Re:Build, Tekna, Lead Design Researcher
Susan is a joyful generalist known for her thoughtful curiosity, voracious appetite for learning, and relentless consideration for the end user. Her unconventional career journey includes her finally debuting on the professional design stage at the age of thirty-six, only to find herself unemployed a short nineteen months later, courtesy of a global pandemic. Propelled by resilience, over the past seven years she has flourished as a design researcher. She resonates deeply with words like cultivate, foster, and collaborate. This resonance inspires how she exists in both professional and personal spaces. At work you'll find her keeping an eye on bringing all contributors and aspects of a project into harmony. Outside of work, you'll find her marveling at the beauty of the natural world, absorbing podcasts, connecting deeply with friends, and carving out moments to infuse with trying out new mediums, enjoying the aesthetic and tactile nature of creating.
What if I was a mushroom?
We work within systems, companies, and organizations that are largely set up and driven by practices founded in industrialization and capitalism. But we’re not machines, we’re Human. An ecosystem is a much better representation of how we’re made to create and produce in a way that also allows us to have purpose, be in relationship and thrive. Let’s consider mushrooms and the way they function in an ecosystem that could be a conduit for illuminating the ways we might already Be Unconventional in our professional lives, or inspire future unconventionality.
