It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Farrah Bostic is a champion of empathetic, co-creative, and collaborative strategy, design, and research. Her focus is on helping business leaders make big decisions, with research as an essential tool for facilitating decision-making, advocating for the customer, and delivering audience insight that field great storytelling.
She was a Group Planning Director at Digitas, led the consumer immersion practice at Ipsos/OTX, led the innovation practice at Hall & Partners, and developed her skills as a strategist at Mad Dogs & Englishmen/Mad Logic and TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles.
In 2011 she founded The Difference Engine, where she works with clients across business-to-business and business-to-consumer categories including JetBlue, HarperCollins, eBay, AARP, Google, the Financial Times, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PRX, New York Public Media, The US Soccer Federation, IHG, Citibank, and Dow Jones Media Group. She is also an advisor to twofivesix, a content agency focused on gamers as customers and gaming as a channel, where she mentors and leads a team of strategists and researchers with clients including Intel, Sansar, Soundcloud, and others.
Raquel Breternitz is an award-winning design leader + strategist with a resume spanning service with the USCIS and as Elizabeth Warren’s Design Director to private sector credits at the New York Times, Pivotal Labs, and IBM. She has also spoken at Lesbians Who Tech, PluralSightLIVE, Wonder Women in Tech, and O'Reilly Design.
Raquel’s work and speaking topics are connected by a passion for accessibility and inclusion, research-driven design thinking, and a hunger for tackling complex and challenging problems. She believes in strong, empathetic leadership for empowered, creative design teams. Outside of her day job, she loves to write, illustrate, make comics, and take pictures of her cat.
Sarah leads a Strategic Foresight practice within IBM design. Her 20+ years of research and practice center on the personal and organizational capabilities individuals and teams need to confidently navigate uncertainty, imagine, and work toward regenerative and equitable futures. She is an intrapreneur who has operationalized design education and practice across enterprise, startup, non-profit, Federal Government, and community contexts. She lives by the ocean in Montauk, New York with her husband Freddie and their dog, Juno.
For more than 17 years, Alexis has held a multitude of roles within the design and architecture industry, spanning editorial writing for a home and garden publication, marketing, consulting and client relations. Currently, Alexis serves as Senior Manager at the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative, which was initiated in 2021 to foster systemic change by increasing diversity and improving conditions for Black creatives across the design industry. DID is a group of companies united by a common belief in the critical role that diversity plays in creating strong, impactful businesses and innovations in the design world and beyond. Alexis lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs, and is passionate about sustainability, supporting local businesses, and empowering youth.
Adriana is co-founder and CEO at Lilu. She has a Masters in Integrated Product Design from UPenn and a BSc from MIT in Mathematics and Computer Science. Prior to Lilu she worked at Morgan Stanley's Liquidity Risk software team. She was named one of the top 30 Femtech Healthcare Influencers in 2019 and has won awards such as the SheKnows BlogHer competition (2019) and the AlphaLabGear Hardware cup (2018). She has represented Lilu at SXSW, TechCrunch Battlefield, and PitcHer at GraceHopper, and she's inventor of the Lilu Massage Bra, which was recognized as Philadelphia’s invention of the year in 2019 In her spare time Adriana loves to run, cycle and attempting to snowboard.
Jeremy Cai was born and raised in Illinois where his entrepreneurial streak began while operating a lending business at his middle school lunch table. Jeremy studied at Babson College before dropping out as an early member of the Thiel Fellowship to pursue a career in technology. Since then, Jeremy has brought many successful companies to life, including Fountain, a leading software platform that businesses such as Uber and Amazon use to hire millions of people each year, Not Pot, a cult-favorite wellness brand, and Tonari , a Japanese anime
studio.
In his current role as CEO of Italic, Jeremy oversees global strategy and culture.
Michael Correy is an Associate Director, Creative Strategy at Code and Theory where he applies human centered research and design methodologies to uncover challenges and create thoughtful, engaging experiences.
In a previous life, Michael was a Principal Designer at Chicago based design agency IA Collaborative.
Michael originally hails from Indianapolis but currently lives in Brooklyn. He truly is a believer that immersive and empathetic research is vital to strategic, equitable and impactful design solutions. If you happen to ever encounter him in the flesh, start the conversation off with the Muppets, basketball, or 90s R&B music.
Aaron Day is an experience designer with 23 years of work in sound, vibration and environmental design. He collaborates with strategists, product owners, engineers, designers and artists from around the globe. In 2017 he co-authored a book called Designing with Sound 2018, O’Reilly Media, Inc and is interested in art, music, programming and digital ledger technology.
Aaron has worked across the planet for many different clients in different industries including: Audi, AT&T, BMW, Bruel & Kjaer, Ferrari, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, McLaren, Mozilla, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, Telefónica, Nike, Vodafone and Vision3. Currently he owns and operates Kaidan OÜ, delivering consulting and design to international clients.
Master of Science in Economics and International Markets with 10+ years experience in managing innovative projects in automotive, mobility solutions and new technology fields in multinational and in startups contexts.
Passionate about new technologies, always curious towards future developments, focusing the attention on society change and impacts on people.
In free time, photographer for hobby, enthusiast bike-rider and a no-stop traveler.
Desmond Dickerson is Director, Future of Work at Microsoft. He studies trends and market forces to help people understand how work is changing and what is required for them to adapt and thrive in this new world.
Rachael is the founder of Social Workers Who Design and speaks publicly about, educates on, and advocates for greater awareness to the value of social work in design, as well as responsible and respectful trauma responsive, healing focused, and care centered design practices and research. Her current work draws from north of 20 years of experience across serious and complex cause-driven social justice issues in health and human rights, student rights advocacy, housing and homelessness services, and teaching and program management at the intersection of social work, social impact, and design in higher education.
Robyn is a mindful creative leader and intentional mentor, working in advertising, content and editorial. She has concepted and directed global campaigns, launched and reimagined brands, and managed creative teams worldwide. With a focus on beauty and fashion, she’s worked with some of the most loved brands, agencies and startups, both in-house and as a consultant. A widely published writer on travel, trends, fashion, beauty, and badass women, Robyn is a public speaker on women’s empowerment and has taught courses in feminist theory, media and contemporary fashion studies at NYU, Hunter College and Hobart & William Smith Colleges. Based in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and their dogs, Princess and Frank.