global Architecture, Wired and exhibited at Studio Museum of Harlem. Shawn holds a MArch with a Certificate in American Urbansim from the University of Virginia where he was the Dupont Scholar and a BArch from Syracuse University.

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  Adriana Young

  Design Research & Director, Programs, SVA MFA Interaction Design, School of Visual Arts

  2023 Built Environment Jury Member

  Adriana is a mother, design researcher, and educator based in NYC. She practices design research that focuses on elevating the voices and lived experiences of historically excluded and underrepresented peoples and communities. She works in the context of personal care, health, the built environment, digital products, and play. Previously, she supported the global design teams at Colgate-Palmolive to integrate co-design practices to make personal and oral care experiences more inclusive. She is a community advisor at 3x3, faculty and director of programs at SVA’s MFA in Interaction Design, and the homeschool teacher of her 9-year-old son, Rui, who is currently obsessed with dragons, kaiju, hobbits, and Buddhas.

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  Stuart Harvey Lee

  Founder, Prime Studio

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Captain

  Stuart Harvey Lee is the Founder of Prime Studio, a Product + Brand design consultancy based in NYC. He started his career as a Mechanical Engineer working in a steelworks before discovering his passion for Industrial Design whilst earning his Masters Degree at the Royal College of Art.
  
  He moved to New York in 1991 and cut his teeth working at both Smart Design and Able Design before founding Prime Studio in 1998. At Prime, Stuart is fortunate to work with a wide range of clients from global companies like Unilever and Bayer to startups like Harry’s and Welly. Most importantly he relishes designing products which make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.
  
  When he’s not designing Stuart can either be found challenging himself to ride the hills of the Hudson Valley on his favorite bike or desperately trying to cultivate his asparagus bed.

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  Dan Formosa, Ph.D

  Founder, ThinkActHuman

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Dan consults with companies worldwide on design and innovation. An early proponent of “design for all” (a.k.a. Inclusive Design), he also lectures internationally on research and the future of design. He is the recipient of numerous design awards and has appeared in several documentary films.
  Dan holds degrees in product design, ergonomics and biomechanics. He recently established ThinkActHuman, a consultancy named to reflect his goal, design for a better world. He also co-founded 4B Collective, focused on design and gender, and co-founded the Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
  In other work, he co-authored / co-illustrated the Baseball Field Guide, a bestselling book using principles of information design to explain the complex rules of baseball. He’s host of the successful YouTube series “Well Equipped,” produced by Epicurious for Condé Nast, critiquing in a less-than-serious way the usability of various odd kitchen gadgets.
  

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  Pepin Gelardi

  Co-Founder, Tomorrow Lab

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Pepin Gelardi works at the intersection of purpose and possibility, exploring the role of entrepreneurship and technology in solving future-facing problems. He has cultivated a skill set deep in idea development, user insights, concept visualization, form development, hardware prototyping, mechanism design and manufacturing.
  As a teenager, Pepin developed products for his family’s injection molding business. He holds a BSME from Columbia University, New York and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Industrial Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, Italy.
  
  He Co-founded Tomorrow Lab® in 2010 and leads the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering teams to invent and develop new, impactful hardware products. Prior to Tomorrow Lab®, he developed new CPG ideas, products, and brands at Fahrenheit 212 and Procter & Gamble.
  
  After hours, Pepin teaches workshops in design, creates costumes and toys with his twin children, and creates site-specific art with his wife Teresa.
  

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  Helen Maria Nugent

  Dean of Design, California College of the Arts (CCA)

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Helen Maria Nugent has been leading progressive innovation in art and design education for over 25 years. Currently, she is the Dean of Design at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco where she oversees 9 graduate and undergraduate design programs including an MBA in Design Strategy. She envisions the Design Division at CCA as a sanctuary for those with radical curiosity, where wonder and imagination are amplified through rigor and craft.
  Previously she was a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she founded the Designed Objects programs that cultivate a reciprocal relationship between products and humanity. In the way-back machine, she was the co-director of the transformative and aptly named, Workshop for Art Research and Practice (WARP), a radical foundation program for artists and designers at the University of Florida.
  
  Helen Maria is also the co-founder of Haelo Design, an interdisciplinary research-oriented design studio that is undertaking the transition from object design to strategic futuring.
  

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  Joshua Taylor

  CEO, Product EVO

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Josh Taylor is the CEO of Product EVO, a surfer dude, and a secret weapon for overwhelmed founders and product managers. He believes passion without good strategy is wasted energy. So he's on a mission to make successful products predictable and repeatable. His approach is to align the product development process with first principles for demand generation.
  
  Through Product EVO, Josh has helped develop hundreds of products and solved countless product development challenges along the way. He's created a curriculum for lean market research and product strategy for high-growth companies with limited time and resources.
  
  Outside of Product EVO, Josh is a landlocked surfer. He moves abroad with his family in the summers to chase waves during the big wave season in Central America. He is always looking for ways to expand his thinking about what is possible for his life and take massive action to live that way.
  

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  Sabina Weiss

  Designer and Researcher, Special Projects

  2023 Consumer Technology Jury Captain

  Sabina Weiss is an innovation designer focusing on products that help to channel meaningful experiences.
  
  Currently part of Special Projects, award winning innovation studio on a mission to enhance the unquantifiable aspects of life: empathy, wellbeing, delight, with meaningful design and invention.
  Working with brave companies to bring clarity to complex problems, discover new opportunities and transform them into tomorrow’s most loved customer experiences and products.
  
  Through her career, Sabina has contributed to several complex projects – strategically bringing to life brand values, physical and digital assets for companies: Google, Sony, Graphcore, Rolls-Royce, Hyundai Kia, Microsoft, Sabi and Fortnum and Mason.
  
  Sabina holds Innovation Design Engineering MA Royal College of Art / MSc Imperial College London; where her major project was a hybrid craft-technology interface that has received several accolades and exhibition features including Victoria and Albert Museum, Barbican Centre, and Somerset House.

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  Nishita Gill

  Founder & Creative Principal, Treemouse

  2023 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  Nishita Gill is the founder of Treemouse, an award-winning strategic consultancy that applies design-led problem-solving techniques to uncharted areas. Over a decade, they’ve been fundamental in scaling design to areas like building systems that help people feel comfortable about seeking treatment for virulent diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis C, building product feature sets that increase acceptance of digital applications, and enhancing ways to build more resilient and people-centric public systems that reach 1.3bn people in India.
  
  Nishita is passionate about adapting niche concepts and novel approaches for mass adoption and frequently advises startups on building feature-sets that scale. She lives in London and is always searching for the next best flavor of tea.
  

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  Will Howe

  Industrial Design Consultant

  2023 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  I am an independent industrial design consultant committed to bringing coherent vision and expert delivery to the development of hardware in connected and analogue spaces.
  Across different product scales, I’ve helped ambitious tech start-ups and some of the world's most prestigious brands, informing and elevating their business with robust strategic thinking and industrial craft.
  Notable outputs include high-profile civic projects such as the London Olympic Torch and the Elizabeth Line Train interior. I’ve explored future autonomous vehicle experiences with Honda, luxury consumer products with Axor Hansgrohe, and the world’s first fully integrated quantum computing system for scientific and commercial use - IBM Quantum System One.
  Most recently with Sky, I led the development of their core hardware proposition, culminating in the delivery of the Sky Glass streaming TV platform in 2021.

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  Christine Gaspar

  Community-Engaged Designer & Nonprofit Leader

  2023 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  Christine Gaspar is a designer and planner with over fifteen years of experience in community-engaged design practice. She was the Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) from 2009 to 2022. CUP is a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to use the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement in partnership with historically marginalized communities. Prior to that, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and community planning services to low-income communities of color recovering from Hurricane Katrina. She is a founding member of the Design Futures Student Leadership Forum Advisory Board, and holds Masters in Architecture and in Urban Planning from MIT, and Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Brown University. Her work is driven by a belief that design can be a powerful tool, particularly when it’s used to support community-led visions for change.

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  George Aye

  Co-founder, Greater Good Studio

  2023 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  George co-founded Greater Good Studio to use design to heal, to be just, to be restorative, Previously, he spent seven years at a global innovation firm before being hired as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. Since founding Greater Good he guides clients and teams through complex projects that honor reality, create ownership, and build power. He speaks frequently across the US and internationally. George holds the position of Full Professor (Adj) at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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  Mari Nakano

  Social Designer, Systems Strategist & Educator

  2023 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

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  Dan Lion

  Senior Director, Business Development + Sales, 3D, Shutterstock

  2023 Emerging Technologies Jury Captain

  A self-described “technology junkie”, Dan Lion works with major Brands to chart their transition into an immersive 3D future.
  
  Dan has held leadership roles with companies including Kodak, Autodesk, TurboSquid and Technicolor. He co-founded Creative Bridge, a digital location based post-production services business for feature film and television production. He currently serves on the management team for Shutterstock 3D.