Dori Tunstall - Redesigning America’s Future

Design Policy and the Industrial Design Community

From ballot boxes to the iPod, everyone knows how the objects of design help improve America’s democracy and economy. But the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative is about how design thinking can be infused into American economic competitiveness and democratic governance. As organizer of the Initiative, Dr. Dori Tunstall will demonstrate some of the potential results of bringing design thinking and making into public policy. In particular, she will address how the industrial design community can scale its efforts to drive innovation, support entrepreneurship, and revolutionize government through a national design policy.

Dr. Dori Tunstall is an Associate Professor of Design Anthropology at University of Illinois at Chicago in the School of Art and Design. A passionate advocate for civically-engaged design, her projects on Design + Government have included the experiences of voting and of emergency and evacuation with the organization, Design for Democracy; IRS design management, and Sappi: Ideas that Matter sponsored project on health financial information systems with the Chicago Cook County Bureau of Health Services. Dori is the organizer of the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and author of Redesign America’s Future, outlining ten design policy proposals. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University and BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.