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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  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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  Diana Alcausin

  Associate Creative Director, WeTransfer Advertising Studio

  2021 Visual Communication Jury Member

  D Alcausin is the Associate Creative Director of the WeTransfer Advertising Studio.
  
  She leads a team of talented creatives who design award winning immersive, interactive digital ads viewed by a global audience of 60 million users a month. Collaborating with the world's leading brands, Diana oversees the advertising platform's evolution into a unique digital space at the forefront of creative innovation.
  
  With a grounding in commercial strategy, Diana bridges the gap between business and design with an approach that balances strategic creative execution with business goals.

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  Stephan Ango

  Co-founder, Lumi

  2021 Packaging Jury Member

  Stephan Ango is the co-founder of Lumi, the marketplace that helps brands find and work with packaging factories. Lumi enables seamless collaboration between brands and suppliers to deliver sustainable, memorable and cost-effective packaging.
  
  Stephan also hosts the Well Made podcast, highlighting the people and ideas that are shaping our patterns of consumption for the better.

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  Ashley Anson

  Senior Design Director of Advanced Concepts Apparel, Adidas

  2021 Sports & Recreation Jury Member

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  Lora Appleton

  Founder, kinder MODERN & Female Design Council

  2021 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Lora Appleton is a thought leader, celebrated designer, curator, gallerist and founder of kinder MODERN and Female Design Council. Leading the charge for womxn in design, she is working to shift the narrative away from “traditional” gender roles and family structures and towards womxn’s technical skills, artistry and professional merits.
  
  Appleton formed the Female Design Council as a direct response to the long history of imbalanced representation of gender in the design industry. FDC is dedicated to engaging equity and tangible gender parity in design. Appleton continues to focus her furniture and rug design efforts on thoughtful, practical and sustainable design in the family home. She serves on the NYCxDESIGN Steering Committee and is a Board Trustee at the Blue School in Manhattan.

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  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.

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  Veronica Becchetti

  Co-Founder & Head of Production, Wild One

  2021 Personal Accessory Jury Captain

  Veronica oversees all aspects of product innovation, manufacturing and production at Wild One. Prior to joining the Wild One team, Veronica served as Director of Production at S’well, after joining as the company's 8th employee in 2014. Previously, she worked in manufacturing and product development at Target, William E. Connor and Gap. Veronica has a BFA in Retail Merchandising and Management from the University of Wisconsin - Stout, and lives in the East Village where she’s the proud aunt to many dogs.

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  Liliana Becerra

  Founder, STUDIO LILIANA BECERRA Inc.

  2021 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  Liliana is the founder of STUDIO LILIANA BECERRA Inc. a firm advising global companies on strategic design foresight and advanced CMF Design. Clients include AT&T, Simple Human, Sonos, Nestle & Lenovo. Her latest book, CMF Design is the first publication about the professional discipline of color material and finish design. She also an editorial contributor to design publications including Viewpoint Design and Viewpoint Color. She is an adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design and formerly, she served as the Head of Design Insights at Nokia where she led global, multi-disciplinary teams, trend research initiatives and key design strategies.

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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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  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).

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  Jonathan Black

  Co-founder, The Office of Ordinary Things

  2021 Packaging Jury Member

  Jonathan Black (he/him) is the co-founder of The Office of Ordinary Things, a socially- and environmentally-conscious design studio based in San Francisco. Jonny is hellbent on making sustainable graphic design the industry norm and shakes his fist at greenwashers, climate deniers, and people who chew gum near his ears. Jonny has an MFA in Visual Communication and has taught at The University of Arizona and The University of Colorado Boulder. His work has been published in AIGA Eye On Design, Communication Arts, Creative Review, It's Nice That, Dezeen, Fast Company, and jonnyiscool420.tumblr.com.

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  Dr. Deepa Butoliya

  Assistant Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

  2021 Speculative Design Jury Captain

  Dr. Butoliya is a researcher and design educator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her research is located at the intersection of models of knowledge and critical thinking emerging from multiple and global perspectives. She researches critique in design from pluriversal perspectives- especially grassroots critical practices in design. She has a background in design and architecture with a career spanning 15 years in multiple roles as an industrial designer, researcher, and educator across two continents. She wants to help create a sustainable, equitable, and inclusive environment for societies with local awareness and a global vision.

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  Ricardo Camargo

  President / Creative Director, Vapor Studio

  2021 Sports & Recreation Jury Member

  I'm a creative director and strategist in the global brand space. I have over 20 years of experience, passion, and knowledge of consumer culture and a proven track record of growing iconic brands.

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  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.

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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.