DJN Member Feature: Rubina Singh and Bhawna Parmar

June 29, 2022 by Lydia Hooper in Member Stories

This month we are featuring members Rubina Singh & Bhawna Parmar. Bhawna and Rubina are the cofounders of Barabar Design, an Indian social design collaborative. Bhawna is a social designer, researcher and an artist with varied experience across disciplines trying to find meaning at the intersections of co-design, research and social justice. Rubina is a social designer and artist. Rubina trained in law as well as design, which shaped her journey in rights-based social justice work for the last ten years.

May 2022, Design Justice Newsletter

May 27, 2022 by Design Justice in Newsletter

Dear DJN Members, Signatories, and Friends,

This month we are excited to introduce and welcome a new working group to the network. You can learn a little more about the instructional design working group below and be sure to stay tuned for ways to get involved. We can't wait to see how things flourish. We also held an amazing Member Story Session with members Rene Benavides and Rachael Dietkus. The session began with presentations, flowed into a period of reflection and ended with a Q&A. A recording of this session can be found h ere and the prompts we moved through are included.

We have an exciting DJN connection this month. Victoria had a chance to travel to Colombia and along the way met some amazing communities, organizations and people that align with design justice work.

Remember that you can email us with pictures and stories about connecting with members. Whether you are meeting with your node members, co-facilitating workshops, or just gathering for fun we would love to share. Another exciting thing to check out is Member Story with David Thomas. This interview touches on the artistic approach to inclusive design, cognitive bias and some of the principles that he is sitting with.

The last thing we would like to share is that our principles are now available to view in Romanian. Here is a link to this link. We thank all of those that volunteered on these translations and those that have volunteered on past translations.

Principle Contributors: Irina Niculescu, Louisiana Stoica, Alexandra Bușilă, Andrei Gabriel Nicolae

We would love to hear everyone's reflections on social media using the hashtag #designjusticespotlight and/or on the member slack channel. Interested in translating the principles? The guidelines are posted here.

Taylor Simone and Victoria Barnett, International Network Coordinators, Design Justice Network, and the DJN Communications team!

Email: designjusticenetwork@gmail.com

Instagram: @designjusticenetwork

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designjusticenetwork

Twitter: @design__justice (double underscore)

Web: designjustice.org

DJN Member Feature: David Thomas

May 27, 2022 by Lydia Hooper in Member Stories

This month we are featuring member David Dylan Thomas. David is author of Design for Cognitive Bias, creator and host of The Cognitive Bias Podcast, and a twenty-year practitioner of content strategy and UX, has consulted major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. As the founder and CEO of David Dylan Thomas, LLC he offers workshops and presentations on inclusive design and the role of bias in making decisions. He has presented at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, Confab, An Event Apart, LavaCon, UX Copenhagen, Artifact, IA Conference, IxDA, Design and Content Conference, Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise, and the Wharton Web Conference on topics at the intersection of bias, design, and social justice.

DJN Member Feature: Kk Naimool

April 28, 2022 by Lydia Hooper in Member Stories

This month we are featuring member Kk Naimool. Co-founder and principal of Collective Justice Consulting, Kk is a writer, activist, and educator living in Beacon, NY where they currently serve on the city's Human Rights Commission. Kk is a queer, non-binary Indo-Caribbean transplant passionate about creating safer spaces for all. They are an avid advocate for equity and justice, predominantly in the areas of racial justice, gender justice and LGBT health equity. They have over two decades of experience in working with trauma impacted communities and developing curricula for collective healing. As a community organizer and pursuer of justice, Kk firmly believes that any meaningful change must include ALL of us and simultaneously hold space for our full selves. They currently serve in leadership roles in a number Queer AAPI collectives and racial justice collectives. As a former external auditor and trained accountant, Kk leverages their experience and knowledge to help growing organizations build in efficient processes and systems. Kk has helped nurture many grassroots collectives to formalize organizational structure and build internal capacity.

Quarterly DJN Pause! (April 10-16, 2022)

April 01, 2022 by Victoria Barnett in Seasonal Pauses

April 10-16, 2022, our Steering Committee team and staff will begin our first of 2022 DJN network seasonal pause. This is our first pause since launching our Mission, Vision and Intentions late last year withe the help of our DJN members. One of the ways we’re continuing to harness our collective energies for the work of design justice is by making intentional space for rest and wellness.

DJN Member Feature: René Benavides

March 26, 2022 by Lydia Hooper in Member Stories

This month we are featuring member René Benavides. René is the founder of Vision to Action (VTA) Collective, a designer with Design x Emergence (D4E) and an experienced leader, facilitator, and coach. René finds joy in coaching others and facilitating spaces where individuals and groups engage in radical forms of love, healing, and transformation. She holds a Masters in Social Work (MSW), a Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) and is a former school and systems leader in the non-profit and education sector. René is also a Healing Centered Engagement Practitioner, a former National Equity Project Leading for Equity Fellow, a former Stanford d.school School Retool Fellow, and is currently training in somatic methodology towards International Coach Federation (ICF) certification. In addition to being part of the Design Justice Network, René is also a member of the Latinx Center for Excellence in Behavioral Health and the Justice Teams (JTN) California Healers Network.

DJN Member Feature: Rachael Dietkus

February 25, 2022 by Lydia Hooper in Member Stories

This month we are featuring member Rachael Dietkus. Rachael Dietkus is an experienced senior-level licensed clinical social worker and trauma professional, systems thinker, design researcher, and strategist. Much of her current work draws from 20+ years of experience as a leader across serious and complex cause-driven health and human rights issues, local-to-federal-level housing advocacy, social work practice, and design education.

Rachael is a fierce advocate for integrating models of care and for thoughtfully and ethically including social (and other care) workers in design. She is the founder of Social Workers Who Design and works closely with designers worldwide to help build their trauma literacy and humility throughout the entire design research process.

Quarterly DJN Pause! (Dec 20, 2021 - Jan 2, 2022)

December 15, 2021 by Victoria Barnett in Seasonal Pauses

Dec 20, 2021 - Jan 2, 2022, our Steering Committee team and staff will begin our fourth DJN network seasonal pause. Our final Pause for 2021 is an extended one! As 2021 draws to a close, we are entering a mood of rest, reflection, and celebration. So much has happened this year, and we know that we have much more to do to build a world where many worlds can fit. One thing we know is that we are so thankful to be in community with all of you in the Design Justice Network!

DJN Member Feature: Michael (Mike) Harrington

November 26, 2021 by Victoria Barnett in Member Stories

This month, we would like to highlight and celebrate DJN Member, Michael Harrington. Mike is responsible for supporting the work of the Tishman Center by liaising with offices and departments throughout the university and implementing projects that advance The New School’s commitment to sustainability and environmental justice. Before joining the TEDC team, He worked at Elevate Energy, organizing around creating equity in the energy efficiency market; served as the chair of another environmental non-profit, the Delta Institute; and has helped manage an organic food bank garden for people with compromised immune systems. He also served on the associate board of the Green City Market, Chicago’s largest farmer’s market. He obtained his Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from The New School and has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in Psychology, with a specialization in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and was a 2019 Urban Design Forum Forefront Fellow and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Delta Institute, an environmental non-profit. Mike is a DJN member, and part of the DJN Communications Team! You can learn more about Mike Harrington by following him on Twitter @mrhansudo or Instagram @squalllionmonochrome.

This is an interview with Mike Harrington conducted by Lydia Hooper, both of whom are members of the Design Justice Network Communication Working group.

DJN Member Feature: Kirsten George

October 31, 2021 by Victoria Barnett in Member Stories

Kirsten George

Interior Designer and Educator

Lenape / Philadelphia, PA, USA

SHE/HER

“To me, design justice means understanding that every person has valuable insight and knowledge that not only deserves to be heard, but needs to be in order for successful design to be possible.”