Lee Davis is the co-founder and co-executive director of the Center for Creative Impact at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). In 2014, he co-founded the Center for Social Design at MICA, an interdisciplinary center aimed at demonstrating the value of design in promoting social change. From 2015-2016, he served as the Interim Director and Faculty in the MA in Social Design (MASD) graduate program, and from 2013-2014, as a Robert W. Deutsch Scholar-in-Residence at MICA. 

Prior to joining MICA, Lee was the co-founder of NESsT, a pioneer in supporting social enterprises in emerging markets across Latin America and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE). Since 1997, NESsT has invested over US$40million in social enterprises that create quality jobs for underserved communities while sustaining the planet. Lee served for 15 years as co-CEO (1997-2011), building a global team of 50 staff with offices in 11 countries, and as Chief Innovation Officer (2012-2013) focused on curating the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), bringing together over 700 social impact investing leaders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

From 1996-1998, he was a Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor in the Program on Social Change & Development at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he was one of five international fellows commissioned for the “New Directions in Grassroots Development” initiative  and co-taught the graduate-level course “Sustainable Financing Strategies for Local Initiatives.” From 1996-1997 he worked as a Program Officer at the Regional Environmental Center (REC) in Budapest, coordinating public participation projects across 15 CEE countries. From 1993-1995 he was a Program Assistant in Baltimore and Budapest for the Third Sector Project at the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, responsible for coordination of projects designed to strengthen newly-emerging nonprofit organizations in seven post-communist countries across CEE.

Lee started his career as a graphic designer in New York, Connecticut, and Osaka, Japan. From 1991-1993, he was the first in-house designer in international relief and development agency CARE, responsible for art direction, design, and production of publications promoting CARE’s programs across Africa, Asia and Latin America. From 1989-1991, he was a graphic designer at Ted Bertz Design, responsible for design of annual reports, posters, and magazines for corporate and educational clients including Canadair, Connecticut College, Hopper Paper, NationsBank (now Bank of America), Xerox Corporation, and Yale University.

He is a founding curator of the Ecological Design Collective (EDC), a community for ecological imagination and collaborative practice; and co-chair of the Board of the Winterhouse Institute, a national community of practice for social impact design educators.

Awards & Recognition

• Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (RSA), London, UK (2019-present) 

• Social Enterprise Fellow, Yale School of Management, Program on Social Enterprise (2010-2023) 

• Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (MICA student team winners 2020, 2017, 2016)

• Research Fellow, Rockefeller Archive Center (2018-2019)

• Fellow, New Leadership Network, Stanislaus Community Foundation | James Irvine Foundation (2017-2018)

• “Dream. Build. Do.” Innovation Awardee, Stanislaus Community Foundation and Porges Family Foundation (2016) 

• Commitment Maker, Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) - Clinton Foundation, with Lemelson Foundation and Goldman Sachs (2010)

• Fast Company – Social Capitalist Awards Finalist (2006)

• Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship | Skoll Foundation – recognizing social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence (2004) 

• Recipient of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to undertake an independent ethnology of design in Japan and Switzerland (1988-1989)

Publications

Lee has written and co-authored several articles, books, and chapters on social design, social enterprise, impact investing, and venture philanthropy: 

• Whither convergence? Co-designing convergent research and wrestling with its emergent tensions in Ecology and Society (November 2024)

• "Universality Through Visual Symbols" in Designing Peace: Building a Better Future Now (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, June 2022)

• Designing a Pictorial Language (Rockefeller Archive Center, May 2022)

• Design for Life: Moholy-Nagy’s Holistic Blueprint for Social Design Pedagogy and Practice in Disegno - The Journal of Design Culture (January 2022)

• "Fundamental Skills: Developing Social Literacy through Practice-Based Learning" in Public Interest Design Education Guidebook (Routledge, September 2018)

• "Foundation Work: Entry Points, Barriers and Funding" in LEAP Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation (DAP, July 2016)

• End of the Rainbow: Increasing the sustainability of LGBT organizations through social enterprise (NESsT, 2008)

• All in the Same Boat: An Introduction to Engaged Philanthropy (The Citigroup Private Bank, Philanthropic Advisory Service & NESsT, 2005)

• “Supporting Nonprofit Enterprise in Emerging Markets” in Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income (Jossey-Bass, May 2004)

• Get Ready, Get Set: Starting Down the Road to Self-Financing (NESsT, 2004)

• Risky Business: The Impacts of Merging Mission and Market (NESsT, 2003)

• Profits for Nonprofits (NESsT, 1999)

• The NGO-Business Hybrid (Johns Hopkins SAIS, 1997)

Education

• PhD, Design, 2031 (candidate), University of Edinburgh | Edinburgh College of Art

• MA, Policy Studies, 1995, Johns Hopkins University

• BA, Studio Art (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), 1988, Connecticut College