Ainsleigh is a Design Research & Experience Strategy consultant who is passionate about driving positive change through human-centered design. Curious and collaborative by nature, Ainsleigh is skilled at using participatory & foresight methods to help her clients transform and deliver impactful products and services. Prior to independent consulting, she spent 9 years immersed in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation in roles including marketing, community building, and product management. She is pursuing a MDes in Strategic Foresight & Innovation from OCAD University, and holds a BA in Media, Information & Technoculture from Western University. In her spare time, you’ll find her volunteering in her community, adventuring outdoors, and exploring her new home city of Montréal with her partner, Cam.

MRP Topic:
Building Together: Empowering Communities to Co-Create Urban Living

LinkedIn

Aimee Burnett is a design strategist and researcher developing and delivering growth structures for global brands, not-for-profits, and research institutes. She currently works at Accenture on their North American Innovation Consulting Team. Her research focuses on the future of work and emerging technologies that enable bottom-up innovation. During her time in the SFI program, she has conducted research for OCADU’s Visual Analytics Lab, and MIT Media Lab’s Poetic Justice Group.

MRP Topic:
Work For Stake: Reimagining Ownership & Work in the Emerging Internet

LinkedIn

A recent graduate from OCAD’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, Ashwini is driven by a desire to enhance people's lives through innovative and human-centric design solutions that foster meaningful experiences. She actively engages in critical discussions, seeks diverse perspectives, and advocates for underrepresented voices, aiming to contribute to a more equitable and inclusive society. Her work is dedicated to promoting social justice, decolonization, and sustainable practices. In her spare time, Ashwini enjoys watching thriller movies, savoring good food, and spending quality time with friends.

MRP Topic:
Building Resilience by Understanding Reasons for Collapse: A Study of Societal Futures

LinkedIn

Elizabeth (she/her) plays at the intersection of humans and technology as a Senior Product Manager. She focuses on ethically co-creating meaningful and useful digital products that solve real needs. As a soon-to-be graduate of OCAD Uʼs Master of Design, Strategic Foresight & Innovation program, she explores solving complex wicked problems through design, systems, and futures thinking to ensure a sustainable future for us all, including Planet Earth. With an educational background in the performing arts, she weaves storytelling and empathy throughout her work.

MRP Topic:
Investigating the possible futures of community driven by emerging digital technology and affected by community-centred design.

LinkedIn

Meet Emily Rho, a service designer and strategist dedicated to collaboratively driving systemic change for a kinder world. She is skilled in leading workshops, identifying strategic insights, and using compelling storytelling to effect change. Emily is an entrepreneur at heart who enjoys generating fresh ideas and collaborating with diverse teams to bring them to life. She holds a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University and a Master of Music from the University of Toronto. In 2020, Emily's community-building initiative, Pocket Concerts, earned her a feature on Global TV's Making a Difference. She lives in Toronto with her partner Rory and their two pet rabbits, Judy and Curtis.

MRP Topic:
Building Together: Empowering Communities to Co-Create Urban Living

LinkedIn

Joy is a Senior Service Designer at Diriyah Gate Development Authority in Saudi Arabia. With a background as a Researcher and Design Consultant, Joy offers valuable insights while employing an empathetic approach to her work. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from OCAD University, which ignited her passion for continuous learning and motivated her to explore diverse avenues for personal and professional growth. In her leisure time, Joy finds inspiration in culinary experimentation, particularly through baking. Joy strives to make a meaningful impact in the design industry by enhancing user experiences and fostering a culture of creativity and innovation.

MRP Topic:
Building Together: Empowering Communities to Co-Create Urban Living

LinkedIn

Greg is your classic “T-shaped designer,” with a focus in visual/ graphic design and plenty of experience in design research, user experience, design thinking, and foresight. An American expat, he spent time as a visual designer in the Silicon Valley before moving to Toronto. Greg’s master’s research project was built upon his experience across a number of design fields as a freelancer and his time working in and learning design.

Greg received a Bachelor of Global Business and Digital Arts degree from the University of Waterloo’s Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business in 2020, as well as a Master of Design degree in Strategic Foresight & Innovation from OCADU in 2023.

MRP Topic:
Unlearning Design: Creating a More Equitable and Ethical Design Culture

LinkedIn
Portfolio

Indranil Udupi is a seasoned strategist, innovation specialist, and researcher, with an eight-year career spanning diverse roles and industries. Having lived in multiple countries, Indranil has developed a deep appreciation for empathy, curiosity, and the value of human connections, which forms the foundations of his professional values. His non-linear yet deliberate career pathway is a testament to his pursuit of growth and impactful work.

As a mechanical engineer, Indranil's structured approach to problem-solving has been enhanced by his recent Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. Indranil's experience includes roles in service innovation, design strategy, and business consulting, with entities like the IRCC and Georgian College. As a social enterprise advisor, he also works with businesses driving social impact within the spheres of food sustainability and circularity. Today, Indranil's driving purpose is to create sustainable products, services, and businesses at the intersection of growing human needs and evolving ecosystems.

MRP Topic:
What's the big ick?

LinkedIn

Iris just finished her MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation, using participatory methods to investigate the systems and behaviors of the medical device development space.

MRP Topic:
Not a failed version of normal.

LinkedIn

Janine is a purpose-driven human-centred designer with an insatiable thirst for improving systems. Holding a MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation, she combines design thinking with real-world experience to propose insightful new ways of doing. With a strong foundation as a visual communicator, she is skilled at unpacking complex problems, connecting the dots, and weaving narratives to further understanding and foster change.

MRP Topic:
The Future for Frontline Retail Employees: Exploring the Intersection of Employee-driven Innovation and Technology Integration

LinkedIn

Javier defines himself as a curious, proactive, and creative consultant who believes in conducting solid research and applying holistic approaches to finding practical, innovative solutions to complex problems. With over 12 years of professional experience, Javier has excelled in designing successful strategic plans to support organizations thriving in challenging contexts and preparing future-oriented strategic plans.

Javier's career began as a lawyer specializing in business and corporate law, where he provided external consultancy services to organizations across various industries. After a few years, he transitioned to internal strategic consultant roles, embarking on an international career working with leading organizations in different Latin American countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil.

Before coming to the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD, Javier also did a master's in international economic law and a master's in business administration.

MRP Topic:
The Futures of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) by 2043 in Canada, and the Potential Implications on Large and Public Companies.

LinkedIn

Kassie Miedema is a Design and Foresight Researcher at the Archipelago of Design and a recent graduate of the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD. Throughout her career, Kassie has explored ways to leverage creativity and design to help others. She is also committed to incorporating justice, equity, and decolonization practices in her work. Before she started working in the defence and security space, Kassie worked in architecture firms with a focus on sustainability and innovation. She continues to research urban agriculture on the side and has published the article, “Grow small, think big: designing a local food system for London, Ontario.” She studied architecture at the University of Waterloo before pursuing her MDes at OCAD University. Kassie grew up near London, Ontario and currently lives in Toronto.

MRP Topic:
Building Resilience by Understanding Reasons for Collapse: A Study of Societal Futures

LinkedIn

Kendra is a creative marketer and strategic designer who seeks to apply human-centered design principles to better organizations. In her research within the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, and in her experience over the past nine years in higher education, she desires to present creative solutions to complex problems through futures thinking, innovation strategy, and design thinking practices. She is passionate about her community, exploring the way people inhabit their cities and neighbourhoods as a fellow at Good City Co.

MRP Topic:
Classrooms for Resilience

LinkedIn

Matthew Jacula is an award-winning designer who has considerable experience working with startups, not-for-profits, and multinational organizations. His journey has led him in search of more meaningful work that has a bigger impact on the greater community. Recently, Matthew has focused his efforts working with organizations including eCampus Ontario and Policy Horizons Canada, where he has taken on foresight roles.

Matthew is driven by his passion for creating equitable communities and promoting sustainable development. He believes that every individual should have access to the resources and support they need to thrive. This commitment is evident in aspects of Matthew’s work, and he strives to use design as a tool for positive change.

MRP Topic:
What's the big ick?

LinkedIn

Nafeha has always been curious about the way the world works. Her background in design management, communication, change management, and facilitative leadership has given her many opportunities to bring her interdisciplinary knowledge to action.

Her journey within SFI has helped her expand her interests to futures thinking and foresight, co- design, systems thinking and its strategic applications, and urban design practices. SFI also helped Nafeha step out of her comfort zone to explore areas of policy work and design research that she is pretty keen to delve into further.

Nafeha is excited to take her many perspectives on collaborative and creative problem-solving to create a meaningful impact wherever she goes.

MRP Topic:
microMACRO: An Exploration of Regenerative Placemaking with local communities for transformative change

LinkedIn

Rhea is a design strategist based in Toronto with a master's degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD-U. With five years of experience in user experience design and strategic design research, she possesses a deep understanding of empathetic design for users in finance and social innovation sectors. Her passions lie at the convergence of participatory design, social innovation, and experience design and loves to collaborate in Agile environments with cross-functional teams. She advocates for a shift from ‘business-centered design for customers’ to ‘human-centered design for businesses’, with a focus on finding equitable opportunities that have sustainable impacts on both clients and their customers. Her expertise lies in crafting research methods that improve understanding in collaboration with clients to enhance insights and develop long-term strategic solutions.

MRP Topic:
The Future for Frontline Retail Employees: Exploring the Intersection of Employee-driven Innovation and Technology Integration

LinkedIn

Rimaz is an aspiring jack of many trades. He is a curious and versatile individual with a passion for exploring multiple domains, and pushing the boundaries of creativity and problem-solving.

In the pursuit of experimentation and disruption, he swears by his tendency to go on tangents, intersections, parallels, adjacents, and spirals.

His diverse interests have led him to pursue multidisciplinary paths that encompasses various fields, including futures thinking, speculative design, foresight, participatory design, digital art, design research, systemic design, urbanism, service design, and spatial strategy.

He aims to make a significant contribution in whatever path he chooses to pursue and is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate with like-minded individuals and organizations. Feel free to reach out to him on LinkedIn for a chat.

MRP Topic:
microMACRO: An Exploration of Regenerative Placemaking with local communities for transformative change

LinkedIn

Shreya is a passionate Design Strategist on a mission to unlock the transformative potential of human behaviour, design, and technology. With a Bachelor's degree in Engineering and a background in business development for India's tech start-up sector, she embarked on an inspiring journey, earning dual Master's degrees in Strategic Foresight Innovation and Human-Centered Design.

Infused with a deep love for design and innovation, Shreya's expertise encompasses service design, systems thinking, strategic foresight, design thinking, and user experience research. She is dedicated to creating extraordinary customer experiences that resonate with diverse futures, always guided by a commitment to responsible innovation, inclusive futures, and decolonizing design.

If you're seeking a visionary partner who can bring your ideas to life and craft meaningful connections, connect with Shreya on LinkedIn. She is always up for a chat and ready to explore opportunities together.

MRP Topic:
Unmasking Power: Alternative Futures for Empowering Our Digital Identities

LinkedIn

Sumona is a researcher, designer and innovator in the field of cyber-psychology, looking to collaborate and build innovative systems of education, well-being and ethical technology. She is fascinated by the impacts of exponential technologies on human cognition, well-being and social connection. She aims to use foresight, systems frameworks and design thinking to develop products that help build critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience in our current and future generations.

MRP Topic:
Future of Well-being: The Metaverse Era

LinkedIn
Portfolio

Thomas Changarathil is an Innovation Strategist who strives to empower individuals and organizations to unlock their innovation potential with design and systems thinking tools, foresight, and collaborative strategy development. He recently completed a major research project on the use of AI to enable more resilient and secure food systems in Canada. This project leveraged an expert-informed 3 Horizons workshop to generate a collaborative vision for future Canadian food systems and to identify strategic intervention points for AI to enable more circularity in our current food systems. The co-visioned future informed the development of a framework, LASERRS (Localism, Accessibility, Sustainability, & Ethics for Resilience, Regeneration, and Security), which aligns new core values with desired outcomes for future food systems.

MRP Topic:
AI & Food Systems: The Future of the Canadian Economy

LinkedIn