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MASD Visiting Faculty

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MASD Visiting Faculty
In addition to core faculty and staff, MA in Social Design students learn from visiting faculty from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

View past and present MASD visiting faculty bios below.

MASD Visiting Faculty

Denise Shanté Brown

Denise Shanté Brown, MA (she/her) is a Holistic Design Strategist + Founding Director of Black Womxn Flourish. As a queer disabled entrepreneur, holistic design strategist and creative healer, Denise brings forth abundant possibilities for wellbeing with Black womxn through collaborative creativity and community-led practices. Her life's work integrates design as a liberatory tool for healing, health, justice and radical imagination. Throughout her design practice which began in 2012, Denise has deepened her experience in creating spaces for communities who are most impacted by systems of health injustice to design pathways for personal and collective wellbeing. Denise manifested Black Womxn Flourish in 2017 after receiving her Master's degree in Social Design and pioneering the first cohort experience of its kind, Design for the Wellbeing of Black Womxn, fall of that year. In 2019, she was invited to be a panelist at Harvard’s Black in Design conference, “Black Futurism: Creating a More Equitable Future” to share her work on creating spaces for wellness and joy. Her process and practice are grounded in design justice and healing justice principles, emergent strategy, nature, womanism, and the feminine economy.

Myra Margolin

Myra Margolin is a community psychologist with interests in the social structures and everyday choices that perpetuate inequity and white supremacy across generations, as well as the anatomy of social movements that have made meaningful and long-lasting change. Myra has worked as an educator in a range of settings, including many years in the field of youth media. She holds a BFA in film production from New York University and an MA in Community Psychology from the University of Illinois, and has taught with MASD since its inaugural year.

Annemarie Spitz

Annemarie Spitz is currently a principal at Public Design Bureau and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. She has led every stage of user-centered research and design, with an emphasis on creating new programs, strategies, and digital and analog tools. Her focus in the social sector is grounded by over 10 years of experience working with non-profit and community-based organizations, including 6+ years collaborating and growing with the team at Greater Good Studio in Chicago. Annemarie has a Bachelors in Architecture, with a focus in American Culture Studies, from Washington University in St. Louis. She then completed a Masters in Design for Sustainability at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where her work concentrated on design research, behavior change, and community facilitation.

Cecili Thompson Williams

Cecili Thompson Williams is the Executive Director of Beyond the Bomb, leading a team of kick-ass campaigners and activists to mobilize against the threat of nuclear war and weapons. She has nearly two decades of experience leading mission-driven campaigns with organizations including Amnesty International USA, RESULTS Educational Fund, and the National Partnership for Women & Families. Most recently she founded and served as the Chief Strategist for We Divine Water, a consulting group helping smart and passionate changemakers build strategic and effective campaigns. A strong believer in continually building power and capacity, Cecili has trained thousands of campaigners on how to maximize their impact within their organizations and in the world at large.

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