Dr. Lesley Ann Noel has explored design opportunities all around the world, taking risks to find spaces and opportunities that she is passionate about, and making opportunities work for her. While she was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Noel has had opportunities to explore design around the world. She received training in industrial design in Brazil, was an adjunct and eventually full-time faculty member at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. She has also taught at Stanford University and North Carolina State University. She has a Master of Business Administration from the University of the West Indies, and she has a PhD in Design from North Carolina State University. At the time of this interview, in Fall 2019, Dr. Noel was a Professor of Practice and the Associate Director of Design Thinking for Social Impact at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking.  

Connect with Dr. Lesley Ann Noel: 

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Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking 

College of Design - North Carolina State University 

Dr. Laura Murphy is the Associate Director of Research and Scholarship at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University. She is also a professor in the Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences department teaching critical development theory at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Murphy has spearheaded several design thinking workshops and training classes during her time at Tulane, like the Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SISE) minor, SISE 2010 Design thinking course, SISE 4050 Senior seminar course, and the "Fast 48" Weekend bootcamp. Dr. Murphy is constantly thinking about her students and how she can better design a classroom that meets their needs and maximizes the opportunities for learning. 

Connect with Dr. Laura Murphy: 

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Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking 

Kareem Collie was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from the Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design in 2001, and he spent the next decade as an art director for clients including Nickelodeon, USA Network, Coca-Cola, Starwood, and Mercedes. From 2006 through 2011, he and his business partner launched and then ran the design studio Dimitrious II Inc. while he also taught graphic design at Pratt Institute through 2012. Kareem earned his MA in Culture and Communications in 2016 and is currently the User Experience Design Lead at IBM in Los Angeles, California. 

Connect with Kareem Collie: 

LinkedIn 

KareemCollie.com 

Professor Tsai Lu Liu is head of the Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design at North Carolina State University, where he and his students have been working on user research and product design projects for companies such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Johnson and Johnson, Lowes, Under Armour and more. Before teaching, Professor Liu managed new product/service design and marketing for 12 years in the toy, healthcare, gaming, semiconductor and communications industries. Professor Liu holds an MBA in marketing from Georgia State University and a Master of Industrial Design from Auburn University. 

Connect with Tsai Lu Liu: 

LinkedIn 

North Carolina State University College of Design 

Gisele Raulik Murphy is the Co-Founder and Partner at DUCO Design Intelligence based in Brazil. In March of this year, Gisele founded WIM Angels, which stands for Women Investment Movement, a network of angel investors that invests in high-impact startups founded by women in tech. Gisele is passionate about collaborative work that helps groups to co-create innovative solutions, particularly in the context of public policies and cultural change. Gisele has a PhD in public policy for design and innovation from the University of Wales and a Masters in Strategies for Design and Innovation from Brunel University. 

Connect with Gisele Raulik Murphy: 

LinkedIn 

WIM Angels  

DUCO  

Dr. Maille Faughnan is an instructor for the Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Minor Program at Tulane University and is a research fellow at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center. At the Taylor Center she also does community outreach programming and helps with the scholarship initiatives at the center. Dr. Faughnan has collaborated on local and international research projects, from New Orleans to Central America to East Africa, spanning topics like gender and social entrepreneurship, cultural development, design thinking for reproductive health, and the diffusion of design-thinking through capacity building.  

Connect with Dr. Maille Faughnan: 

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Phyllis M. Taylor Center  

"Develop empathy for others and make things tangible as fast as possible.” 

Glenn Fajardo is a design educator at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (also known as the Stanford d.school). He also curates TEDxPeacePlaza, has contributed to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and is an independent consultant working with nonprofits.  Glenn has been considered "the messy problems guy" as he has been the go-to person in his work to solve problems by using design and design thinking.   

Connect with Glenn Fajardo: 

LinkedIn 

Twitter: @muzzygator 

Julia Lang is the Assistant Director for Career Education at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center at Tulane University. She leads two major programs here: "Taylor your life" and the Changemaker Institute. Julia is all about teaching students to embrace a design thinking mindset towards your work and your life. A design thinking mindset has not only been used by Julia in her programs, but also in her life; showing just how design thinking can help designers and non-designers to re-examine and restructure your life.  

Connect with Julia Lang: 

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Phyllis M. Taylor Center   

"I think that just taking a little bit of time to understand just a bit more will change the outcomes that we have" 

Lorenzo Hodges has built a career using design methodologies and his own design aesthetic. While he may not have got to school for design, Lorenzo learned, practiced, and incorporated design into his work. Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Lorenzo is an innovation strategist and designer. Currently, Lorenzo is the Chief Executive Officer at Ferreira Optical Limited, and he is also the Founder and Managing Director of Plain White Table, Inc., the Business Development Manager at Teleios Systems Ltd., and the Founder and Managing Director of Circulate Life. Influenced by his upbringing in Trinidad and Tobago and his exposure to European and American design elements, Lorenzo's design aesthetic is uniquely his own.  

Connect with Lorenzo Hodges: 

LinkedIn