Jury Alumni

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  Robert Pugliese

  Director of Innovation Design, Thomas Jefferson University

  2023 Health & Wellness Jury Captain

  Robert S. Pugliese is Director of Innovation Design at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health where he co-founded the Health Design Lab, a creative space built to merge design-studio ethos with science-oriented discipline to foster innovation in healthcare. As somebody who enjoys empowering people to be change-makers in healthcare, Rob leads programs that train learners to be health design thinkers and innovators. A Doctor of Pharmacy, Rob spent over ten years practicing and teaching Emergency Medicine. He believes that including both the patient and provider voice is vital to healthcare design. He brings these perspectives to his work through his experiences as a clinician and as a person/cyborg who relies on technology to manage his insulin-dependent diabetes. Rob has presented on the intersection of healthcare and design at national venues such as SXSW and Stanford MedX. During the pandemic, Rob has used his unique experience to lead public health response efforts in response to community needs for testing and vaccination. In his spare time, Rob produces a weekly podcast and enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters.

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  Gina Reimann

  Wearables Industrial Design Manager, Google

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  As Wearables Industrial Design Manager at Google, Gina leads a team making radically helpful products, bringing together the best of Google AI, software and hardware. Notable launches include Google’s headphone family and watch bands.
  
  Prior to Google, Gina has worked at the New York based innovation agency Redscout, Industrial Design agency Smart Design and Philips Design in The Netherlands.
  
  She’s designed for some of her favourite brands, including Nike, OXO, and Microsoft, and for which she has some fancy awards that decorate a shelf in her Santa Cruz Mountain home, where she lives with her wife and two cats.

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  Bryce Rutter

  Head of Consulting Services | UX, HF, ID, Noble Aptar Pharma

  2024 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Dr. Rutter is Head of Consulting Services for Nobel, and Aptar Pharma company. He is a worldwide expert in the research, ergonomics and design of handheld medical devices, products, and packaging. Aptar acquired Metaphase, a design consultancy specializing in research, human factors, and industrial design founded by Dr. Rutter in 1991. His leadership and vision has consistently delivered award-winning, innovative breakthrough designs for several of the world’s most prestigious and influential Fortune 500 brands having earned 120+ Global Design Excellence Awards, 115+ patents, 2 products included the Museum of Modern Art, several designs in the Chicago Athenaeum’s Good Design Museum Collection, 2 Edison Innovation Awards, and a Design of the Decade Award. Dr. Rutter has been profiled, an invited guest, and interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, CTV, IdeaCity, CityTV, The Chicago Tribune, The Ottawa Citizen, The Globe & Mail and Business 2.0. Dr Rutter holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Master Degree in Industrial Design and Ph.D. in Kinesiology, specializing in motor hand function, both from the University of Illinois.

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  Raja Schaar

  Program Director and Associate Professor of Product Design, Drexel University Product Design

  2022 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Raja Schaar, IDSA (she/her) is Director and Associate Professor of the Product Design Program at Drexel University Westphal Collage of Media Arts and Design. She co-chairs IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is the past Education Director for the organization. Raja studies the ethical implications of design and technology through the lenses of speculative design and climate change. Her current projects address biases maternal health through wearable technology and participatory design; community-based co-design for engaging black girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM/STEAM; and generating frameworks and tools to embed Afrofuturism, biomimicry, sustainability, and climate justice into Design praxis.

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  Julianna Schneider

  Usability & Human Factors Engineer, Bausch + Lomb

  2024 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Julianna Schneider is the lead Usability & Human Factors Engineer for the Bausch + Lomb Surgical product lines. She is an innovative engineer who is committed to developing intuitive, useful products for users. Having the ability to resonate with users, she prioritizes simplistic and meaningful designs. She leverages human centered design elements partnered with a risk based approach to ensure interfaces are optimized for users’ applications, and ultimately safe and effective for use. Harnessing her previous experience as a mechanical engineer, she frequently assesses design-related and use-related failures prior to product launch and creates solutions to mitigate these failures. Similarly, she understands the value input from multiple functionalities has and works cross functionally to ensure input is captured and incorporated into designs. She enjoys learning new things, meeting new people, and embracing challenges because they all bring growth - both personally and professionally.

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  Mike Simmons

  Director of Product Design, Playground Global

  2019 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Mike currently serves as Director of Product Design at Playground Global, which is a venture investment firm with an added studio of product development and technical experts. Here he blends his consulting, product design, and entrepreneurship experience to help aspiring hardware startup companies create great products and strong businesses. Prior to joining Playground, Mike worked for Google where he built a team and managed the product design and mechanical engineering efforts first with Android and the Nexus line of products and then adding projects with Chrome and Chromecast. Before that, Mike led product design efforts for startups, created new products and businesses at Lunar Design, and ran his own consulting practice. Through these experiences, he has helped develop products across industries and for many clients such as Apple, Danger, HP, Motorola, and SanDisk.
  
  Mike first realized his passion for designing and inventing products while earning his degree in the Product Design program at Stanford. He later went on to fuel his interest in business and entrepreneurship by obtaining an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Mike grew up in Montana, and he loves to return to his home state for skiing, fishing, and simply taking in the Big Sky.

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  Rachel Smith

  Founder & Designer, Design to Combat COVID19

  2023 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Rachel Smith is a Latinx Designer & Founder of Design to Combat COVID-19, a virtual community of creatives over 2,000 strong—who during the pandemic volunteered their skills and time to support underrepresented communities. By day, Rachel Smith is a Product Designer at Facebook, was formerly a Lead Mentor with The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and previously has worked with companies such as Nordstrom and The Home Depot. The rest of the time, the LA native works on a range of creative projects, both within her local and global communities.

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  Boriana Viljoen

  Senior Interaction Designer, Fitbit

  2022 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Boriana Viljoen is a hybrid UX/service designer with extensive experience in the wellness and health tech industry. Boriana utilizes a human-centered design approach to create experiences that aim to improve people’s lives. Based in San Francisco, CA, Boriana has a passion for displaying complex information in easy to grasp ways, simplifying complicated user interactions, and making digital products intuitive and appealing.

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  Lona Vincent

  Strategy & Innovation, Johnson & Johnson

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Member

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  Clay Wiedemann

  Head of Design, Zocdoc

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Clay has been working in design and research since late last century, having shifted over from film and cultural studies. He spent much of his early career at frog, working in interaction and design research. There, he focused on complex design systems, innovation methods, and prototyping, and taught prototyping at SVA's MFA in Interaction Design program.
  
  He left frog to build the interaction team at Smart Design, and spent many days in awe of the physical prototyping skills of the industrial design team.
  
  He now leads design at Zocdoc, a service that help people navigate tough healthcare choices by quickly connect them to the right care. He remains focused on user-centered design, and works to ensure that everyone at Zocdoc develops a deep understanding of the patients and providers they help. Throughout his design career he has rescued cats.

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  Bernie Wildner

  Director of Design, Amazon

  2019 Health & Wellness Jury Member

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  Stephanie Yung

  Design Director, Smart Design

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Captain

  As Design Director at Smart Design’s New York studio, Stephanie has led projects across the continuum of wellness products and services including: public health, pharmaceuticals, devices, personal care, fitness, and reproductive health. Her personal journey of redesigning the fertility treatment experience as a single woman to be more accessible to all—which she called Project Junior—garnered national attention and was featured in Fast Company and 99u.
  
  In her spare time, Stephanie has shared her expertise in strategic design innovation with audiences ranging from venture capitalists to government agencies; across topics including—designing for social impact, saving women from bad design, and inclusive design. Stephanie also serves on the Board of Advisors as the user-centered design expert for Simprints, a non-for-profit tech company hoping to close the identification gap of over 1 billion people in emerging countries.