Design + Research Mentors in the 2023 Responsible Tech Mentorship Program
This year we’re joined by 115 volunteer mentors and 375 mentees from nearly 35 countries. Mentors work at startups, non-profits, in government, at large companies, and even run their own organizations. Many of our mentors are returning for a second time, and some have been with us since the very first cohort in 2021.
Mentorship pods have been divided into subgroups by speciality, and here you’ll find a list of all the mentors in UX Research, UX Design, Accessible Design & Human-Centered Design, and Research.
UX Research, UX Design, Accessible Design, and Research more broadly, have emerged as a vital nexus driving innovation. UX Research delves deep into user behaviors and preferences, unearthing valuable insights that inform the UX Design process. Collaborating closely with UX Designers, researchers translate these insights into intuitive interfaces and engaging experiences, placing the user at the core. This synergy is heightened by Accessible Design, which ensures inclusivity for users of all abilities, promoting empathy and equity. Meanwhile, the principles of Human-Centered Design guide this entire endeavor, emphasizing iterative prototyping and constant user feedback loops to refine technological solutions that cater precisely to user needs.
Read about the mentors leading this charge in 2023 for All Tech Is Human (listed in alphabetical order):
David Bill
UX Design, Accessible & Human-Centered Design
David Bill is a senior UX designer at Amazon focusing on internal developer tools. David started his career as a world history teacher and became a service and UX designer. He has spent his career navigating complex systems and designing responsible solutions in education, federal government, and large private enterprise. David was trained in historical research, design strategy, and interaction design. That background led him to the intersection of history, human behavior, societal change, and the role of technology. Currently, he is exploring the lessons societies tend to not learn or unlearn, the technologies and systems we design, and what we can do to be a more responsible species.
Megan Blocker
Research
Megan founded McKinsey’s design research & insights practice, establishing and growing a team of one to more than 50 researchers, data analysts, and data scientists globally. As part of that transformation, she built the design research talent architecture and established McKinsey’s design research philosophy, operations, and tooling. In addition, Megan is deeply passionate about equity and inclusion. She co-founded McKinsey's Women in Tech initiative and was a member of the DE&I global leadership team.
In her work as a researcher, Megan combines empathy with data to achieve deep understanding, craft inspirational vision, and deliver actionable insight. As a leader, she makes sense of ambiguity and thrives when building and leading teams where trust, transparency, and clarity of vision encourage risk-taking, innovation, and creativity. Most of all, she loves building something new and scrappy, then strategically operationalizing it for scale. She invests in people, Post-Its, insights, and LEGOs.
Cennydd Bowles
Interaction Design
Cennydd Bowles is an interaction designer and ethicist. He is a principal technology adviser at the ICO, author of Future Ethics, and a visiting lecturer at the RCA and Manchester Met. Cennydd’s views on the ethics of technology and design have been quoted by Forbes, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal. He has spoken on responsible innovation at Facebook, Stanford University, and Google, and is currently studying practical ethics at the University of Oxford.
Laure Cast
UX Research
Laure X Cast is the founder of GetWith, working on the problem of belonging and community. They are interested in building technology that supports our human needs for real connection and reduces dominance and extractive tech models. Laure has been part of the ‘responsible tech’ movement for a number of years, including as a board member of the Prosocial Design Network, a member of Aspen Institute’s Virtually Human working group, and a speaker at the Action Forum to End Social Isolation and Loneliness. Laure spends most of their time understanding systems around people and technology and designing a new approach, as well as helping other companies as a consultant around product-customer discovery. Prior to founding GetWith, Laure was the Head of Research at Marco Polo, and also had experience in product management, product marketing, independent film and documentary distribution and production, and non-profit work (and running a record store) earlier in their career. They’ve been a speaker at SXSW, Grace Hopper Celebration, Mind the Product Leadership Forum, ProductCamp Cascadia, and others.
Arielle Cerini
Research
Gabe Freeman
UX Research
Gabe Freeman (he/him) is a strategic user experience (UX) researcher based in Oakland, CA. He has worked in responsible tech for the last 3 years — most recently at Meta on their Responsibility & Privacy, Monetization team and before that on their Responsible Innovation team. There, he tackled wicked problems regarding the impact of technology on a global scale. He has a background in enterprise-level software and cognitive science.
Gabe is a returning mentor in the All Tech Is Human’s mentorship program, and participated as a mentee in their first cohort. He supports mentees navigating tricky career transitions (from school to business, from one industry to another, from contractor to full-time) through guided conversations around values, priorities, and trade-offs.
Greg Fitzpatrick
UX Research
I'm a UX researcher and communications strategist with more than 20 years of experience creating and managing content and digital products for nonprofits, government agencies, and global corporations. I've worn many hats in my career, including television and radio producer, social media strategist, brand manager, writer, editor, communications advisor, product manager, and UX researcher.
Shivani Gupta
Accessible & Human-Centered Design
Shivani is the Lead Behavior Architect at Fractal Dimension - the executive, cross-functional strategic unit at Fractal Analytics. She works at the intersection of Data, Engineering, Design & Behavioral Science for a diverse set of international clients with projects ranging from: reducing churn for a streaming service in the UK, developing the launch strategy for a cereal product for a leading CPG brand in the US, reducing biases in equity investor decision-making for an Indian fintech startup, to building coping mechanisms for survivors of sexual assault in a rural Indian village. Having applied her expertise across geographies, cultural contexts, sectors and problem statements, she firmly believes that the integration of these seemingly divergent practices afford greater value than any of them can deliver individually.
Lydia Hooper
Accessible & Human-Centered Design
Lydia Hooper is a hybrid design leader with expertise in thinking strategically, collaborating cross-functionally, and helping people navigate complexity. Rooted in a cross-disciplinary background, she has catalyzed transformational changes for dozens of social impact organizations over the past decade. Lydia is a leader in inclusive, trauma-informed design who regularly contributes to several related communities of practice. She has spoken at numerous events including Inclusive Design 24, and contributes to many publications including Data Visualization Society’s Nightingale. Lydia currently works with the Department of Veteran Affairs as a Senior UX Designer/Researcher at Agile Six Applications and serves on the board of directors at The Center for Trauma and Resilience. You can follow her on LinkedIn and learn more at lydiahooper.com.
Alexis Oh
Product Design
Impact driven and evidence based, Alexis is a Product Designer focused on the intersection of equity and climate. She leverages her architectural background to identify system patterns and their impact on digital and spatial experiences, to enable problem-solving at scale. Alexis has designed digital products across different sectors centered on missions of inclusion and safety. Currently, she is focused on designing a better life at home for people and the planet at IKEA.
Aidan Peppin
Research
Lauren Quigley
Research
Ava Sazanami
UX Research
Skyler Schain
Accessible & Human-Centered Design
Madison Snider
Research
Madison Snider is a Research Fellow at Siegel Family Endowment, a grant making organization that aims to understand and shape the impact of technology on society. Madison received her PhD in Communication from the University of Washington. Her research intersects science and technology studies, labor studies, and critical infrastructure studies. In her role, she works to build bridges and cultivate collaboration among those interested in building just physical, social, and digital infrastructures.
Find Madison Snider on LinkedIn
Vicky Tamaru
Accessible & Human-Centered Design