CO-CHAIRS
Amber Zhao
(she/her)
Amber is a Brown University junior from sunny Los Angeles, California double concentrating in Behavioral Decision Sciences and International and Public Affairs. She is passionate about user-centered design in both public and private spaces through product management, policy, marketing, and graphic design. Amber loves to dance, take long walks, and watch Chinese dramas all the while munching on Granny Smith apples.
Ava Maghsoodlou
(she/her)
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ava is a junior in Industrial Design at RISD with a concentration in Nature, Culture, and Sustainability. She is driven to take a diverse array of approaches to solving complex sociopolitical issues, whether through designing community-oriented systems, joyful objects, or grassroots organizing. When she isn't fighting her laptop in the studio, you can find her exploring the PNW or breaking a sweat playing DDR.
Angela Xu
(she/her)
Angela is a junior from New Jersey studying Design Engineering and Urban Studies at Brown. She is fascinated by how people in cities live, work, and move, and hopes to someday apply design thinking, engineering, and community engagement to improving public spaces. You can usually find her making linocuts prints, eating a scone, or planning her next backpacking trip.
Jonathan Bai
(he/him)
Jonathan is a sophomore from Westchester County, New York, studying Applied Math-Economics & Visual Arts at Brown. He believes in storytelling through visual means, using design and strategy as vehicles for communication. You can find him building a chair in the basement of List Art Center and practicing backhands at the Pembroke tennis courts.
Ran Zhao
(she/they)
Ran is a junior studying Computer Science and Modern Culture and Media. She enjoys gouache art, computational tools for deliberative democracy, self-effacing + self-conscious approaches to ethnography, and words living in places they're not supposed to be.
Ameer Qizilbash
(he/him)
Ameer is a Junior at RISD, double majoring in Animation and Industrial Design. He finds immense joy in the overlap between animation and design, and how the little details in an environment convey their own narratives. He has come a long way from building tiny stop-motion figures as a child, to now navigating the world of design and media, telling stories that really matter.
Chahek Bansal
(she/her)
Chahek is a Junior at RISD studying Industrial Design. She is passionate about finding sustainable solutions for a regenerative future! When not obsessing over her projects in the Industrial Design building, you can find her taking a walk with an iced latte in hand. She enjoys being in nature, antique hunting and collecting wild lavender.
Sydney Riccio
(she/her)
Sydney is a Brown University sophomore double concentrating in Cognitive Neuroscience and Economics. While her academic work is rooted in science, Sydney is deeply passionate about creativity. From digital graphics and marketing to choreographing dance pieces, Sydney is constantly immersing herself in art and design, seeking ways to merge analytical thinking with creative expression.
CONTENT
Christine Okulo
(she/her)
Christine is a junior at Brown studying Mechanical Engineering. She's passionate about engineering for social and environmental impact and centering underrepresented groups in the design process. You can usually find her sewing buttons onto her bags in the Brown Design Workshop, recording sound for Brown Motion Pictures, or making a lavender cappuccino at the Underground.
Ellie Goldberg
(she/her)
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ellie is a junior at RISD studying Industrial Design, with a focus on sports equipment and athlete-centered design. She hopes to design products that not only perform at the highest level, but truly understand the people who use them. Outside of studio, you’ll most definitely find her playing soccer, watching soccer, or somehow talking about soccer.
Nick Bouffard
(he/him)
Nick is a Junior at RISD studying Industrial Design with a focus in furniture design! He hopes to be able to bring sustainable and regenerative ideas to his design work in order to create a world that is driven and fueled by circular economies. In his free time, he enjoys gardening, hiking, and impulsive trips out of the city.
Hannah Ahn
(she/her)
Hannah is a junior at Brown studying Economics and Data Fluency. She is passionate about advancing accessible and inclusive design through user-centered appraoches to connect people and communities. Born and raised in sunny Florida, she enjoys being anywhere the sun is, and her simple pleasure is finding the best food in Providence.
Rory Rothnie
(she/her)
A Canadian from Vancouver Island BC, Rory is a Junior at Brown studying Architecture and Urban studies. Rory aspires to design sustainable and collaboritive public spaces that are people-centered and accessible to all. As a defender on the Brown womens lacrosse team she loves working with her teamates and practicing wall ball when she has free time. Beyond her academic and athletic pursuits, she is also passionate about painting portraits and landscapes, reading and hiking.
OPERATIONS
Ellen Zhang
(she/her)
Ellen is a sophomore from Mason, Ohio, double concentrating in Physics and Visual arts at Brown. She is passionate about next-generation device development and integrating creative perspectives into STEM research. Outside of academics, Ellen enjoys playing the guitar, taking walks, and hiking.
Mira Wali
(she/her)
Mira is a sophomore from Los Angeles, California double concentrating in Mechanical Engineering and Visual Arts. She is passionate about making sustainable design and the circular economy more accessible as well as the collaboration between artists and engineers. Outside of school, she enjoys reading new books, painting, and being outside!
Liano Valenzuela
Liano is from Jacksonville, FL and is a current sophomore at Brown concentrating in Urban Studies. He is interested in human-centered urban design, including the creation of physical, visual, and emotional comfort in the built environment. Outside of school, he enjoys road trips and writing crossword puzzles.
GRAPHICS
Anushka Parikh
(she/her)
Anushka (b. 2006, California) is a designer, researcher, and artist who enjoys finding digital cultures, manifestos, accessible design, cybernetics, music, alt text, physical computation, textiles, rocks, web poetry, and em dashes. Currently she is a sophomore in Graphic Design at RISD.
Juan Leonard
(he/him)
Hailing from sunny Jakarta, Indonesia, Juan (commonly known as @juangakjls) is a lighthearted designer with a heightened interest in the Southeast Asian experience, highlighting his childhood through his vibrant graphic-based practice in RISD. In his free time, he would scour across the internet to find (very) niche electronic mixes and videogames!
Jen Kim
(she/her)
Jen is a junior at RISD studying graphic design, working across motion, typography, illustration, and story-driven visual design. Born in Chicago and shaped by time in South Korea and Singapore, she believes the most meaningful answers are often found somewhere in the middle of making. Outside the studio, she can be found in her room jamming to music or at the beach.
Jennie Kwon
(she/her)
Jennie is a sophomore from South Korea and Los Angeles. She is currently studying Graphic Design with a concentration in Computation at RISD, and is fond of typography, variable fonts, tactile designs, cactuses, sweets, and shades of light blue.
Carys Lam
(she/her)
Carys is a sophomore from the beautiful city of Hong Kong studying Architecture at RISD. In her free time, she enjoying binge watching cooking shows, sleeping and making new playlists for classic rock, Krnb, classical and indie music. You can find her voluntarily trapped in the RISD BEB, home of architecture, all nighters, and giant cardboard models.
Sam Ahn
(she/her)
Sam is from South Korea, and Bay Area. She is currently a sophomore in Graphic Design at RISD, exploring vastly to continue her journey as a designer. Her interests outside school include cinematography, films, listening to Bossa Nova and Nujabes.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Momo Chen
(she/her)
Momo is a sophomore from Shanghai, China, studying cognitive neuroscience at Brown. She likes understanding the bio & psychological design of us human beings—and designing for these little quirks. You can find her concocting the next great latte mix in the Ratty and eating an apple a day.
Ai Okura
(she/her)
Ai is a sophomore at Brown from Tokyo, studying Modern Culture and Media and Cognitive Science. She enjoys watching films and hopes to channel her love for storytelling to tell stories that draw out human kindness and serve as a force for education and social impact.
Casey Kim
(she/her)
Casey is a 1st year at RISD studying Industrial Design coming from California. Some of her interests include woodworking, animating, hiking and driving! She loves talking to people and gaining new perspectives on design.
Jack Zhu
(he/him)
Jack is a sophomore studying Graphic Design @ RISD, born and raised in Shanghai, and love traveling and taking cool photos