Center for Social Design

Post-Graduate Opportunities

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Post-Graduate Opportunities
The Center for Social Design has developed a number of post-graduate opportunities providing select MA in Social Design (MASD) graduates with a one-year, paid, associate positions to continue to build their professional practice.

Associates are embedded into funded projects with outside partners to put the human-centered design process into practice in professional contexts, serve as mentors to current MASD students, and engage in other initiatives of the Center for Social Design.

The Social Design Associates program builds upon the success and learning of a post-graduate fellowship program launched in the Center for Social Design in 2012 with support from the Robert W. Deutsch (RWD) Foundation to keep innovative ideas and social design talent in Baltimore. From 2012-18, the RWD Fellowship provided a year-long stipend, institutional resources, and studio accommodations to 11 Fellows to continue their thesis research, implementation, and evaluation.

2021-2022

Vidisha Agarwalla '20, PROMOTE Center and the Center for Social Design

Vidisha Agarwalla is a Social Design Associate with the PROMOTE Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is currently working with a team of designers, researchers, clinicians, and public health experts in integrating design thinking into initiatives at both centers. With the PROMOTE team, she is working with nurse practitioners to support older adults with multiple chronic conditions and develop sustainable health care initiatives through research design. She equivalently supports the Center for Social Design with a variety of projects which aim to demonstrate the value of design in promoting equity and social justice. Before graduate school, she worked as a product designer with a social enterprise called BEMPU Health to develop life-saving health products aimed at giving every child a chance to live a full and healthy life, especially in low resource areas. She worked on the “KangaSling,” a wrap that enables parents to easily provide prolonged “kangaroo care” (or skin-to-skin contact) to their newborn. Her product is used in many hospitals in India and was also showcased at the World Health Assembly. She is an alumna of the MA in Social Design graduate program at MICA and holds a BDes in Product Design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in India.

Quinton Batts '19, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Quinton is from Virginia and moved to Baltimore from Richmond where he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. This is where he found his passion and interest in design for social good. During is tenure in MICA’s Social Design program he was introduced to Baltimore hands on and fell in love with the city. In his free time, he volunteers at a community garden in East Baltimore. He also works on personal community engagement and art projects. As a Social Design Associate he is excited to continue further building on the Pedestrian and Bike Safety project. He believes it’s a perfect way to make residents and neighbors voices heard about their traffic safety concerns while also continuing to build upon his personal practice and grow as a design practitioner.

Estela Duhart Benavides '21, VALUE Baltimore and RECIPES

Originally from Mexico but currently Based in Chicago, Estela joins the Center for Social Design after using her time at MICA's Social Design program to rethink her practice and explore a Life-centered design approach, which she hopes to further develop through her work at the Center. She is supporting two multidisciplinary and multi-institutional initiatives. The first one is the VALUE Baltimore initiative in collaboration with Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Morgan State University (MSU) School of Community Health and Policy to listen to Baltimore residents concerns about the COVID vaccine and design tailored educational materials in collaboration with them. The second one, Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems, is a collaboration between Higher Education Institutions and non-profits to create knowledge that transforms the US wasteful system to promote sustainability, equity, and resilience.

Anushka Jajodia '20

Anushka Jajodia (MASD '19) is moving through time as a social justice-centered designer who practices participatory design research and storytelling through visual design, illustration, writing, and photography. She cares about supporting individuals, initiatives, and organizations with a radical vision to dismantle the status quo. After pursuing a Master's in Social Design from Maryland Institute College of Art, she worked with the PROMOTE Center (Johns Hopkins School of Nursing) and the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). She worked with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and public health experts to infuse a community-centered approach that advances equity to develop sustainable health care initiatives for older adults and their families with multiple chronic conditions and hearing loss. Supporting caregivers' wellbeing and acknowledging their journey is close to her heart. She continues to embrace the path of learning and supporting anti-oppressive practices.

Cameron Morgan '19, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Patient Safety Learning Lab

Cameron Morgan (MASD '19) is an Associate with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Connected Emergency Care (CEC) team. The focus of the CEC’s Patient Safety Learning Lab studio at MICA addressed challenges in emergency care by examining the interconnected role which patients and practitioners share in safety. Cameron's current work includes expanding the core intervention LOOP — Linking Outcomes of Patients — a dashboard-based feedback system for emergency physicians to find out outcomes related to their care after patients leave the ED, while also supporting the further study of AI/ML tools' impact on a physician's practice. Cameron’s work employs a variety of methods in the social design space including system design, user-experience design, graphic design and data visualization. Her current obsession: human-centered data science.

Learn more about LOOP

Eesha Patne '20, Ecological Design Collective

Eesha Patne (MASD ‘20) is a Social Design Associate with a focus on systemic interventions and a life-centered design approach. As a Social Design Associate with the Ecological Design Collective, Eesha co-teaches the Sustainable Design Practicum, a year-long studio class at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Anthropology. Through her position, she also works as a researcher to imagine a process and a practice at the intersection of design and anthropology based on a life-centered design approach and philosophy. Additionally, as a design strategist, Eesha works to better align the Collective's goals and organizational strategies to envision a future through collaborative practice rooted in Baltimore. Her continued work of preserving the receding history of the Oyster Industry of the Chesapeake Bay looks to the legacies to highlight oral histories and uplift archival narratives towards a flourishing future born of food, care, and sacred ecology.

Vilde Ulset '19, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Vilde Ulset (MASD '19) is a Social Design Associate with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Highway Safety Office, Pedestrian and Bike Safety Project, where she works to promote mobility as a human right and to increase equity among road users. Through her work she is collaborating with communities in central Baltimore, using a human centered approach, to develop and test initiatives that can change behaviors and the physical environment in ways that contribute to safer and more livable streets. Vilde is a Social Designer and Urban Ecological Planner specialized in participatory research methods, informal livelihood strategies and inclusive planning practices. Vilde works to make cities more livable through renegotiating public space and creating a more equal power relationship between cars and other road users.

2020-2021

Vidisha Agarwalla ‘20, PROMOTE Center and the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health

Vidisha Agarwalla is a Social Design Associate with the PROMOTE Center (School of Nursing) and the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). She is working with a team of researchers, clinicians, and public health experts in integrating design thinking into initiatives at both centers. With the PROMOTE team, she is working with nurse practitioners to support patients and their caregivers with multiple chronic conditions and develop sustainable health care initiatives through research design. She equivalently supports the Cochlear Center team to understand the impact of hearing loss in older adults on public health, developing and testing strategies to mitigate these effects, and helping to implement policies at the local, national, and global levels to address hearing loss.

Quinton Batts ‘19, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Quinton is from Virginia and moved to Baltimore from Richmond where he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. This is where he found his passion and interest in design for social good. During is tenure in MICA’s Social Design program he was introduced to Baltimore hands on and fell in love with the city. In his free time, he volunteers at a community garden in East Baltimore. He also works on personal community engagement and art projects. As a Social Design Associate he is excited to continue further building on the Pedestrian and Bike Safety project. He believes it’s a perfect way to make residents and neighbors voices heard about their traffic safety concerns while also continuing to build upon his personal practice and grow as a design practitioner.

Francesca Bonifacio ‘20, Baltimore City Health Department Social Innovation Team

Francesca Bonifacio is a Social Design Associate with the Baltimore City Health Department’s (BCHD) Social Innovation Team (SIT), where she works on several projects designed to promote Baltimore City residents’ engagement around HIV/STI prevention and sexual health. Broadly, Francesca’s work focuses on connecting residents to essential clinical services and expanding avenues for trust-building between patients and medical providers. Currently, she is collaborating with BCHD representatives and various stakeholders to design and launch a community-facing website for Baltimore’s Ending the HIV Epidemic work. Additionally, she supports the SIT in expanding programming for BICx (Baltimore in Conversation: The X-change), a grassroots, community-led storytelling series that encourages dialogue around sexual health & wellness while combating stigma related to HIV/AIDS in Baltimore communities. Grounded in principles of equitable design, Francesca employs a range of social design methods––including user experience design, community outreach and ethnographic research––to advance the ultimate goal of creating sustainable systems change in the public health sector.

Anushka Jajodia '19

Anushka Jajodia is moving through time as a social justice-centered designer who practices participatory design research and storytelling through visual design, illustration, writing, and photography. She cares about supporting individuals, initiatives, and organizations with a radical vision to dismantle the status quo. After pursuing a Master's in Social Design from Maryland Institute College of Art, she worked with the PROMOTE Center (Johns Hopkins School of Nursing) and the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). She worked with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and public health experts to infuse a community-centered approach that advances equity to develop sustainable health care initiatives for older adults and their families with multiple chronic conditions and hearing loss. Supporting caregivers' wellbeing and acknowledging their journey is close to her heart. She continues to embrace the path of learning and supporting anti-oppressive practices.

Cameron Morgan '19, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Patient Safety Learning Lab

Cameron Morgan is an Associate with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Connected Emergency Care (CEC) team. The focus of the CEC’s Patient Safety Learning Lab studio at MICA addressed challenges in emergency care by examining the interconnected role which patients and practitioners share in safety. Currently, Cameron is building and developing the design for LOOP — Linking Outcomes of Patients — a dashboard-based feedback system for emergency physicians to find out outcomes related to their care after patients leave the ED. Cameron’s work employs a variety of methods in the social design space including system design, user-experience design, graphic design and data visualization. Her current obsession: implementation science.

Eesha Patne '20, Creative Placemaking Initiative & VALUE Baltimore

Eesha Patne (MASD ‘20) is a Social Design Associate with a focus on systemic interventions and life-centered design. The Creative Placemaking Initiative is being led by the MICA Center for Creative Citizenship and the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Eesha works to develop a means to engage key project stakeholders to uplift the embedded community knowledge in a process of reinforming, redesigning, and implementing the Creative Placemaking vision. The VALUE Baltimore is a Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) initiative that works to better understand the gaps in COVID-19 vaccine access and hesitancy across the different groups in Baltimore in collaboration with JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Morgan State University's (MSU) School of Community Health and Policy. As a Design Researcher, Eesha's goal is to listen to Baltimore residents' concerns about the COVID vaccine and design tailored educational materials in collaboration with them.

Vilde Ulset '19, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Vilde Ulset is a Social Design Associate with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Highway Safety Office, Pedestrian and Bike Safety Project, where she works to promote mobility as a human right and to increase equity among road users. Through her work she is collaborating with communities in central Baltimore, using a human centered approach, to develop and test initiatives that can change behaviors and the physical environment in ways that contribute to safer and more livable streets. Vilde is a Social Designer and Urban Ecological Planner specialized in participatory research methods, informal livelihood strategies and inclusive planning practices. Vilde works to make cities more livable through renegotiating public space and creating a more equal power relationship between cars and other road users.

2019-2020

Quinton Batts '19, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Quinton is from Virginia and moved to Baltimore from Richmond where he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. This is where he found his passion and interest in design for social good. During is tenure in MICA’s Social Design program he was introduced to Baltimore hands on and fell in love with the city. In his free time, he volunteers at a community garden in East Baltimore. He also works on personal community engagement and art projects. As a Social Design Associate he is excited to continue further building on last year Pedestrian and Bike Safety project. He believes it’s a perfect way to make residents and neighbors voices heard about their traffic safety concerns while also continuing to build upon his personal practice and grow as a design practitioner.

Anushka Jajodia, PROMOTE Center and the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health

Anushka Jajodia (MASD ‘19) is a Social Design Associate with the PROMOTE Center (School of Nursing) and the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). She works with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians and public health experts to infuse the human-centered design approach that advances equity and social justice to initiatives at both Centers. Anushka collaborates with the PROMOTE team nurse practitioners to drive culture change and develop sustainable health care initiatives through participatory design research. She equivalently supports the Cochlear team to develop accessible and affordable hearing care programs that address hearing loss in older adults.

Cameron Morgan, Baltimore City Health Department Social Innovation Team and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Patient Safety Learning Lab

Cameron Morgan (MASD ‘19) is a Social Design Associate working with the Baltimore City Health Department’s Social Innovation team to continue scoping their flagship campaign, #PeopleWhoLookLikeMe. The project addresses stigma related to HIV/AIDS and trust related to the healthcare environment in Baltimore City by implementing community voice into future system designs. Cameron also works as an Associate with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Connected Emergency Care (CEC) team. The focus of the CEC’s Patient Safety Learning Lab studio at MICA will address challenges in emergency care by examining the interconnected role which patients and practitioners share in safety. The first iteration of this five-year project will specifically focus on supporting physicians in the ED and how to build out a closed loop system. Cameron’s work employs a variety of methods in the social design space including service-oriented system design, user-experience design, graphic design and data visualization.

Vilde Ulset, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)— Highway Safety Office

Vilde Ulset (MASD '19) is a Social Design Associate with the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Highway Safety Office, Pedestrian and Bike Safety Project, where she works to promote mobility as a human right and to increase equity among road users. Through her work she is collaborating with communities in central Baltimore, using a human centered approach, to develop and test initiatives that can change behaviors and the physical environment in ways that contribute to safer and more livable streets. Vilde is a Social Designer and Urban Ecological Planner specialized in participatory research methods, informal livelihood strategies and inclusive planning practices. Vilde works to make cities more livable through renegotiating public space and creating a more equal power relationship between cars and other road users.

2018-2019

Ashley Eberhart, Social Design Associate - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing: Center for Innovative Care in Aging

Ashley Eberhart (MASD’18) is a current Social Design Associate with the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Center for Innovative Care in Aging, where she is tasked with integrating the human-centered design process into the work of Community Aging in Place – Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE). CAPABLE was developed for low-income seniors to safely ‘age in community.’ CAPABLE teams up a nurse, an occupational therapist and a handyperson to address both the home environment and the strengths of the older adults to improve safety and independence. CAPABLE is operating in Baltimore and 21 other cities around the country. Ashley is working to design ways to communicate the CAPABLE story, onboard new affiliates, and set programs up for success.

Mengru Liao, Social Design Associate - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health

Mengru Liao (MASD’18) is a current Social Design Associate with the Cochlear Center for Hearing & Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is tasked with integrating the human-centered design process into the Center’s work to develop accessible and affordable hearing care for older adults. Mengru is working as part of a multidisciplinary group of researchers, clinicians and public health experts to advance the scientific and public health basis for how to address hearing loss in older adults. Mengru is also supporting the Cochlear team to expand these efforts overseas into China, Australia, and other countries that are developing strategies to best optimize the health and functioning of an aging society.

2017-2018

Smile Indias, Social Design Associate - Baltimore City Police Department & BCAN

Smile Indias (MASD’17) was a Social Design Associate in the Center for Social Design in 2017-18, with support from the T. Rowe Price Foundation. Smile spent her post-graduate year advancing the work she began during her MASD thesis in collaboration with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) toward the development of mechanisms for gathering officer feedback as the BPD worked to update policies identified in the mandated Department of Justice (DOJ) Consent Decree. Smile also assisted Baltimore Creatives Acceleration Network (BCAN), an initiative that provides entrepreneurship support for Baltimore creatives of all disciplines and backgrounds, with the conceptualization of the BCAN Mobile Unit to engage Baltimore City residents in community-based projects.

Denise Shanté Brown, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Unapologetically prioritizing the wellbeing of black women to co-design transformative possibilities for inner and outer healing.

2016-2017

Kayla Ingram, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Serving the Black and Brown community in Baltimore and beyond by providing graphic design services and design solutions for Black and Brown led grassroots/community organizations and entrepreneurs whose work combats the imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal culture in which we live.

Carly Wais, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Co-designing with Baltimore's returning citizens to create new pathways for people coming back from prison and jail to connect with resources and each other.

2015-2016

Eva Fury, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Advocating for and addressing the invisible problem of LGBTQ youth homelessness in Baltimore through cross-disciplinary & collaborative problem solving.

Silvia Mata-Marin, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Exploring the intersection between design and immigration rights by making information accessible as a form of decoding the highly disjointed U.S. immigration system.

2014-2015

Vincent Purcell, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Unlocking the potential of people to be creative entrepreneurs and change makers in their community by providing access to technology, resources, and a network of mentors.

Byron Banghart, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Addressing urban blight through a mobile, interdisciplinary skill building workshop designed to help young adults build confidence and increase their desire to learn.

2013-2014

Jonathan Erwin, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Using design to support Baltimore communities in preparing for climate change, balancing the top down bureaucracy of government initiatives with on the ground grassroots organizations in an effort to create and foster environmental resilience.

Mira Azarm, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Promoting economic sustainability for urban farming in Baltimore through design interventions, focusing specifically on the awareness of benefit (EBT, FMNO, and WIC/Senior FVC) acceptance at community farm stands.

2012-2013

Becky Slogeris, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Creating well-designed tools and curricula to help public school teachers succeed in addressing the holistic child.

Briony Hynson, Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellow

Designing and building kid-focused, healthy playscapes to address the lack of access to play in Baltimore’s blighted and under served communities.

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