Self-proclaimed sociology-nerd-turned-designer Lauren Weinstein ’10 spends her days tackling what she calls “big, knotty social issues” for the design nonprofit IDEO.org. Most recently, she’s worked with adolescents living with HIV in Mozambique to help them embrace and stick with treatment plans.
For this project, IDEO.org partnered with ICAP at Columbia University to co-design, with young people, a program whose goal, she says, “was to put health and hope at the center by tackling community stigma, medical misconceptions and lack of belonging in the already tumultuous journey of adolescence. Most projects take a similar approach — spending time with a community, doing research, prototyping solutions, then working with a partner to implement them. What underpins all of our work is the belief that people are at the center of everything we do.”
Weinstein joined IDEO.org in June — a creative professional journey that began in her first-year sociology class with Professor Elizabeth Durden. Service-learning trips to Nicaragua with the Bucknell Brigade ignited her interest in on-the-ground social change. Earning her master’s in social design from the Maryland College Institute of Art provided further grounding for her move into social innovation.
Weinstein previously worked for social innovation firms such as Reboot and The Australian Center for Social Innovation; she is also the co-founder of The Residency, a collective for individuals interested in change design — a people-driven method of problem solving that relies on innovation and multidisciplinarity.
“Listen to the people who are experiencing the issue firsthand,” Weinstein says. “They’re the experts in their own lives. Our role as human-centered designers is to help turn their hopes and dreams into reality through designing together.” — Sherri Kimmel
Self-proclaimed sociology-nerd-turned-designer Lauren Weinstein ’10 spends her days tackling what she calls “big, knotty social issues” for the design nonprofit IDEO.org. Most recently, she’s worked with adolescents living with HIV in Mozambique to help them embrace and stick with treatment plans.
For this project, IDEO.org partnered with ICAP at Columbia University to co-design, with young people, a program whose goal, she says, “was to put health and hope at the center by tackling community stigma, medical misconceptions and lack of belonging in the already tumultuous journey of adolescence. Most projects take a similar approach — spending time with a community, doing research, prototyping solutions, then working with a partner to implement them. What underpins all of our work is the belief that people are at the center of everything we do.”
Weinstein joined IDEO.org in June — a creative professional journey that began in her first-year sociology class with Professor Elizabeth Durden. Service-learning trips to Nicaragua with the Bucknell Brigade ignited her interest in on-the-ground social change. Earning her master’s in social design from the Maryland College Institute of Art provided further grounding for her move into social innovation.
Weinstein previously worked for social innovation firms such as Reboot and The Australian Center for Social Innovation; she is also the co-founder of The Residency, a collective for individuals interested in change design — a people-driven method of problem solving that relies on innovation and multidisciplinarity.
“Listen to the people who are experiencing the issue firsthand,” Weinstein says. “They’re the experts in their own lives. Our role as human-centered designers is to help turn their hopes and dreams into reality through designing together.” — Sherri Kimmel