Jury Alumni

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  Pickett Slater Harrington

  Faculty, Masters of Arts in Social Design, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)

  2022 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  Pickett has spent his career igniting social change. He is the founder and managing principal at Joltage, a social change design firm that champions innovative solutions to social challenges, and serves as full-time faculty in the Master of Arts in Social Design (MASD) at the Maryland Institute of Art (MICA).
  
  Pickett has deep experience connecting and working with communities, for profit businesses, nonprofit institutions and government partners to address complex, systemic social issues.
  
  Pickett holds a Master in Social Work, with a concentration in organizations and communities, from the University of South Carolina. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife and two kids and enjoys woodworking, sailing and sci-fi.

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  Joe Speicher

  Executive Director, AutoDesk Foundation

  2017 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  Joe Speicher is the Executive Director of the Autodesk Foundation. Under his leadership, the Foundation supports the people and organizations designing and engineering high-impact solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Prior to joining Autodesk, Speicher was on the founding team of Living Goods, where he spent six years leading operations for the global health organization. He began his career in the banking and finance sector, working with Deutsche Bank and Cambridge Associates. He then spent three years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and has worked as a consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the World Bank and Google.org. He earned a Masters degree in Development Economics from Columbia University and holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Washington and Lee University.

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  Marquise Stillwell

  Founder and Principal, openbox

  2019 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

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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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  John Thackara

  Director, The Doors of Perception

  2015 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  For thirty years, John Thackara has traveled the world in his search of stories about the practical steps taken by communities to realize a sustainable future. He writes about these stories online and in books; he uses them in talks for cities and business; he also organizes festivals and events that bring the subjects of these stories together.John is the author of a widely-read blog atdesignobserver.comand of the best-sellingIn the Bubble: Designing In A Complex World (MIT Press) û also translated into nine languages. As director ofdoorsofperception.com, John organizes conferences and festivals in which social innovators share knowledge.John is a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, in London, and a Fellow of The Young Foundation, the UK's social enterprise incubator. He sits on the advisory boards of the Pixelache Festival in Helsinki, the Future Perfect festival in Sweden, and Design Impact in India. He is also a member of the UK Parliament's Standing Commission on Design.Earlier, John edited the magazine Design for five years, and was later Modern Culture Editor of Harpers & Queen, and design correspondent of The Guardian. He then started a conference and exhibition company ,with offices in London and Tokyo, which created and organised events at the Pompidou Centre, Victoria & Albert Museum, Axis Gallery in Tokyo, and other venues. From 1989-1992, John was Director of Research at the Royal College of Art.Among John's 12 books are Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object (1987) andLost in Space: A Traveller's tale (1995). He has lectured in more than forty countries.

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  Dr. Mathilda Tham

  Design Professor, Linnaeus University

  2015 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Dr Mathilda Tham's work sits in a positive, activist space between design, futures studies and sustainability. Her research explores how design can intervene at the level of paradigms to support futures of sustainability. She uses design research as activism by staging and facilitating participatory and interdisciplinary workshops for critical and creative envisioning. Mathilda's current research themes include metadesign, post-growth fashion, peace, and gender.As Professor in Design, Linnaeus University, Sweden, she leads the development of a new research platform Curious Design Change. She is a member of the board of Mistra (The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Sweden). Mathilda Tham is a metadesign researcher, co-convenor of MA Design Futures and Metadesign, and PhD supervisor at Goldsmiths, University of London. Mathilda's latest publication Routledge Handbook for Sustainability and Fashion, co-edited with Kate Fletcher, is now out.

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  Deanna Van Buren

  Co-Founder, Designing Justice Designing Spaces

  2017 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Deanna is the co-founder of Designing Justice Designing Spaces, a nonprofit harnessing the power of design and development to transform people and communities. After starting her first company in 2011 she became a national leader in formulating and advocating for restorative justice centers, a radical transformation of justice architecture. Her passion for exploring the intersection of design and culture has been fueled by her work as a design lead on urban design, institutional and education projects in the bay area, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Recent projects with DJDS include the Syracuse Peacemaking Center in New York and Restore, a multi-use hub for restorative justice and work force development in east Oakland. Deanna is currently conducting the first design studios with incarcerated students, and is a recent awardee of the Rauschenberg Artist as Activist grant to develop a prototype mobile resource village. Deanna received her BS in Architecture from the University of Virginia, M. Arch from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

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  Kotchakorn Voraakhom

  Founder and CEO, Porous City Network

  2020 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a landscape architect from Thailand who works on building productive green public spaces that tackle climate change in urban dense areas and vulnerable communities. She created the first critical green infrastructure for Bangkok, the Chulalongkorn Centenary Park, and is currently planning the opening of a 36-acre urban farm rooftop featuring the biggest urban farming green roof in Asia.
  
  Voraakhom was featured in the 2019 “TIME 100 Next” list as one of 15 leading women fighting against climate change and the “Green 30 for 2020” by Bloomberg. She is Chairwoman on the Landscape Architects Without Borders working group of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Asia Pacific Region (IFLA APR).
  
  Voraakhom received her Master's in landscape architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Currently she is also a TED Fellow and an Echoing Green Fellow.

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  Gill Wildman

  Co-Founder and Director, Plot Studio

  2015 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Gill has pioneered the use of design in strategy and innovation for 20 years. She was educated as a designer at Manchester Metropolitan University; has an MA in Design Innovation and Strategy from Brunel University; and recently held Carnegie Mellon School of Design's Nierenberg Chair for 2 years.Her early career was as a researcher and developer of public services in play, youth and social action contexts. This used a people-centered practice of connecting local needs, networks and agencies called the community development approach.She created the design strategy agency Plot in 2004 after four years as a Design Manager at the UK Design Council. Plot has provided innovation labs, workshops and consultancy for a wide variety of public, private and third sector clients at different stages of their lifecycle.Right now, Gill's attention is focused on Upstarter the nomadic design-led incubator she has founded. It's mission is to stimulate embryonic enterprises using strategic design thinking, innovation and design methods. The Upstarter programme is active with partners in London, Bristol and Barcelona, and helps bring a mix of social, commercial and creative industry startups to life.